Hindustan Foods 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.

Hindustan Foods Ltd trades at ₹618, in a confirmed uptrend and 13 weeks into that stage. That is +12.0% against its own 200-day average. It sits at 86% of a 52-week range of ₹451 to ₹645. On relative strength it has been ahead of the NIFTY 500 on a trailing-13-week view for 11 straight weeks.

Today the stock is in a confirmed uptrend — week 13 of stage 2, confirmed. At ₹618 it trades +12.0% versus its 200-day average and sits at 86% of its 52-week range (₹451–₹645).

Against the market, two honest reads. Cumulative: over the last 10.5 years the stock moved +3,451% while the NIFTY 500 moved +267% — ahead of the index over the full window. Recent form: on a trailing-13-week view the stock has been ahead for 11 straight weeks — 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.

Story check

Hindustan Foods Ltd's story is not scored yet against the markers our research file set on 22 August 2026. Where it sits in its own cycle: Not stated in the research file. Our fortnightly research layers last read it on 22 August 2026.

Our read, 22 August 2026. Five-division contract manufacturer in the utilization-inflection phase: Q1 FY27 delivered record quarterly PAT and FY27 guidance of Rs 200-220 crore was reaffirmed; the PE multiple is near a 10-year low entirely because earnings have grown faster than the stock price.

What is proven. Five-division contract manufacturer in the utilization-inflection phase: Q1 FY27 delivered record quarterly PAT and FY27 guidance of Rs 200-220 crore was reaffirmed; the PE multiple is near a 10-year low entirely because earnings have grown faster than the stock price.

What is not proven yet. If H1 FY27 PAT comes in below Rs 80 crore — well short of the roughly Rs 90 crore needed for the Rs 200 crore full-year run rate — that would show the capacity ramp is not converting to profit at the expected speed, and the FY27 guidance range would need to be reset to FY28. A second signal would be OPM falling below 8.5% for two consecutive quarters, indicating that the polymer cost drag has spread beyond footwear to the broader business.

🚨 What would change our mind. If H1 FY27 PAT comes in below Rs 80 crore — well short of the roughly Rs 90 crore needed for the Rs 200 crore full-year run rate — that would show the capacity ramp is not converting to profit at the expected speed, and the FY27 guidance range would need to be reset to FY28. A second signal would be OPM falling below 8.5% for two consecutive quarters, indicating that the polymer cost drag has spread beyond footwear to the broader business.

Layer 1 read, 22 August 2026 — KEEP. New factories are filling up and profit is growing faster than the share price. Hindustan Foods spent over Rs 700 crore building plants in FY26, taking its factory base from Rs 1,220 crore to Rs 1,800 crore, and those plants are now filling with volume - profit grew 20% on 17% more sales in FY26 and the June 2026 quarter set a record at Rs 43 crore, up 33%. Management has now repeated the same full-year profit promise of Rs 200-220 crore three calls running, and the first quarter is tracking it. The share is on 48 times earnings, near the bottom of its own ten-year range, but only because earnings per share went from about Rs 2.5 to Rs 13.2 while the price rose six-fold - so this is an earnings story I am paying a fair price for, not a bargain.

What would change Layer 1’s mind. First-half FY27 profit landing below Rs 80 crore - which, with Rs 43 crore already banked in Q1, means a September quarter under Rs 37 crore versus Rs 35 crore a year ago - because that would say the new capacity is not converting to profit and the Rs 200 crore year has to be pushed to FY28. Sharper than the timeline's own kill-switch: I would also flip on operating margin printing below 8.5% in the September quarter, since that is the quarter Panipat is supposed to be at peak ice-cream season…

Layer 2 read, 22 August 2026 — ADVANCE. New factories are lifting Hindustan Foods' profit while industry supply is shrinking and investors are still absent. Hindustan Foods printed its highest-ever quarterly profit as commissioned capacity began to fill, and the old aligned sector timeline records a supportive TAILWIND. More importantly, the current capital-cycle block shows SUPPLY_WITHDRAWAL with institutions ABSENT, the strongest external confirmation for a company whose own earnings are turning up.

What would change Layer 2’s mind. Flip ADVANCE to DROP if the billing-model change fails to release working capital and Panipat stays below the timeline's utilization gate while full-year profit guidance is cut.

Layer 3 read, 22 August 2026 — DEPLOY. Record profit earns a starter position, but repeated management slips block full size. Q1 FY27 PAT reached ₹42.8 Cr, up 33% and at a record quarterly level, confirming that new capacity is converting into profit. L3 nevertheless ESCALATES Timeline R2 because cash-flow guidance missed, Panipat slipped and the same capex was described differently; GST-linked inventory and the footwear cost shock remain active.

