Life Insurance Corporation of India

Financial Services — Insurance - Life · NSE

₹397.75+₹3.75 (+0.95%)

DalalBaazaar Score

52 / 100

🟡 Moderate

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

Low

Driven by negative free cash flow.

In simple words: Strong business and financial position, with modest growth. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:01 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

The 60-second version of Life Insurance Corporation of India — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Life Insurance Corporation of India provides life insurance products in India, Fiji, Mauritius, and the United Kingdom.

IndustryInsurance - Life

SectorFinancial Services

Employees84,565

Annual revenue₹9.69 L Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹9.69 L Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹6 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹6 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 84,565 employees supports ₹11.46 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹11.46 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are HDFC LIFE INS CO LTD, SBI LIFE INSURANCE CO LTD, ICICI PRU LIFE INS CO LTD, ICICI LOMBARD GIC LIMITED. These are the companies its valuation and returns are measured against elsewhere in this report.

Compared side by side in Peers ↓

What is its competitive advantage?Not assessable from these ratios

For a lender, returns on capital are shaped by leverage and funding cost rather than by pricing power, so the usual financial signature of an advantage does not apply. Judge this one on deposit franchise, cost of funds and asset quality — none of which are in this data.

Peer median ROE13.6%

What is the outlook?

8 analysts covering the stock expect revenue to grow about 8.4% and earnings to grow about 13.6% in the year to 2028. These are estimates by people who follow the company, not a forecast for the wider industry.

Est. revenue growth+8.4%

Est. earnings growth+13.6%

Analysts8

What has been driving growth?

Sales and margins have both contributed to where profit is now. Over 3 years revenue moved +23% while net margin moved +29% relative to itself. What this cannot tell you is which products, customers or geographies did the work — that lives in the segment disclosures of the annual report.

Revenue effect+23%

Margin effect+29%

DalalBaazaar Score

52/ 100

Moderate

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Shareholders fund just 3.0% of the balance sheet — highly levered even by banking standards
• Capital adequacy, gross NPAs and provision coverage decide a lender's financial health, and none are available here — check the bank's own quarterly disclosure

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

44/ 100

Weak

How good the business is, ignoring the share price entirely.

Valuation

85/ 100

Cheap

What you are being asked to pay, ignoring how good the business is.

Optically cheap, but the underlying business scores poorly. Cheap-and-weak is what a value trap looks like from the outside — the low price may be deserved.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

8.4x

3Y Median

11.9x

40 monthly readings · mean 13.0x · range 8.7x–20.7x

Sector Median

47.6x

median of 4 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 30% below its 3y median of 11.9x. Cheaper than its own history, which is worth a reason too: the market may be pricing in something the backward-looking numbers do not show.

🟢Against its sector it trades 82% below the peer median of 47.6x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

11.9x median over 40 months · -30%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

47.6x median of 4 peers · -82%

vs. generic bands

Cheap

Below 15x

EV/EBITDA

7.5x

PEG

0.50

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention1

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from 77.9% to 32.5% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.

Red Flags

No automated checks triggered

None of the automated financial checks below were triggered on the years of data available. That is not the same as a clean bill of health — see what could not be checked.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Priced below its own history
The stock trades 30% below its own median multiple. If the business performs as it has and simply re-rates back to normal, that gap is return on its own.
Cheaper than its peers
It trades 82% below the sector median. Either the market sees a problem the numbers do not show, or the discount closes.
Earnings have proved durable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years. Consistency lowers the risk that any single bad year is structural rather than cyclical.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Growth barely outpaces inflation
Revenue compounding at 7.3% a year is close to the rate prices rise, so the business is gaining little ground in real terms. That leaves the share price dependent on a re-rating rather than on earnings growth.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from 77.9% to 32.5%. Each rupee of equity earns less than it did, so profit growth increasingly depends on raising more capital rather than on the existing base working harder.

🟡 Key Things to WatchMeasurable tripwires, set against where this company stands today

1EBITDA margin holds above 4%✓ 6.0%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Return on equity stays above 31%✓ 32.5%
For a lender this is the cleanest single read on whether the book is being grown profitably.
3Revenue growth stays above 5% a year✓ 7.3% CAGR
Latest reported year was 6.8%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
4Valuation vs its own median of 11.9x✓ 8.4x today
A re-rating above its own history needs a reason; without one it is just a higher price.

