Prakash Pipes 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.

Prakash Pipes Ltd trades at ₹256, in a downtrend and 76 weeks into that stage. That is +0.4% against its own 200-day average. It sits at 53% of a 52-week range of ₹187 to ₹316. On relative strength it has no relative-strength read yet.

Today the stock is in a downtrend — week 76 of stage 4, confirmed. At ₹256 it trades +0.4% versus its 200-day average and sits at 53% of its 52-week range (₹187–₹316).

Against the market, two honest reads. Cumulative: over the last 2 months the stock moved +22% while the NIFTY 500 moved +2% — ahead of the index over the full window. Recent form: no trailing-13-week read yet — 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 98th 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.

Prakash Pipes Ltd trades at 15.0× P/E, about the priciest it has ever traded. Its long-run median P/E is 9.8×, measured across 6.1 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 15.0× is about the priciest it has ever traded, against a long-run median of 9.8× measured over 6.1 years of weekly readings. This is a comparison against the stock's own history — not a claim about what it is worth.

Put together: the multiple is full 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).

Prakash Pipes Ltd reads as turning around on its fundamental arc. Turning around — profit growth swung from −60.0% at the trough to +30.0%, a 2-quarter improving streak (single-quarter readings), ROCE slipping at 12.0%. 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

34.2/100 — rank 1 of 1 in Plastics - Pipes & Fittings · 69% evidence confidence

Prakash Pipes Ltd scores 34.2 out of 100 against the 1 companies it is compared with in Plastics - Pipes & Fittings, ranking 1. Balanced evidence: keep at normal research priority and require another comparable period before raising conviction.

The four contributions add to the total exactly: 4.1 + 13.2 + 6.8 + 10.1 = 34.2. 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.

Prakash Pipes Ltd reported ₹223 Cr of revenue in the Mar 26 quarter, +21.9% year on year. The last full year, FY26, came in at ₹789 Cr. The last four reported quarters add to ₹788 Cr. A multi-year compound rate is not shown because the annual history behind it is too short to compute one honestly.

Prakash Pipes Ltd reported ₹223 Cr of revenue in the Mar 26 quarter, +21.9% year on year. The last full year, FY26, came in at ₹789 Cr. The last four reported quarters add to ₹788 Cr. A multi-year compound rate is not shown because the annual history behind it is too short to compute one honestly.

FY26 revenue came in at ₹789 Cr (+1.2% on the year). The latest quarter (Mar 26) printed ₹223 Cr, +21.9% year on year.

Acceleration check: trailing-twelve-month revenue grew +1.0% over the last 4 quarters against +8.4%/yr over the last 8 — rolling over; TTM profit −48.8% vs −31.3%/yr — rolling over.

→ Revenue grew — did margins hold as it scaled? Next: 8.0% this quarter (−2.0 pp YoY).

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.

Prakash Pipes Ltd's operating margin is 8.0% in the Mar 26 quarter, −2.0 percentage points against the same quarter a year ago. Across 8 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 8.0% to 16.0%. The current quarter sits inside that band.

Prakash Pipes Ltd's operating margin is 8.0% in the Mar 26 quarter, −2.0 percentage points against the same quarter a year ago. Across 8 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 8.0% to 16.0%. The current quarter sits inside that band.

The latest quarter's operating margin is 8.0%, −2.0 pp against the same quarter a year ago. Across 8 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 8.0%–16.0%.

🚨 Why the margin moved: operating margin went −1.9 pp year on year while gross margin went −2.5 pp — the loss came mostly from the gross line: input costs and pricing.

→ Margins slipped — did that reach the bottom line? Next: profit +30.0% 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.

Prakash Pipes Ltd earned ₹13.0 Cr of net profit in the Mar 26 quarter, +30.0% year on year. Full-year FY26 profit was ₹43.0 Cr. That is 5.8% of the quarter's revenue. The same quarter a year earlier earned ₹10.0 Cr.

Prakash Pipes Ltd earned ₹13.0 Cr of net profit in the Mar 26 quarter, +30.0% year on year. Full-year FY26 profit was ₹43.0 Cr. That is 5.8% of the quarter's revenue. The same quarter a year earlier earned ₹10.0 Cr.

Mar 26 profit was ₹13.0 Cr, +30.0% year on year. On the full year, FY26 printed ₹43.0 Cr (−48.2%).