What would change Layer 3’s mind. Failure to complete the GST billing transition with inventory normalization, plus another miss on H2 footwear profitability, would flip DEPLOY to BENCH; a governance action or unexplained pledge would flip it to DROP.

CIO read, 22 August 2026 — RETAIN. HELD (defended slot) · forward-asymmetry 71/100 · CLEAR_KEEP. Record June profit of about Rs 43 crore is backed by filling new factories and a sector where supply is withdrawing while institutions remain absent. The judged 28% EPS path only just clears the model's 27.6% hurdle, but the depressed rating and early move make this a clear keep.

🚨 What the surface reading misses. The surface reading is: PAT rose from Rs 45 crore in FY22 to a record Rs 149 crore in FY26, implying roughly 35% four-year CAGR. The research reads it further: FY26 EBITDA growth of 20 percent and PAT growth of 29 percent exceeded total-income growth of 17 percent, indicating operating leverage alongside the profit expansion.

🚨 What the surface reading misses. The surface reading is: PE at the 11th percentile of a 10-year range — appears extremely cheap The research reads it further: The low PE is entirely earnings-driven: EPS grew from roughly Rs 2.5 in 2021 to Rs 13.2 TTM while the price rose roughly six times from the 2019 base, compressing the multiple. Normalizing to mid-cycle operating margins (OPM 7.8% versus current 8.9%) raises the effective PE to roughly 51 times — at the 12th percentile of the normalized range. The stock is fairly priced at cycle-adjusted inputs, not statistically cheap.

Lever 1 · Operating leverage — BUILDING. EBITDA growing faster than revenue as Rs 1,800 crore of gross block fills with volume. What proves it keeps working: Operating leverage from commissioned capacity across all five divisions. It stops working if OPM falls below 8.5% for two consecutive quarters, reversing the 200 basis point improvement from the FY22 base and signaling pricing pressure or cost inflation has outrun the operating leverage benefit.

Lever 12 · New product launch — BUILDING. Rs 150 crore signed in first 45 days of FY27; beverage units due December-January before the season. What proves it keeps working: New contract pipeline and beverage commissioning. It stops working if No major contract announcements by Q2 FY27 and the beverage commissioning slips past January, removing both the pipeline conversion and the seasonal beverage contribution from the FY27 narrative.

Sources: our stock research file (22 August 2026) · quarterly results through Jun 26 · the company’s own earnings calls. The story check is re-scored every results season; the record below never changes.

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

Hindustan Foods Ltd reported ₹1,201 Cr of revenue in the Jun 26 quarter, +17.9% year on year. That is the 12th straight quarter of year-on-year growth. Over 7 years it has compounded at 36.1% a year. The last full year, FY26, came in at ₹4,251 Cr. The last four reported quarters add to ₹4,401 Cr.

FY26 revenue came in at ₹4,251 Cr (+16.8% on the year), capping 7 years at 36.1% compound. The latest quarter (Jun 26) printed ₹1,201 Cr, +17.9% year on year — the 12th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.

Pace check: the last four quarters averaged +17.7% growth against the decade's 36.1% — the current year is running slower than its own long-run rate.

Acceleration check: trailing-twelve-month revenue grew +17.6% over the last 4 quarters against +21.1%/yr over the last 8 — rolling over; TTM profit +37.1% vs +28.0%/yr — accelerating.

FY26-Q4. revenue ₹1,117 Cr and profit ₹42 Cr as reported.

FY27-Q1. revenue ₹1,201 Cr and profit ₹43 Cr as reported.

Why-sources: our stock research file (22 August 2026) and the company’s own results for those quarters.

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.

Hindustan Foods Ltd's operating margin is 8.0% in the Jun 26 quarter, +0.0 percentage points against the same quarter a year ago. That is the widest this company has ever printed on a full-year basis. Across 8 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 6.0% to 9.0%. The current quarter sits inside that band.

Why this happened. FY26 EBITDA grew 20% on 17% revenue — operating leverage is confirmed and recurring. With Rs 1,800 crore of gross block commissioned versus Rs 1,220 crore a year earlier, fixed-cost absorption improves each quarter as utilization increases. OPM expanded to around 9% in the latest two quarters before Q1 FY27, compared to roughly 7% in FY22. Home and personal care ran at maximum capacity in Q1 FY27, confirming utilization is not the constraint in all divisions.

The latest quarter's operating margin is 8.0%, +0.0 pp against the same quarter a year ago. Across 8 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 6.0%–9.0%, and FY26's 9.0% is the top of that band — a record year.

