Bharti Airtel 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.

Bharti Airtel Ltd trades at ₹1,831, in a confirmed uptrend and 4 weeks into that stage. That is −3.6% against its own 200-day average. It sits at 14% of a 52-week range of ₹1,775 to ₹2,163. On relative strength it is currently behind the NIFTY 500 on a trailing-13-week view (3 weeks and counting).

Today the stock is in a confirmed uptrend — week 4 of stage 2. At ₹1,831 it trades −3.6% versus its 200-day average and sits at 14% of its 52-week range (₹1,775–₹2,163).

Against the market, two honest reads. Cumulative: over the last 10.5 years the stock moved +502% while the NIFTY 500 moved +267% — ahead of the index over the full window. Recent form: on a trailing-13-week view the stock is currently behind (3 weeks and counting; last ahead the week of 2026-08-21) — 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.

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.

Bharti Airtel Ltd trades at 36.6× P/E, near the bottom of its own range — cheaper only 18% of the time. Its long-run median P/E is 59.6×, measured across 10.5 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 36.6× is near the bottom of its own range — cheaper only 18% of the time, against a long-run median of 59.6× measured over 10.5 years of weekly readings. This is a comparison against the stock's own history — not a claim about what it is worth.

One caveat before moving on: margins are the best this company has ever printed — cheap against its own history on record margins is not the same thing as cheap. If profitability mean-reverts, today's multiple is higher than it looks.

Why the multiple sits where it does: over the past year annual EPS moved −25.6% against a −3.8% price move — the price outran earnings, pushing the multiple UP its own range.

The price move, decomposed: over 5y, of the +22.1%/yr price move, ~+95.2%/yr came from earnings growth and ~−73.1 pp from the multiple (compressing); over 10y, of the +20.2%/yr price move, ~+17.4%/yr came from earnings growth and ~+2.8 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.

What the price assumes This reading works the multiple backwards. It asks one question: what yearly rate of profit growth is a buyer at the market price already paying for? The number is the growth rate that makes eleven years of profit — six years growing, then five fading — add up to that day's market price, once each year is discounted at 11% a year.

Solved at its 13 June 2026 price, Bharti Airtel Ltd was paying for profit growth of about 19.4% a year. Profit itself has compounded 17.2% a year over the past 10 years. Today the market pays 36.6× P/E, the 18th percentile of its own 11-year range.

What the two numbers say together. The multiple is low against its own past, and the growth the price is paying for is close to what this company has actually delivered.

How to hold this number: it is a reading of one day's price, taken on 13 June 2026, not a running figure — every other number on this page, the multiple included, is read off the live quote as of 11 September 2026. A higher price is paying for more growth and a lower price for less, so it moves whenever the price does, and this page does not restate it between measurements.

Stage: Mixed 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).

Bharti Airtel Ltd reads as mixed on its fundamental arc. Mixed — profit and EPS growth are shrinking while ROCE is still lifting at 19.3% — falling growth against firm returns, so no single stage word fits yet. The read is built from 12 quarters across 4 curves, on full evidence.

Why it matters: when the curves disagree, the per-curve reads above matter more than any single verdict.

4-Factor Sector Score

66.9/100 — rank 2 of 18 in Telecom Services · 93% evidence confidence

Bharti Airtel Ltd scores 66.9 out of 100 against the 18 companies it is compared with in Telecom Services, ranking 2. Balanced evidence: keep at normal research priority and require another comparable period before raising conviction.

The four contributions add to the total exactly: 21.5 + 21.1 + 14.4 + 9.9 = 66.9. 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.

Bharti Airtel Ltd reported ₹58,539 Cr of revenue in the Jun 26 quarter, +18.3% year on year. That is the 12th straight quarter of year-on-year growth. Over 10 years it has compounded at 8.1% a year. The last full year, FY26, came in at ₹2,10,973 Cr. The last four reported quarters add to ₹2,20,049 Cr.

FY26 revenue came in at ₹2,10,973 Cr (+22.0% on the year), capping 10 years at 8.1% compound. The latest quarter (Jun 26) printed ₹58,539 Cr, +18.3% year on year — the 12th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.

Pace check: the last four quarters averaged +19.8% growth against the decade's 8.1% — the current year is running faster than its own long-run rate.

Acceleration check: trailing-twelve-month revenue grew +19.6% over the last 4 quarters against +20.7%/yr over the last 8 — stabilising; TTM profit −9.4% vs +76.0%/yr — rolling over.

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.

Bharti Airtel Ltd's operating margin is 57.0% in the Jun 26 quarter, +1.0 percentage points against the same quarter a year ago. That is the widest this company has ever printed on a full-year basis. Across 13 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 31.0% to 55.0%. The current quarter is running above every full year in that window.

The latest quarter's operating margin is 57.0%, +1.0 pp against the same quarter a year ago. Across 13 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 31.0%–55.0%, and FY26's 55.0% is the top of that band — a record year.

