Photon Capital Advisors Limited

Financial Services — Asset Management · BSE

₹463.50+₹9.05 (+1.99%)

DalalBaazaar Score

73 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

Moderate

Driven by negative free cash flow, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity.

In simple words: The business is earning a fairly low return on the money invested in it, with both sales and profits growing well. Cash generation is currently the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 6:09 pm

Caution warranted. Multiple fundamental metrics — flagged in red below — point to either valuation stretch, leverage risk, or weakening profitability. This doesn't mean avoid the stock outright, but it does mean the burden of proof is on the growth story to justify the current price.

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

The 60-second version of Photon Capital Advisors Limited — what it does, how it earns, and who it competes with, before any of the numbers below.

What does this company do?

Photon Capital Advisors Limited engages in the software services, information technology, and information technology enabled services in India.

IndustryAsset Management

SectorFinancial Services

Annual revenue₹2 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹2 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹56 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹71 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

EBITDA margin70.6%

Net margin56.4%

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are BAJAJ FINANCE LIMITED, HDFC BANK LTD, ICICI BANK LTD., STATE BANK OF INDIA. These are the companies its valuation and returns are measured against elsewhere in this report.

BAJAJ FINANCE LIMITEDP/E 30.2x · ROE 17.8%

HDFC BANK LTDP/E 15.9x · ROE 13.8%

ICICI BANK LTD.P/E 18.1x · ROE 16.5%

STATE BANK OF INDIAP/E 10.3x · ROE 15.2%

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.

ROCE3.9%

ROE3.2%

Peer median ROE16.5%

What has been driving growth?

Growth has come mainly from selling more, rather than from keeping more of each sale. Over 3 years revenue moved +664% while net margin moved -131% 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+664%

Margin effect-131%

DalalBaazaar Score

73/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ P/E of 46.6x is demanding — it needs sustained high growth to justify

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

84/ 100

Excellent

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

Valuation

28/ 100

Expensive

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

A good business, but the price already reflects that. The quality is real; the question is whether you are overpaying for it today.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

46.6x

Sector Median

17.0x

median of 4 sector peers

⚠️Against its sector it trades 174% above the peer median of 17.0x.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Expensive

17.0x median of 4 peers · +174%

vs. generic bands

Expensive

Above 35x

P/E (Trailing)

46.6x

P/B

2.78x

EV/EBITDA

113.0x

PEG

—

Dividend Yield

None

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well3

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from -152.0% to 70.6% over 3 years.
Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from -3.6% to 3.2%.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from -3.1% to 3.9%.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

Nothing stands out as clearly deteriorating on the years of data available.

Red Flags

1 item require attention · 1 watch

🟡Shareholders have been dilutedOwnership
Shares outstanding are up 80% over 3 years — each existing share owns a smaller slice of the company.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from -152.0% to 70.6%. If that holds, profit compounds faster than sales and today's multiple looks cheaper in hindsight than it does now.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

A premium to the sector to defend
It trades 174% above the peer median. That premium needs a reason that persists, or it closes.
Earnings are hard to forecast
Profit has swung sharply from year to year, so any single year — good or bad — is a weak guide to the next. Cyclical earnings deserve lower multiples for that reason.
Size brings its own risk
Micro Cap businesses are thinly traded, so exits are harder in a falling market and single events move the price more than they would for a larger company.

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

1Revenue growth stays above 73% a year✓ 96.9% CAGR
Latest reported year was 930.6%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 69%✓ 70.6%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Return on equity stays above 8%✗ 3.2%
For a lender this is the cleanest single read on whether the book is being grown profitably.