Why the margin moved: operating margin went +0.4 pp year on year while gross margin went +0.7 pp — the gain came mostly from the gross line: input costs and pricing.

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.

FY26-Q4. revenue ₹1,117 Cr and profit ₹42 Cr as reported.

FY27-Q1. revenue ₹1,201 Cr and profit ₹43 Cr as reported.

Why-sources: our stock research file (22 August 2026) and the company’s own results for those quarters.

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

Hindustan Foods Ltd earned ₹43.0 Cr of net profit in the Jun 26 quarter, +34.4% year on year. It is the 7th consecutive quarter of growth. Full-year FY26 profit was ₹149 Cr. The 7-year compound rate is 43.3%. That is 3.6% of the quarter's revenue. The same quarter a year earlier earned ₹32.0 Cr.

Jun 26 profit was ₹43.0 Cr, +34.4% year on year — the 7th consecutive quarter of growth. On the full year, FY26 printed ₹149 Cr (+29.6%), and the 7-year compound rate is 43.3%.

Why profit moved: revenue contributed +17.9% and the margin +0.0 pp — the quarter was revenue-led, with the margin roughly flat.

Pace comparison, last four quarters: profit +38.1% vs revenue +17.7%. 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.

FY26-Q4. revenue ₹1,117 Cr and profit ₹42 Cr as reported.

FY27-Q1. revenue ₹1,201 Cr and profit ₹43 Cr as reported.

Why-sources: our stock research file (22 August 2026) and the company’s own results for those quarters.

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 85% of Hindustan Foods Ltd's reported profit arrived as operating cash — the cash follows the profit. In FY26 that was ₹100 Cr of operating cash against ₹149 Cr of profit. After ₹381 Cr of capital spending, ₹−281 Cr was left as free cash.

FY26: operating cash of ₹100 Cr against reported profit of ₹149 Cr, leaving free cash of ₹−281 Cr after ₹381 Cr of capital spending. Across the last 3 fiscal years the conversion rate is 85% 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 85%: the cash cycle stretched 70 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 4.4× 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).

Hindustan Foods Ltd's cash conversion cycle runs 68 days in FY26, up from −2 days in FY21. Capital spending ran ₹998 Cr over the last 3 years. At FY26 sales of ₹4,251 Cr each day of that cycle holds about ₹11.6 Cr, so roughly ₹792 Cr sits inside the business at any moment.

Why this happened. Panipat was commissioned in April 2026 with 20,000-ton annual capacity, adding roughly 50% volume versus the FY26 ice cream base of 35,000-40,000 tons. Q1 FY27 delivered strong summer ice cream output with Panipat contributing alongside Nashik. The first full summer season contribution for Panipat comes in Q2 FY27 (July-September), which is when utilization is expected to be highest. Backward integration via cone and stick manufacturing lowers input costs and enables new customer relationships beyond the contract manufacturing base.

FY26: debtors at 22 days, inventory at 131 days — roughly 4.3 months of stock waiting to sell; that is where the cash sits while it waits — for a full cycle of 68 days, looser than FY21's −2.

The full loop: cash goes out to suppliers and production on day 0; stock waits 131 days to sell; customers pay about 22 days after that; and suppliers themselves are paid at 86 days — netting out to the 68-day cycle.

In money terms: at FY26 sales of ₹4,251 Cr, each day of the cycle holds about ₹11.6 Cr — so the 68-day loop keeps roughly ₹792 Cr sitting inside the business at any moment.

On the investment side: capital spending of ₹998 Cr over the last 3 fiscal years against ₹225 Cr of depreciation — the company is building well ahead of wear-and-tear. Capital work-in-progress stands at ₹150 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.

Hindustan Foods Ltd earns a ROCE of 14% in FY26. Return on invested capital clears the cost of that capital by −2.2 percentage points, so growth here is not yet paying for the capital it uses. The wiring behind it is 3.5% net margin on 1.34× asset turns.

FY26 ROCE is 14%.

🚨 Why the return is what it is — the wiring (FY26): 3.5% net margin × 1.34× asset turns × 2.72× balance-sheet leverage ≈ 12.8% on equity. Margin does its share; leverage is a meaningful part of the equation.

The capstone test — ROIC − WACC: 9.8% − 12.0% = a −2.2 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.

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.

Hindustan Foods Ltd carries total debt of ₹1,088 Cr against shareholder equity of ₹1,165 Cr as of Mar 26, a debt-to-equity of 0.93. On the annual view that ratio went from 1.15 in FY22 to 0.93 in FY26. Read the returns elsewhere on this page with that leverage in mind.