Why the margin moved: operating margin went +0.6 pp year on year while gross margin went +0.0 pp — the gain came mostly below the gross line: operating leverage, with costs spread over a bigger revenue base.

Worth repeating from the valuation section: cheap against its own history on record margins is not the same thing as cheap — a record margin flatters every ratio built on top of it.

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

Bharti Airtel Ltd earned ₹10,012 Cr of net profit in the Jun 26 quarter, +34.9% year on year. Full-year FY26 profit was ₹33,823 Cr. The 10-year compound rate is 17.2%. That is 17.1% of the quarter's revenue. The same quarter a year earlier earned ₹7,422 Cr.

Jun 26 profit was ₹10,012 Cr, +34.9% year on year. On the full year, FY26 printed ₹33,823 Cr (−9.8%), and the 10-year compound rate is 17.2%.

Why profit moved: revenue contributed +18.3% and the margin +1.0 pp — the quarter was revenue-led, with the margin roughly flat.

Pace comparison, last four quarters: profit +17.5% vs revenue +19.8%. Profit and revenue are moving roughly in step.

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 375% of Bharti Airtel Ltd's reported profit arrived as operating cash — the cash follows the profit. In FY26 that was ₹1,22,230 Cr of operating cash against ₹33,823 Cr of profit. After ₹72,519 Cr of capital spending, ₹49,711 Cr was left as free cash.

FY26: operating cash of ₹1,22,230 Cr against reported profit of ₹33,823 Cr, leaving free cash of ₹49,711 Cr after ₹72,519 Cr of capital spending. Across the last 3 fiscal years the conversion rate is 375% 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 375%: the cash cycle held roughly steady between FY21 and FY26 — so conversion tracks profitability rather than the cycle.

Router verdict: the bigger cash user is investment — capital spending ran 1.7× depreciation over three years, so the next section's job is to check what that build-out is buying.

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).

Bharti Airtel Ltd's cash conversion cycle runs 14 days in FY26, up from 13 days in FY21. Capital spending ran ₹2,30,275 Cr over the last 3 years. At FY26 sales of ₹2,10,973 Cr each day of that cycle holds about ₹578 Cr, so roughly ₹8,092 Cr sits inside the business at any moment.

FY26: debtors at 14 days (an asset-light business — no inventory to speak of) — for a full cycle of 14 days, looser than FY21's 13.

In money terms: at FY26 sales of ₹2,10,973 Cr, each day of the cycle holds about ₹578 Cr — so the 14-day loop keeps roughly ₹8,092 Cr sitting inside the business at any moment.

On the investment side: capital spending of ₹2,30,275 Cr over the last 3 fiscal years against ₹1,37,819 Cr of depreciation — the company is building well ahead of wear-and-tear. Capital work-in-progress stands at ₹12,938 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.

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.

Bharti Airtel Ltd earns a ROCE of 18% in FY26. That is up from a trough of 3% in FY19. Return on invested capital clears the cost of that capital by +3.1 percentage points, so growth here adds value rather than only size. The wiring behind it is 16.0% net margin on 0.39× asset turns.

FY26 ROCE is 18%, recovered from a FY19 trough of 3% — the full ladder below shows the fall and the climb, undoctored.

Why the return is what it is — the wiring (FY26): 16.0% net margin × 0.39× asset turns × 3.66× balance-sheet leverage ≈ 22.8% on equity. Margin is doing the heavy lifting; leverage is a meaningful part of the equation.

The capstone test — ROIC − WACC: 15.1% − 12.0% = a +3.1 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. Positive but thin — value creation with little room for error.

Debt Debt-to-equity says how much of the business is funded by borrowings. Low is the safe corner; the trend matters as much as the level.

Bharti Airtel Ltd carries total debt of ₹2,01,480 Cr against shareholder equity of ₹2,00,647 Cr as of Jun 26, a debt-to-equity of 1.00. On the annual view that ratio went from 1.81 in FY22 to 1.00 in FY26. Read the returns elsewhere on this page with that leverage in mind.

Jun 26: total debt of ₹2,01,480 Cr against shareholder equity of ₹2,00,647 Cr — a debt-to-equity of 1.00. On the annual view, debt-to-equity went from 1.81 (FY22) to 1.00 (FY26). Read the returns on this page with that leverage in mind.

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.

Promoters cut 3.1 points of Bharti Airtel Ltd over 8 quarters, the biggest move on the register. That takes promoters to 50.1% of the company. Foreign institutions moved +1.9 points over the same window, to 26.5%. The register is read on the four disclosed classes only; nothing is inferred between filings.

The register over the last two years — Promoters: −3.1 points over 8 quarters to 50.1%; Foreign institutions: +1.9 points over 8 quarters to 26.5%; Domestic institutions: +1.5 points over 8 quarters to 20.6%.

🚨 Why the register moved: promoters drove it (−3.1 points), absorbed on the other side by foreign institutions (+1.9 points) — distribution into the market’s bid.

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.

Bharti Airtel 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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