Investment Checklist

5 / 10 checks passed

✗ Strong return on equity (ROE ≥ 15%)
✗ Strong return on capital employed (ROCE ≥ 15%)
✓ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✗ Generates positive free cash flow
✓ Adequate short-term liquidity (Current Ratio ≥ 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
✓ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

3 good · 4 neutral · 4 weak

Market Cap

₹126 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

46.6x

Expensive

Expensive — verify against sector peers

P/B Ratio

2.78x

Fair

Moderate premium to the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹9.94

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

3.2%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

3.9%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

Revenue Growth (YoY)

930.6%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

275.5%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

None

No dividend yield reported — usually means no payout, but verify if one was recently initiated

Free Cash Flow

-₹1 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

CMP

₹463.5

Operating Margin

36.1%

Good

Healthy core-business profitability

Net Margin

50.7%

Good

Strong bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

240.81

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.13

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

100%

Near high

Near its 52-week high

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

398.0 / 366.2

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

100.0

Overbought zone

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹0 Cr	₹0 Cr	₹0 Cr	₹2 Cr	+96.9%
EBITDA	-₹0 Cr	₹0 Cr	-₹0 Cr	₹1 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	-152.0%	120.8%	-94.2%	70.6%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹0 Cr	-₹2 Cr	-₹1 Cr	₹1 Cr	—
EPS	₹-2.46	₹-13.08	₹-3.35	₹5.14	—
ROE	-3.6%	-24.0%	-7.0%	3.2%	—
ROCE	-3.1%	3.3%	-3.6%	3.9%	—
Total Debt	—	₹0 Cr	₹0 Cr	—	—
Free Cash Flow	-₹1 Cr	-₹1 Cr	-₹0 Cr	-₹1 Cr	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 96.9% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has turned positive, from -₹0 Cr to ₹1 Cr.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from -152.0% to 70.6% over 3 years (+222.6 pts).

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has turned positive, from -₹0 Cr to ₹1 Cr.

🟢 EPS has turned positive, from ₹-2.46 to ₹5.14.

🟢 ROE has risen from -3.6% to 3.2% over 3 years (+6.8 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from -3.1% to 3.9% over 3 years (+7.0 pts).

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹28 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹0 Cr

Total Debt

—

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

-₹1 Cr

Capex

—

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.0%

Insider Holding

84.7%

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
BAJAJ FINANCE LIMITED	30.2x	17.8%
HDFC BANK LTD	15.9x	13.8%
ICICI BANK LTD.	18.1x	16.5%
STATE BANK OF INDIA	10.3x	15.2%

Recent News

1 mixed5 general

Photon Capital Advisors Upper Circuit Today: Price, Data and Peers

Univest, 16 Oct

Photon Capital Advisors Upper Circuit Streak: Day 4 Price and Data

Univest, 13 Oct

Photon Capital Advisors Ltd. Peer Comparison – Compare with Others

Value Research, 14 Sept

Kamath Technology LLP Discloses Substantial Acquisition in Photon Capital Advisors Limited

scanx.trade, 07 MayM&A

🟡Mixed / dependsAcquisitions change the balance sheet before they change the earnings. Look at what was paid, how it was funded, and whether debt rose.

Photon Capital Advisors Ltd. Share Price Live Today

CNBC TV18, 03 Jan

Photon Capital Advisors Ltd. Key Financial Ratios – Valuation, Profitability & More

Value Research, 03 Sept

Watch Items

Trading very close to its 52-week high — momentum-driven entries here carry more mean-reversion risk.
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.
1 metric couldn't be retrieved for this stock — this is more common for smaller or thinly-covered listings.
RSI is in overbought territory — momentum entries here carry more short-term pullback risk.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

🟢Business QualityStrong17.5/20

🟢Financial HealthStrong17/20

🟢GrowthStrong18.4/20

🟢ProfitabilityStrong10/15

🔴ValuationDemanding5.7/15

🔴RiskHigh4.1/10

Good business, demanding price

The quality is real and the price already reflects it. Buying here is a bet that the business keeps compounding for long enough to grow into the multiple — which good businesses often do, but it removes the margin for error that a lower price would have given you.

This thesis breaks if

✓Revenue growth stays above 73% a year96.9% CAGR
✓EBITDA margin holds above 69%70.6%
✗Return on equity stays above 8%3.2%