Polycab India Limited

Industrials — Electrical Equipment & Parts · NSE

₹8,219.00+₹12.00 (+0.15%)

DalalBaazaar Score

73 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

REASONABLE

Risk

Moderate

Driven by high debt relative to equity.

In simple words: Strong business and financial position, with both sales and profits growing well. Debt is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 6:59 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Polycab India Limited manufactures and sells wires and cables under the POLYCAB brand in India and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Wires and Cables; Fast Moving Electrical Goods (FMEG); and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC).

IndustryElectrical Equipment & Parts

SectorIndustrials

Annual revenue₹28,270 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹28,270 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹9 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹14 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation.

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are SIEMENS LTD, ABB INDIA LIMITED, HAVELLS INDIA 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?The numbers suggest a real one

ROCE has stayed above 15% in every year available and stands at 30.4%. Returns that high normally get competed away; when they persist, something is protecting them, and its ROE of 26.8% against a peer median of 17.1% is consistent with that. What that something is — brand, scale, switching costs, regulation — the accounts cannot tell you.

Peer median ROE17.1%

What is the outlook?

30 analysts covering the stock expect revenue to grow about 15.6% and earnings to grow about 11.9% in the year to 2028. These are estimates by people who follow the company, not a forecast for the wider industry.

Est. revenue growth+15.6%

Est. earnings growth+11.9%

Analysts30

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 +103% while net margin moved +4% 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+103%

Margin effect+4%

DalalBaazaar Score

73/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

• P/E of 39.2x already prices in growth
✓ P/E is 32% below its own historical median of 57.6x — cheap by its own standards
✗ P/B of 9.46x is a steep premium to book

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

78/ 100

Good

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

Valuation

61/ 100

Fair

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

A reasonable business at a reasonable price — neither the quality nor the valuation stands out in either direction.

Historical Valuation

Current P/E

39.2x

3Y Median

57.6x

40 monthly readings · mean 58.3x · range 39.8x–81.0x

Sector Median

88.8x

median of 3 sector peers

🟢Current valuation is approximately 32% below its 3y median of 57.6x. 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 56% below the peer median of 88.8x.

vs. its own history

Cheap

57.6x median over 40 months · -32%

vs. sector peers

Cheap

88.8x median of 3 peers · -56%

vs. generic bands

Expensive

Above 35x

EV/EBITDA

31.4x

PEG

1.39

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well5

Cash generation is improving
Free cash flow is up 146% over 3 years.
Return on equity is rising
ROE has improved from 19.1% to 22.3%.
Return on capital is rising
ROCE has improved from 25.7% to 30.4%.
High return on capital employed
ROCE of 30.4% is the mark of a business that converts capital into profit efficiently.
Consistently profitable
Profitable in every one of the last 4 reported years.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

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

Red Flags

3 items require attention · 3 high

🔴Debt has risen sharplyFinancial
Total debt is up 237% over 3 years, from ₹1,335 Cr to ₹4,501 Cr.
🔴High leverageFinancial
Debt/Equity of 2.05x — earnings must service borrowings before shareholders see anything.
🔴Receivables growing faster than salesFinancial
Receivables up 202% against revenue up 103% — sales are being booked faster than they are collected.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Capital compounds at a high rate
ROCE of 30.4% means each rupee reinvested earns well above what capital costs. If the company can keep deploying at this rate, growth creates value rather than just consuming cash.
Priced below its own history
The stock trades 32% 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 56% 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?

Leverage amplifies any setback
Debt/Equity of 2.05x. Interest is payable whether or not the business has a good year.
Sales are being booked faster than collected
Receivables are up 202% against revenue up 103%. If customers keep taking longer to pay, reported profit will not turn into cash — and write-offs follow if some never do.
Several serious flags at once
3 high-severity checks triggered. Individually each has an explanation; together they raise the chance that something structural is wrong rather than a one-off.

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

1Revenue growth stays above 20% a year✓ 26.6% CAGR
Latest reported year was 52.8%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 12%✓ 14.4%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹2,330 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 1.1x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 27%✓ 30.4%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

9 / 12 checks passed

✓ Strong return on equity (ROE ≥ 15%)
✓ Strong return on capital employed (ROCE ≥ 15%)
✗ Healthy net margin (≥ 10%)
✓ Generates positive free cash flow
✗ Manageable leverage (Debt/Equity < 1.0)
✓ 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
✓ Analyst consensus isn't majority-sell
✗ Short-term technical trend isn't bearish

Price history

Quick Metrics

7 good · 2 neutral · 2 weak

Market Cap

₹1.24 L Cr

Large Cap

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

P/E (Trailing)