Mar 26: total debt of ₹1,088 Cr against shareholder equity of ₹1,165 Cr — a debt-to-equity of 0.93. On the annual view, debt-to-equity went from 1.15 (FY22) to 0.93 (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.

Foreign institutions added 2.8 points of Hindustan Foods Ltd over 8 quarters, the biggest move on the register. That takes foreign institutions to 5.9% of the company. Promoters moved −2.0 points over the same window, to 61.8%. The register is read on the four disclosed classes only; nothing is inferred between filings.

The register over the last two years — Foreign institutions: +2.8 points over 8 quarters to 5.9%; Promoters: −2.0 points over 8 quarters to 61.8%; Domestic institutions: +1.2 points over 8 quarters to 14.7%.

Why the register moved: foreign institutions drove it (+2.8 points), absorbed on the other side by promoters (−2.0 points) — steady accumulation by institutions reading the same numbers this page reads.

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.

Hindustan Foods 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.

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.

Hindustan Foods Ltd trades at 46.3× P/E, near the bottom of its own range — cheaper only 13% of the time. Its long-run median P/E is 69.9×, measured across 6.8 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 46.3× is near the bottom of its own range — cheaper only 13% of the time, against a long-run median of 69.9× measured over 6.8 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 +27.1% against a +16.0% price move — earnings outran the price, pushing the multiple DOWN its own range.

The price move, decomposed: over 5y, of the +8.4%/yr price move, ~+27.3%/yr came from earnings growth and ~−18.9 pp from the multiple (compressing). 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 24 August 2026 price, Hindustan Foods Ltd was paying for profit growth of about 27.6% a year. Profit itself has compounded 43.3% a year over the past 7 years. Today the market pays 46.3× P/E, the 13th percentile of its own 7-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 below what this company has actually delivered.

How to hold this number: it is a reading of one day's price, taken on 24 August 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: Consistent 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).

Hindustan Foods Ltd reads as consistent on its fundamental arc. Consistent — revenue, profit and EPS growth have stayed positive through the window, with ROCE at 15.3% and holding. The read is built from 12 quarters across 4 curves, on full evidence.

Why it matters: steady curves with healthy returns are the compounding setup — the risk is the price, not the business.

4-Factor Sector Score

70.3/100 — rank 2 of 4 in FMCG - Contract Mfg · 97% evidence confidence

Hindustan Foods Ltd scores 70.3 out of 100 against the 4 companies it is compared with in FMCG - Contract Mfg, 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: 24.7 + 10 + 17.5 + 18.1 = 70.3. 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.

Said versus delivered

What Hindustan Foods Ltd's management promised, set against what actually arrived — 4 tracked promises on the record. Read straight from the company’s own earnings calls. A promise that slipped stays on this page after it is met.

Reclassification of FY27 Capex Pipeline · 5 August 2026. In May 2026, management described approximately INR150 crores as new projects already signed for FY27. In August 2026, management instead described the same INR150 crores as projects carried forward from FY26, with INR190 crores characterized as the additional FY27 investment. Management did not reconcile this change in the timing or classification of the previously announced capex, which could affect assumptions about FY27 capacity commissioning and growth.

Footwear Margin and Risk Narrative Reversal · 22 May 2026. In the Nov 2025 and Feb 2026 calls, management expressed significant confidence in the footwear business, asserting that the worst was behind them and the complex operations had stabilized. However, in the May 2026 call, they revealed that the division was severely impacted by a 50% to 60% surge in polymer prices and rising subcontracting costs, impacting the performance and P&L in both Q4 FY26 and Q1 FY27.

Full-Year Cash Flow Projections Not Met · 22 May 2026. During the Feb 2026 call, the company confirmed that a full-year operating cash flow of over INR 200 crores was a fair assumption, expecting the second half of FY26 to perform better than the first half. In the May 2026 call, management admitted that the final cash flow results were less than satisfactory due to high working capital deployment and inventory build-up.

Panipat Project Ramp-up Delay · 11 February 2026. In the November 2025 call, management committed to starting commercial production at the Panipat facility in Q4 FY26, with the capacity being fully ramped up by Q1 FY27. However, during the February 2026 call, management acknowledged that while production might begin soon, the full ramp-up of this asset will now realistically occur only in FY28. Earlier call (Nov 2025): “In terms of the Panipat facility... we expect to start commercial production by Q4 of this financial year... the capacity will be fully ramped up by Q1 of next financial year.” Later call (Feb 2026): “We are aware that the full ramp-up of those assets will likely happen in FY28. ... Panipat production begins in Q1 FY27.”

Every quote above is taken word for word from the company’s own earnings calls.

Frequently asked questions