Hercules Investments Ltd

Price story Before the numbers, the tape. A stock price moves through four repeating seasons: a flat base (stage 1), an advance (2), a top (3), a decline (4). Where the price sits in that cycle frames everything below.

Hercules Investments Ltd trades at ₹99.2, in a downtrend and 15 weeks into that stage. That is −35.1% against its own 200-day average. It sits at 0% of a 52-week range of ₹99 to ₹207. On relative strength it is currently behind the NIFTY 500 on a trailing-13-week view (16 weeks and counting).

Today the stock is in a downtrend — week 15 of stage 4, confirmed. At ₹99.2 it trades −35.1% versus its 200-day average and sits at 0% of its 52-week range (₹99–₹207).

Against the market, two honest reads. Cumulative: over the last 10.0 years the stock moved +159% while the NIFTY 500 moved +236% — behind the index over the full window. Recent form: on a trailing-13-week view the stock is currently behind (16 weeks and counting; last ahead the week of 2025-12-05) — the ribbon below is that same metric, week by week.

What would end the trend, mechanically: two Friday closes in a row below the 200-day line. That is the exit rule — no debates.

→ The trend is one thing; the bill is another. Are you paying up for it? Next: the P/E sits at the 1st percentile of its own range.

Valuation P/E is the price of ₹1 of annual profit: how many rupees the market pays for each rupee the company earns in a year.

Hercules Investments Ltd trades at 8.6× P/E, about the cheapest it has ever traded. Its long-run median P/E is 14.2×, measured across 10.1 years of weekly readings. This places the multiple against the stock’s own record, and says nothing about what the business is worth.

Today's P/E of 8.6× is about the cheapest it has ever traded, against a long-run median of 14.2× measured over 10.1 years of weekly readings. This is a comparison against the stock's own history — not a claim about what it is worth.

🚨 Why the multiple sits where it does: over the past year annual EPS moved −84.5% against a −31.6% price move — the price outran earnings, pushing the multiple UP its own range.

The price move, decomposed: over 3y, of the +22.7%/yr price move, ~+11.5%/yr came from earnings growth and ~+11.2 pp from the multiple (expanding). The split is the honest approximate (price return minus earnings growth); it makes the rally itself visible instead of hiding it behind the percentile.

Put together: the multiple is low against its own past, so the story rests on the earnings line underneath it, not the multiple.

→ Cheap or dear rides on the earnings. Are they actually growing? Next: the fundamental stage — where the business sits in its arc, and how growth has compounded.

Stage: Turning around Every business sits somewhere on a fundamental arc, and this page names the spot before anything else. The last twelve quarters of revenue, profit and EPS growth — plus the return the business earns on its capital — are read as curves: Deteriorating (the curves are falling), Turning around (a trough has just formed and the last few quarters lift off it), Improving (the climb off the trough is sustained), Consistent (steadily positive with healthy returns), Topping out (still high but decelerating from the peak). When the curves genuinely disagree the read is Mixed; too little history is No read. CAGR (compound annual growth rate) is the smooth yearly pace that turns the starting value into the latest one — the fairest way to compare growth across different time spans. Read the columns together: if the 1-year number towers over the 10-year, recent growth is running hotter than the long-run trend. A dash means that window is not held, or the base year was a loss (where a growth rate is not meaningful).

Hercules Investments Ltd reads as turning around on its fundamental arc. Turning around — profit growth swung from −100.0% at the trough to +96.2% off a 1-quarter-old trough (single-quarter readings), ROCE slipping at 0.7%. The read is built from 9 quarters across 3 curves, on partial evidence.

Why it matters: growth inflections are where re-ratings start — the curves say a turn is forming, so the question becomes whether the next quarters confirm it.

One or more growth curves carry a base-effect spike — a large year-on-year move off a near-zero or loss-making comparable quarter. Those spikes are capped before the classifier reads the trajectory, and shown pinned on the chart, so a single distorted quarter does not drive the stage call.

Return readings here are annual, not quarterly — read as level and direction only; they can confirm the growth curves but never drive the stage on their own.

A partial read: at least one curve is short, or the returns curve is not the computed quarterly series — hold the stage word a little more loosely.

→ The stage names the trajectory. Next: the revenue line that produces it, quarter by quarter.

4-Factor Sector Score

41.4/100 — rank 10 of 16 in Capital Goods - Engineering Heavy · 55% evidence confidence

Hercules Investments Ltd scores 41.4 out of 100 against the 16 companies it is compared with in Capital Goods - Engineering Heavy, ranking 10. Fill the missing evidence before acting; the ranking is deliberately pulled toward neutral.