39.2x

Fair

Fairly valued against the generic band

P/B Ratio

9.46x

Rich

Steep premium to book — needs high, durable returns to justify

EPS (TTM)

₹209.86

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

26.8%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

30.4%

Strong

Earns comfortably above its likely cost of capital

Debt/Equity

2.05x

High

High leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

52.8%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

42.5%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

0.57%

Modest

Small cash return — most of the return has to come from the price

Free Cash Flow

₹1,908 Cr

Cash generative

Generates cash even after funding its capex

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

31.4x

Improving

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

ROA

13.3%

Good

Assets are working hard

Operating Margin

13.3%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

9.1%

Average

Average bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

1.73

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.70

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

45%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

8251.0 / 8624.2

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Below

Long-term downtrend

RSI (14)

43.5

Neutral momentum

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹13,942 Cr	₹17,760 Cr	₹22,031 Cr	₹28,270 Cr	+26.6%
EBITDA	₹1,883 Cr	₹2,622 Cr	₹3,015 Cr	₹4,069 Cr	+29.3%
EBITDA Margin	13.5%	14.8%	13.7%	14.4%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	₹1,271 Cr	₹1,784 Cr	₹2,020 Cr	₹2,672 Cr	+28.1%
EPS	₹84.66	₹118.49	₹133.8	₹176.95	+27.9%
ROE	19.1%	21.8%	20.6%	22.3%	—
ROCE	25.7%	28.9%	27.7%	30.4%	—
Total Debt	₹1,335 Cr	₹2,023 Cr	₹1,509 Cr	₹4,501 Cr	+49.9%
Free Cash Flow	₹948 Cr	₹438 Cr	₹839 Cr	₹2,330 Cr	+35.0%

🟢 Revenue has grown at 26.6% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 29.3% a year over 3 years.

🟡 EBITDA Margin has held roughly flat at 14.4% over 3 years.

🟢 PAT (Net Profit) has grown at 28.1% a year over 3 years.

🟢 EPS has grown at 27.9% a year over 3 years.

🟢 ROE has risen from 19.1% to 22.3% over 3 years (+3.1 pts).

🟢 ROCE has risen from 25.7% to 30.4% over 3 years (+4.7 pts).

🔴 Total Debt has grown at 49.9% a year over 3 years.

🟢 Free Cash Flow has grown at 35.0% a year over 3 years.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹20,476 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹8,349 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹390 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹3,811 Cr

Capex

-₹1,481 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

16.9%

Insider Holding

64.4%

Corporate Actions

Next Earnings

14 Jan 2027

Dividend Rate

₹47

Ex-Dividend Date

19 Jun 2026

Analyst Consensus

Recommendations

27 Buy · 3 Hold · 1 Sell

Target Price (Mean)

₹9,905.77

+20.5% vs CMP

Target Range

₹6,490 – ₹11,600

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
SIEMENS LTD	88.8x	10.5%
ABB INDIA LIMITED	92.6x	19.1%
HAVELLS INDIA LIMITED	43.5x	17.1%

Recent News

5 mixed1 general

How high can the Polycab India share price go? Three analysts see it past ₹11,000 - CNBC TV18

LinkedIn, 16 OctAnalyst view

🟡Mixed / dependsBroker commentary — an opinion about the price rather than new information about the business.

Polycab India shares fall 6% in two sessions. What’s triggering the selloff?

The Economic Times, 14 OctPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move rather than a change in the business. If the figures on this page have not moved, the fall is either an opportunity or news they have yet to catch up with.

Polycab India shares slip over 5% before rebounding; here's what is happening

Business Today, 14 Oct

Polycab Posts Q2 Revenue Of ₹9,900 Crore And Net Profit Of ₹1,000 Crore

Sahi, 15 OctResults

🟡Mixed / dependsA results event. The figures on this page update once the new statements reach the data feed, which usually lags the announcement.

Polycab India Share Price Drop: Q2 Revenue and EBITDA View

Univest, 15 OctPrice move

🟡Mixed / dependsA price move rather than a change in the business. If the figures on this page have not moved, the fall is either an opportunity or news they have yet to catch up with.

Price Action: Transformers and Rectifiers, SS Retail gain 12-16% on strong earnings; Polycab India shares...

Moneycontrol.com, 14 OctResults

🟡Mixed / dependsA results event. The figures on this page update once the new statements reach the data feed, which usually lags the announcement.

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability · Risk

MiddlingFinancial Health · Valuation

Points for each in the Score ↑

Good business at a fair price

A sound business at a reasonable valuation. Suitable for a long-term holding, with the valuation and the direction of margins worth watching rather than the business itself. 3 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

All 5 tripwires holding · see Key things to watch ↑