Why profit moved: revenue contributed +21.9% and the margin −2.0 pp — the quarter was revenue-led despite a thinner margin.

Pace comparison, last four quarters: profit −37.3% vs revenue +1.4%. Profit is growing slower than sales — costs are eating the growth before it reaches the bottom line.

→ Profit rose — but did the cash follow? Next: 99% 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 99% of Prakash Pipes Ltd's reported profit arrived as operating cash — the cash follows the profit. In FY26 that was ₹20.0 Cr of operating cash against ₹43.0 Cr of profit. After ₹35.0 Cr of capital spending, ₹−15.0 Cr was left as free cash.

FY26: operating cash of ₹20.0 Cr against reported profit of ₹43.0 Cr, leaving free cash of ₹−15.0 Cr after ₹35.0 Cr of capital spending. Across the last 3 fiscal years the conversion rate is 99% 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 99%: the cash cycle stretched 28 days between FY21 and FY26 — more of each rupee of profit waits inside the cycle before arriving.

Router verdict: the bigger cash user is investment — capital spending ran 3.3× depreciation over three years, so the next section's job is to check what that build-out is buying.

→ So follow the cash to where it goes. Next: ₹117 Cr of building over 3 years.

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).

Prakash Pipes Ltd's cash conversion cycle runs 62 days in FY26, up from 34 days in FY21. Capital spending ran ₹117 Cr over the last 3 years. At FY26 sales of ₹789 Cr each day of that cycle holds about ₹2.2 Cr, so roughly ₹134 Cr sits inside the business at any moment.

FY26: debtors at 45 days, inventory at 52 days — roughly 1.7 months of stock waiting to sell; that is where the cash sits while it waits — for a full cycle of 62 days, looser than FY21's 34.

The full loop: cash goes out to suppliers and production on day 0; stock waits 52 days to sell; customers pay about 45 days after that; and suppliers themselves are paid at 35 days — netting out to the 62-day cycle.

In money terms: at FY26 sales of ₹789 Cr, each day of the cycle holds about ₹2.2 Cr — so the 62-day loop keeps roughly ₹134 Cr sitting inside the business at any moment.

On the investment side: capital spending of ₹117 Cr over the last 3 fiscal years against ₹36.0 Cr of depreciation — the company is building well ahead of wear-and-tear. Capital work-in-progress stands at ₹18.0 Cr (FY26) — capacity paid for but not yet earning.

The synthesis: the cash is going into capacity, not disappearing into the cycle — the question becomes whether the new capacity earns.

→ Does all this activity actually earn its cost of capital? Next: ROCE is 12% and the ROIC − WACC spread is −0.5 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.

Prakash Pipes Ltd earns a ROCE of 12% in FY26. Return on invested capital clears the cost of that capital by −0.5 percentage points, so growth here is not yet paying for the capital it uses. The wiring behind it is 5.4% net margin on 1.31× asset turns.

FY26 ROCE is 12%.

🚨 Why the return is what it is — the wiring (FY26): 5.4% net margin × 1.31× asset turns × 1.26× balance-sheet leverage ≈ 8.9% on equity. Margin does its share; leverage is modest — this is an earned return, not a borrowed one.

The capstone test — ROIC − WACC: 11.5% − 12.0% = a −0.5 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 0.04.

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.

Prakash Pipes Ltd carries ₹19.0 Cr of borrowings against ₹479 Cr of equity in FY26, a debt-to-equity of 0.04. Operating profit covers the interest bill 22×. Over 5 years borrowings went from ₹2.0 Cr to ₹19.0 Cr. Capital spending ran ₹117 Cr across the last 3 of those years.

FY26: borrowings of ₹19.0 Cr against equity of ₹479 Cr — a debt-to-equity of 0.04. Operating profit covers the interest bill 22×. Over 5 years borrowings went from ₹2.0 Cr to ₹19.0 Cr while capital spending ran ₹117 Cr in just the last 3 — part of the build-out is riding on borrowed money.

→ 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 Prakash Pipes Ltd moved a full percentage point over the last two years — the register is quiet. Foreign institutions moved −0.1 points over the same window, to 0.9%. The register is read on the four disclosed classes only; nothing is inferred between filings.

The register over the last two years — Promoters: +0.2 points over 8 quarters to 44.5%; Foreign institutions: −0.1 points over 8 quarters to 0.9%; Domestic institutions: +0.0 points over 8 quarters to 0.0%.

→ 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.

Prakash Pipes 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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