Investment Checklist

7 / 10 checks passed

✓ Strong return on equity (ROE ≥ 15%)
✗ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✗ Generates positive free cash flow
✓ Manageable leverage (Debt/Equity < 1.0)
✓ Revenue growing year-over-year
✓ Profit growing year-over-year
✓ Not trading at an extreme valuation (P/E < 40x)
✓ Not buying right at the 52-week high
✓ Analyst consensus isn't majority-sell
✗ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

7 good · 3 neutral · 1 weak

Market Cap

₹5.03 L Cr

Large Cap

Large, widely-covered business — typically the steadiest of the bands

P/E (Trailing)

8.4x

Cheap

Cheap against the generic band

P/B Ratio

2.85x

Fair

Moderate premium to the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹47.49

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

32.5%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

Not meaningful

N/A for lenders

Banks and NBFCs don't report capital employed the way other businesses do

Debt/Equity

0.43x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

6.8%

Modest

Modest growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

40.0%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

2.51%

Healthy

Meaningful cash return while you hold the stock

Free Cash Flow

-₹27,327 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

6.8x

Improving

Below the trailing multiple — the street expects earnings to grow into the price

Operating Margin

6.4%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

6.5%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.55

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

34%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

396.1 / 404.3

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

41.6

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹7.85 L Cr	₹8.49 L Cr	₹8.91 L Cr	₹9.69 L Cr	+7.3%
EBITDA	₹36,625 Cr	₹41,650 Cr	₹49,000 Cr	₹58,364 Cr	+16.8%
EBITDA Margin	4.7%	4.9%	5.5%	6.0%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹35,997 Cr	₹40,916 Cr	₹48,320 Cr	₹57,453 Cr	+16.9%
EPS	₹28.46	₹32.35	₹38.2	₹45.42	+16.9%
ROE	77.9%	49.4%	38.0%	32.5%	—
Free Cash Flow	₹53,632 Cr	₹25,780 Cr	-₹10,497 Cr	-₹27,327 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 7.3% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 16.8% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 4.7% to 6.0% over 3 years (+1.4 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 16.9% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EPS has grown at 16.9% a year over 3 years.

🔴 ROE has fallen from 77.9% to 32.5% over 3 years (-45.3 pts).

🔴 Free Cash Flow has turned negative, from ₹53,632 Cr to -₹27,327 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹59.49 L Cr

Total Liabilities

₹57.72 L Cr

Total Debt

—

Cash & Equivalents

₹63,345 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

—

Capex

-₹1,116 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

5.9%

Insider Holding

90.0%

Corporate Actions

Next Earnings

05 Nov 2026

Dividend Rate

₹10

Ex-Dividend Date

25 Jun 2026

Analyst Consensus

Recommendations

20 Buy · 2 Hold · 1 Sell

Target Price (Mean)

₹520.83

+30.9% vs CMP

Target Range

₹388 – ₹675

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
HDFC LIFE INS CO LTD	58.4x	11.3%
SBI LIFE INSURANCE CO LTD	63.9x	13.7%
ICICI PRU LIFE INS CO LTD	36.7x	12.9%
ICICI LOMBARD GIC LIMITED	33.0x	13.6%

Recent News

2 mixed4 general

LIC promoter sells 6.5% stake for ₹31,552 crore via OFS

scanx.trade, 18 Oct

IDBI Fairfax Deal: Shares decline for IDBI, while LIC rises 1%

India Infoline, 15 OctPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move, which is not by itself a change in the business. Worth finding the cause before reading it as either good or bad.

SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd (SBILIFE) Share Price

Business Today, 16 Oct

LICI Share Price rises 2.46%: valuation and sector view

Univest, 09 OctPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move, which is not by itself a change in the business. Worth finding the cause before reading it as either good or bad.

Mcap of nine of top-10 most valued firms surges by Rs 3.65 lakh cr; TCS shines

The Economic Times, 18 Oct

India to sell up to 6.5% LIC stake in over 300 billion rupee share sale

Reuters, 03 Aug

Watch Items

This is a financial-sector business: borrowing is its raw material, not leverage in the usual sense. Debt/Equity and ROCE here aren't comparable to a manufacturer's — read them alongside NIM, GNPA and capital adequacy from the company's own disclosures.
Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongGrowth · Valuation · Risk

MiddlingProfitability

WeakBusiness Quality · Financial Health

Points for each in the Score ↑

Cheap, but for a reason

The low price is the whole case here, and the business underneath scores poorly. Cheap-and-weak is what a value trap looks like from the outside — it needs a specific reason the numbers are about to improve, not just the observation that they are low.

All 4 tripwires holding · see Key things to watch ↑