The four contributions add to the total exactly: 14.1 + 10.9 + 12.4 + 4 = 41.4. This is the SAME number shown on the sector comparison — it is computed once, for the whole peer set, and read here.

What would change it: The read weakens if profit growth turns negative or margin improvement reverses while sector-relative strength deteriorates.

Revenue Revenue is the top line: everything the company billed its customers in the period.

Hercules Investments Ltd reported ₹0.0 Cr of revenue in the Sep 25 quarter. The last full year, FY25, came in at ₹0.0 Cr. The last four reported quarters add to ₹0.0 Cr. A multi-year compound rate is not shown because the annual history behind it is too short to compute one honestly.

Hercules Investments Ltd reported ₹0.0 Cr of revenue in the Sep 25 quarter. The last full year, FY25, came in at ₹0.0 Cr. The last four reported quarters add to ₹0.0 Cr. A multi-year compound rate is not shown because the annual history behind it is too short to compute one honestly.

FY25 revenue came in at ₹0.0 Cr (−100.0% on the year). The latest quarter (Sep 25) printed ₹0.0 Cr, null year on year.

Acceleration check: trailing-twelve-month revenue grew −100.0% over the last 4 quarters against −100.0%/yr over the last 8 — stabilising; TTM profit −74.3% vs −72.9%/yr — stabilising.

→ Revenue slipped — did margins hold as it scaled? Next: the margin picture.

Operating margin Operating margin is what is left of every ₹100 of sales after running the business, before interest and tax. It is the cleanest read on pricing power and cost control.

A clean operating margin is not in our numbers for Hercules Investments Ltd — its accounts do not report the operating-profit line this section reads, which is common for lenders and holding companies. The sections above and below carry the readings this company's filings do support.

A clean operating margin is not in our numbers for Hercules Investments Ltd — its accounts do not report the operating-profit line this section reads, which is common for lenders and holding companies. The sections above and below carry the readings this company's filings do support.

This company's accounts do not report the operating-profit line this section reads — common for lenders and holding companies classified outside the financial bucket. The revenue and net-profit sections are the cleaner reads for Hercules Investments Ltd.

Why the margin moved: operating margin went +3.7 pp year on year while gross margin went +3.9 pp — the gain came mostly from the gross line: input costs and pricing.

→ Margins slipped — did that reach the bottom line? Next: profit +96.2% in the latest quarter.

Net profit Net profit is what survives every cost, interest and tax — the number EPS, dividends and book value all grow from.

Hercules Investments Ltd earned ₹5.2 Cr of net profit in the Sep 25 quarter, +96.2% year on year. Full-year FY25 profit was ₹5.6 Cr. The 10-year compound rate is −7.9%. The same quarter a year earlier earned ₹2.6 Cr. 1 of the last 12 reported quarters were loss-making.

Hercules Investments Ltd earned ₹5.2 Cr of net profit in the Sep 25 quarter, +96.2% year on year. Full-year FY25 profit was ₹5.6 Cr. The 10-year compound rate is −7.9%. The same quarter a year earlier earned ₹2.6 Cr. 1 of the last 12 reported quarters were loss-making.

Sep 25 profit was ₹5.2 Cr, +96.2% year on year. On the full year, FY25 printed ₹5.6 Cr (−84.5%), and the 10-year compound rate is −7.9%.

Pace comparison, last four quarters: profit −44.4% vs revenue −100.0%. Profit is growing faster than sales — fixed costs are being spread over a bigger base, and each extra rupee of revenue drops more to the bottom line.

→ Profit rose — but did the cash follow? Next: 33% of the last 3 years' profit arrived as cash.

Cash flow — the router The P&L says what was earned; the cash-flow statement says what actually arrived. Operating cash flow (CFO) against profit is the cleanest lie detector in the accounts.

Over the last 3 fiscal years 33% of Hercules Investments Ltd's reported profit arrived as operating cash — a gap worth watching. In FY25 that was ₹7.6 Cr of operating cash against ₹5.6 Cr of profit. After ₹−34.0 Cr of capital spending, ₹42.0 Cr was left as free cash.

FY25: operating cash of ₹7.6 Cr against reported profit of ₹5.6 Cr, leaving free cash of ₹42.0 Cr after ₹−34.0 Cr of capital spending. Across the last 3 fiscal years the conversion rate is 33% of profit.

Cash-flow readings here are annual — that is the resolution our series carries, so this section moves once a year.

🚨 Why conversion sits at 33%: the cash cycle tightened 174 days between FY19 and FY24 — cash that used to wait in the cycle now reaches the bank sooner. Less than 70% of profit arriving as cash is the thing to watch on this page.

Router verdict: no single sink dominates — the next section checks both the working-capital cycle and the capital spending.

