Universus Photo Imagings Limited

Healthcare — Medical Devices · NSE

₹452.95+₹2.90 (+0.64%)

DalalBaazaar Score

38 / 100

🔴 Weak

Verdict

CAUTION

Risk

High

Driven by the company is currently loss-making, micro-cap size, which brings thin liquidity, falling profits.

In simple words: The company is currently losing money, though profits are falling even as sales grow. The direction of profits is the main factor to watch.

Decision support, not a buy or sell call.

As of 18 Oct 2026, 7:46 pm

Understanding the Business

Company site ↗

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

What does this company do?

Universus Photo Imagings Limited manufactures, trades, and sells photographic and other imaging products in India.

IndustryMedical Devices

SectorHealthcare

Employees38

Annual revenue₹19 Cr

How does it make money?

Turns over ₹19 Cr a year. Of every ₹100 of sales, about ₹-426 reaches shareholders as profit, with ₹-521 left at the operating level before interest, tax and depreciation. Each of its 38 employees supports ₹49.4 lakh of revenue a year, the signature of a people-led business.

Revenue / employee₹49.4 lakh

Who are its competitors?

The closest listed comparisons in its industry are SUN PHARMACEUTICAL IND L, CIPLA LTD, DR. REDDY S LABORATORIES, APOLLO HOSPITALS ENTER. L. 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?Little sign of one

Returns on capital of -9.5% are at or below what the capital likely costs. That is the financial pattern of a business competing largely on price, where advantage has to come from execution rather than position.

Peer median ROE14.5%

What has been driving growth?

Profit has moved mainly because margins changed, not because the business sold much more. Over 3 years revenue moved -57% while net margin moved +314% 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-57%

Margin effect+314%

DalalBaazaar Score

38/ 100

Weak

Weighted across six categories. Every point is explained below.

✗ Revenue has contracted at 24.3% a year
✗ Profit fell 191.9% in the latest year

Quality vs. Valuation

Company Quality

36/ 100

Weak

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

Valuation

36/ 100

Expensive

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

Weak on business quality and not cheap enough to compensate.

vs. its own history

Not enough price and earnings history

vs. sector peers

Not enough peers with a usable P/E

vs. generic bands

N/A

No P/E — the company is lossmaking

EV/EBITDA

—

PEG

—

What's Good / What's Bad

🟢 What's Going Well1

Cash flow has turned positive
Free cash flow moved from negative to positive over 3 years.

🔴 What Needs Attention2

Return on equity is falling
ROE has dropped from -4.2% to -9.9% — each rupee of shareholder capital earns less than it did.
Return on capital is falling
ROCE has declined from -3.7% to -9.5% — often a sign of competition or overexpansion.

Red Flags

2 items require attention · 2 high

🔴The company is lossmakingFinancial
Net profit of -₹80 Cr in the latest reported year.
🔴Significant margin compressionFinancial
EBITDA margin has fallen 355.6 points, from -165.9% to -521.5%.

Investment Thesis

🟢 Bull CaseWhat could make this work?

No clear supporting case emerges from the available numbers.

🔴 Bear CaseWhat could go wrong?

Margins are being competed away
EBITDA margin has fallen from -165.9% to -521.5%. If the trend continues, profit falls even on flat sales — and margin decline rarely reverses quickly.
Returns on shareholder capital are falling
ROE has dropped from -4.2% to -9.9%. 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.
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.
Several serious flags at once
2 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

1EBITDA margin holds above -523%✓ -521.5%
Two points below today's level — enough room for noise, tight enough to catch real compression.
2Free cash flow remains positive✓ ₹2 Cr
Profit that never becomes cash eventually stops being profit.
3ROCE stays above 8%✗ -9.5%
Falling returns on capital are usually competition arriving, and show up here before they reach the margin.

