Rubicon Research Limited

Healthcare — Drug Manufacturers - General · NSE

₹1,509.00+₹31.90 (+2.16%)

DalalBaazaar Score

68 / 100

🟢 Good

Verdict

NEUTRAL

Risk

Moderate

Driven by negative free cash flow, small-cap size, which brings sharper price swings, a very high earnings multiple, which leaves little margin for disappointment.

In simple words: Strong business and financial position, 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, 7:00 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Rubicon Research Limited operates as a specialty pharmaceutical company in India, the United States, and internationally.

IndustryDrug Manufacturers - General

SectorHealthcare

Employees1,290

Annual revenue₹1,731 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹1,731 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹14 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹23 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 1,290 employees supports ₹1.34 Cr of revenue a year, the signature of a capital- or asset-led business.

Revenue / employee₹1.34 Cr

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are SUN PHARMACEUTICAL IND L, DR. REDDY S LABORATORIES, CIPLA LTD, DIVI S LABORATORIES LTD. 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?Some evidence

ROCE of 23.6% is above what capital typically costs, which suggests some pricing power, though not yet the sustained, wide gap that marks a durable advantage.

Peer median ROE14.5%

What is the outlook?

2 analysts covering the stock expect revenue to grow about 24.7% and earnings to grow about 34.2% in the year to 2028. These are estimates by people who follow the company, not a forecast for the wider industry.

Est. revenue growth+24.7%

Est. earnings growth+34.2%

Analysts2

DalalBaazaar Score

68/ 100

Good

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ P/E of 86.9x is demanding — it needs sustained high growth to justify
✗ P/B of 19.33x is a steep premium to book

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

82/ 100

Excellent

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

Valuation

24/ 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

86.9x

Sector Median

33.3x

median of 4 sector peers

⚠️Against its sector it trades 161% above the peer median of 33.3x.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Expensive

33.3x median of 4 peers · +161%

vs. generic bands

Expensive

Above 35x

EV/EBITDA

62.9x

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well3

Margins are improving
EBITDA margin is up from 20.9% to 23.0% over 1 years.
High return on capital employed
ROCE of 23.6% is the mark of a business that converts capital into profit efficiently.
Very low debt
Debt/Equity of 0.24x leaves the balance sheet with plenty of headroom.

🔴 What Needs Attention0

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

Red Flags

1 item require attention · 1 watch

🟡Free cash flow is negativeFinancial
Free cash flow was -₹24 Cr in the latest year.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

Capital compounds at a high rate
ROCE of 23.6% 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.
Margin expansion has further to run
EBITDA margin has risen from 20.9% to 23.0%. 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 161% above the peer median. That premium needs a reason that persists, or it closes.
Size brings its own risk
Small 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 27% a year✓ 36.6% CAGR
Latest reported year was 51.6%. The bar is set below the established compounding rate, so ordinary variation does not trip it.
2EBITDA margin holds above 21%✓ 23.0%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
3Free cash flow remains positive✗ -₹24 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
4Debt / EBITDA stays below 2x✓ 0.8x
The ratio lenders write covenants against; it survives a small or negative equity base, unlike Debt/Equity.
5ROCE stays above 21%✓ 23.6%
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

6 good · 2 neutral · 3 weak

Market Cap

₹24,980 Cr

Small Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

86.9x

Expensive

Expensive — verify against sector peers

P/B Ratio

19.33x

Rich

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

EPS (TTM)

₹17.36

Profitable

Profitable on a per-share basis

ROE

19.1%

Strong

Strong capital efficiency

ROCE

23.6%

Strong

Earns comfortably above its likely cost of capital

Debt/Equity

0.24x

Low

Conservative leverage

Revenue Growth (YoY)

51.6%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

82.1%

Healthy

Profits growing at a healthy clip

Dividend Yield

0.10%

Modest

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

Free Cash Flow

-₹24 Cr

Cash burning

Spending more cash than the operations bring in

More Metrics

P/E (Forward)

52.3x

Improving

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

Operating Margin

21.3%

Good

Healthy core-business profitability

Net Margin

14.9%

Good

Strong bottom-line conversion

Current Ratio

2.01

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

52W Range Position

71%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

1603.7 / 1691.2

Bearish alignment (short < long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

25.0

Oversold zone

Financial Trend (2-Year)

Metric	FY25	FY26	1Y CAGR
Revenue	₹1,267 Cr	₹1,731 Cr	+36.6%
EBITDA	₹265 Cr	₹399 Cr	+50.4%
EBITDA Margin	20.9%	23.0%	—

🟢 Revenue has grown at 36.6% a year over 1 years.

🟢 EBITDA has grown at 50.4% a year over 1 years.

🟢 EBITDA Margin has risen from 20.9% to 23.0% over 1 years (+2.1 pts).

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹2,327 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹1,038 Cr

Total Debt

₹311 Cr

Cash & Equivalents

₹186 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹205 Cr

Capex

-₹229 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

18.3%

Insider Holding

69.1%

Corporate Actions

Dividend Rate

₹1.5

Ex-Dividend Date

07 Aug 2026

Analyst Consensus

Recommendations

2 Buy · 0 Hold · 0 Sell

Target Price (Mean)

₹1,897.5

+25.7% vs CMP

Target Range

₹1,880 – ₹1,915

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
SUN PHARMACEUTICAL IND L	34.9x	14.5%
DR. REDDY S LABORATORIES	31.0x	8.8%
CIPLA LTD	31.8x	9.8%
DIVI S LABORATORIES LTD	83.0x	17.5%

Recent News

2 mixed4 general

Rubicon Research Limited (RUBICON.NS) Stock Price, News, Quote & History

Yahoo! Finance Canada, 18 Oct

Rubicon Research zooms 128% so far in 2026; what's driving pharma stock?

Business Standard, 23 Jul

RUBICON RESEARCH Share Price Fall Streak: Key Facts

Univest, 08 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.

Compare with

Equitymaster, 16 Oct

Rubicon Research (NSEI:RUBICON) Stock Forecast & Analyst Predictions

Simply Wall Street, 04 OctAnalyst view

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

Rubicon Research Limited Actuals & Estimates (NSE:RUBICON)

TradingView, 27 Jun

Watch Items

Cross-check against the company's latest quarterly filing / investor presentation before acting.
RSI is in oversold territory — could mean either a bargain or a stock still falling for good reason. Check the 'why' before assuming reversal.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongBusiness Quality · Financial Health · Growth · Profitability

WeakValuation · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

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.

1 of 5 tripwires tripped — Free cash flow remains positive · see Key things to watch ↑