→ So follow the cash to where it goes. Next: a 39-day cycle and ₹−21.0 Cr of building.

Where the cash goes Working capital is the cash tied up between paying suppliers and getting paid: debtor days (customers owe), inventory days (stock waits), and the cash conversion cycle (the whole loop, in days of sales).

Hercules Investments Ltd's cash conversion cycle runs 39 days in FY24, down from 213 days in FY19. Capital spending ran ₹−21.0 Cr over the last 3 years. Customers take 40 days to pay and stock waits 83 days to sell.

FY24: debtors at 40 days, inventory at 83 days — roughly 2.7 months of stock waiting to sell; that is where the cash sits while it waits — for a full cycle of 39 days, tighter than FY19's 213.

The full loop: cash goes out to suppliers and production on day 0; stock waits 83 days to sell; customers pay about 40 days after that; and suppliers themselves are paid at 84 days — netting out to the 39-day cycle.

On the investment side: capital spending of ₹−21.0 Cr over the last 3 fiscal years against ₹8.0 Cr of depreciation — spending at or below maintenance level. Capital work-in-progress stands at ₹0.0 Cr (FY25) — capacity paid for but not yet earning.

The synthesis: neither the cycle nor the build-out is hoarding the cash — the machine is reasonably clean.

→ Does all this activity actually earn its cost of capital? Next: ROCE is 1% and the ROIC − WACC spread is −11.0 pp.

Return on capital Return on capital employed (ROCE) is the profit the whole business earns on all the money in it — equity and debt together. It is the single best test of whether growth creates value or just size.

Hercules Investments Ltd earns a ROCE of 1% in FY25. Return on invested capital clears the cost of that capital by −11.0 percentage points, so growth here is not yet paying for the capital it uses. The wiring behind it is 20.0% net margin on 0.17× asset turns.

FY25 ROCE is 1%.

🚨 Why the return is what it is — the wiring (FY24): 20.0% net margin × 0.17× asset turns × 1.11× balance-sheet leverage ≈ 3.8% on equity. Margin is doing the heavy lifting; leverage is modest — this is an earned return, not a borrowed one.

The capstone test — ROIC − WACC: 1.0% − 12.0% = a −11.0 pp spread. The 12.0% is a standing assumption for the cost of capital in India, not a per-stock estimate — read the sign and the size of the spread, not the decimals. Negative — growth at these returns destroys value until the returns recover.

→ Returns like these — is the balance sheet borrowing to make them? Next: debt-to-equity is 0.00.

Debt Debt-to-equity says how much of the business is funded by borrowings; interest cover says how many times operating profit pays the interest bill. Low and high, respectively, is the safe corner.

Hercules Investments Ltd carries ₹0.0 Cr of borrowings against ₹846 Cr of equity in FY25, a debt-to-equity of 0.00. Over 5 years borrowings went from ₹0.0 Cr to ₹0.0 Cr. Capital spending ran ₹−21.0 Cr across the last 3 of those years.

FY25: borrowings of ₹0.0 Cr against equity of ₹846 Cr — a debt-to-equity of 0.00. Over 5 years borrowings went from ₹0.0 Cr to ₹0.0 Cr while capital spending ran ₹−21.0 Cr in just the last 3 — the build-out is being paid for out of cash, not debt.

→ Who owns this, and are they adding or leaving? Next: the register is quiet.

Ownership Who owns the stock, quarter by quarter: promoters (the controlling owners), foreign and domestic institutions, and the public. Steady accumulation by people close to the numbers is a signal; a quiet register is also an answer.

No holder of Hercules Investments Ltd moved a full percentage point over the last two years — the register is quiet. Domestic institutions moved −0.1 points over the same window, to 0.0%. The register is read on the four disclosed classes only; nothing is inferred between filings.

The register over the last two years — Foreign institutions: −0.1 points over 8 quarters to 0.0%; Domestic institutions: −0.1 points over 8 quarters to 0.0%; Promoters: +0.0 points over 8 quarters to 69.6%.

→ One last check: does the safety math agree? Next: the balance-sheet safety line.

Safety line The Z-score estimates how far a company sits from balance-sheet distress — above roughly 3 is safe, below roughly 1.8 is the danger zone. It was built for manufacturers, so it is not applied to banks and lenders.

Hercules Investments Ltd: the Z-score is not available for this stock, so we say so rather than invent one. It is a distance-to-distress estimate from the balance sheet, not a forecast of failure. The debt, cash-flow and return sections above carry the balance-sheet evidence this page does hold, and each of them states its own reporting date.

The safety line in one sentence: the Z-score is not available for this stock, so we say so rather than invent one.

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