Investment Checklist

6 / 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 · 3 neutral · 5 weak

Market Cap

₹496 Cr

Micro Cap

Smaller company — thin liquidity and deep drawdowns are normal here

P/E (Trailing)

Not meaningful

Loss-making

Earnings are negative, so a P/E multiple can't be read here

P/B Ratio

0.61x

Reasonable

Reasonable against the company's book value

EPS (TTM)

₹-16.8

Loss-making

Negative earnings per share — the business is losing money

ROE

-9.9%

Weak

Weak capital efficiency

ROCE

-9.5%

Weak

Low return on total capital employed

Debt/Equity

Not available

No data

Source didn't return this field

Revenue Growth (YoY)

10.3%

Healthy

Healthy top-line growth

Profit Growth (YoY)

-191.9%

Falling

Profits are shrinking

Dividend Yield

None

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

Free Cash Flow

₹2 Cr

Cash generative

Generates cash even after funding its capex

More Metrics

Operating Margin

14.1%

Average

Average margins

Net Margin

-91.2%

Weak

Very little revenue reaches the bottom line

Current Ratio

260.06

Comfortable

Healthy short-term liquidity

Beta (vs Nifty)

0.44

Defensive

Steadier than the market

52W Range Position

61%

Mid-range

Technical Snapshot

SMA 20 / SMA 50

506.8 / 495.3

Bullish alignment (short > long)

Price vs SMA 200

Above

Long-term uptrend

RSI (14)

14.6

Oversold zone

Financial Trend (4-Year)

Metric	FY23	FY24	FY25	FY26	3Y CAGR
Revenue	₹43 Cr	₹32 Cr	₹25 Cr	₹19 Cr	-24.3%
EBITDA	-₹72 Cr	-₹224 Cr	₹57 Cr	-₹98 Cr	—
EBITDA Margin	-165.9%	-689.4%	230.1%	-521.5%	—
PAT (Net Profit)	-₹44 Cr	-₹196 Cr	₹87 Cr	-₹80 Cr	—
EPS	₹-40.62	₹-179.37	₹79.49	₹-73.02	—
ROE	-4.2%	-22.7%	10.0%	-9.9%	—
ROCE	-3.7%	-21.3%	10.7%	-9.5%	—
Free Cash Flow	-₹8 Cr	₹4 Cr	₹185 Cr	₹2 Cr	—

🔴 Revenue has shrunk at 24.3% a year over 3 years.

🔴 EBITDA Margin has fallen from -165.9% to -521.5% over 3 years (-355.6 pts).

🔴 ROE has fallen from -4.2% to -9.9% over 3 years (-5.6 pts).

🔴 ROCE has fallen from -3.7% to -9.5% over 3 years (-5.8 pts).

🟢 Free Cash Flow has turned positive, from -₹8 Cr to ₹2 Cr.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow — FY2026

Total Assets

₹825 Cr

Total Liabilities

₹14 Cr

Total Debt

—

Cash & Equivalents

₹0 Cr

Operating Cash Flow

₹2 Cr

Capex

-₹0 Cr

Shareholding (proxy)

Institutional Holding

0.3%

Insider Holding

89.7%

Corporate Actions

Ex-Dividend Date

21 Oct 2022

Peer Comparison

Company	P/E	ROE
SUN PHARMACEUTICAL IND L	34.9x	14.5%
CIPLA LTD	31.8x	9.8%
DR. REDDY S LABORATORIES	31.0x	8.8%
APOLLO HOSPITALS ENTER. L	54.3x	22.0%

Recent News

2 mixed4 general

Universus Photo Imagings Ltd. Upper Circuit: Price and Key Data

Univest, 05 Oct

Universus Photo Imagings Ltd. Key Financial Ratios – Valuation, Profitability & More

Value Research, 29 Sept

Universus Photo Imagings reports consolidated net profit of Rs 45.33 crore in the June 2026 quarter

Business Standard, 13 AugResults

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

Universus Photo shareholders approve all resolutions at 15th AGM

scanx.trade, 30 Sept

Universus Photo Imagings Share Price Target 2027 to 2030: Analyst

Univest, 14 AugAnalyst view

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

Universus Photo Imagings Ltd. Peer Comparison – Compare with Others

Value Research, 03 Sept

Watch Items

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 oversold territory — could mean either a bargain or a stock still falling for good reason. Check the 'why' before assuming reversal.

DalalBaazaar Thesis

StrongFinancial Health

MiddlingValuation

WeakBusiness Quality · Growth · Profitability · Risk

Points for each in the Score ↑

Weak on the fundamentals

Poor scores on business quality without a price low enough to compensate. There is no obvious argument for owning this over a stronger company at a similar valuation. 2 high-severity red flags sit above this conclusion and should be read first.

1 of 3 tripwires tripped — ROCE stays above 8% · see Key things to watch ↑