Petro Carbon & Chemicals Ltd (PCCL) — share price & stock analysis

Market cap

₹603 Cr

P/E

23.4×

ROE

14.0%

vs own history (since 2024)

3rd pctile

Book value / share

₹79.1

EPS (TTM)

₹10.4

10-yr median P/E

50.1×

Revenue (FY26)

₹577 Cr

Profit after tax (FY26)

₹26 Cr

Weinstein stage

Stage 2 (25 weeks)

Data as of

1 July 2026

3 of the 6 things we track are currently moving the right way — most of the dashboard is turning up.

Where the levels actually stand: ROCE 14% — decent; real debt (1.02× equity); margins mid-band. Momentum says which way things are moving; these say where they are.

Read this number for what it is: it measures the DIRECTION of change, not the quality of the business. A mediocre business getting better scores high here; a great one having a soft quarter scores low. Profit, sales and margins count double.

The price went one way, the profits the other

Since Jul 2024, the stock is down 20% while earnings per share fell 68%. The difference is re-rating — investors paying more for the same rupee of profit.pricettm_eps

That works until it doesn’t: from here, earnings have to do the lifting, because the multiple has already done its part.

Today’s P/E of 23.4× sits near the bottom of its own range — it has been cheaper than this only 3% of the time against its own history since 2024.pe_ratio

One caveat: this history includes FY18, when earnings collapsed and the P/E was sky-high. “Cheapest ever” partly reflects earnings finally normalising, not just a cheap price.net_profit

Price is the weekly close (₹). EPS is trailing-twelve-month profit per share, anchored on Screener's own snapshots; between snapshots it is filled from price ÷ P/E (an exact identity), and any fill straying more than 18% from the neighbouring snapshots is dropped rather than shown. The lower panel is the P/E — what the market pays per rupee of profit; the dotted line is its long-run median (50.1×).

Stage 2: the trend is up, and has been for 25 weeks

Price trends have a life cycle: they base (1), advance (2), top out (3) and decline (4). This chart is in Stage 2: advancing — 25 weeks so far, confirmed.stage

The price sits above its rising 200-day average (₹236 today) — trends like this persist more often than they reverse, which is why the system rides them instead of guessing the top.dma_200

Beating NIFTY 500 for 36 weeks — relative strength is the market’s live opinion, and right now it is on this stock’s side.rs_mansfield

What would end it: two Friday closes in a row below the 200-day line. That is the house exit rule — mechanical, no debates.dma_200

Out of the loss years — profitable again, still below its best

Over 8 years, sales went from ₹226 Cr to ₹577 Cr (about 12% a year), and profit from ₹−1.0 Cr to ₹26.0 Cr.revenuenet_profit

The books show real losses in FY18 (worst: ₹−1.0 Cr). Everything about today’s cheap-looking numbers must be read against that history — the recovery is what you are buying.net_profit

Sales exploded 163% last quarter

Mar 26 sales were ₹316 Cr, up 163% on the same quarter last year.revenue

Margins are widening — 3% → 13% in a year

Of every ₹100 of sales, the company keeps ₹12.5 as operating profit (a year ago it kept ₹3.4).opm_pct

Zoom out and this is the page's quiet hero: annual operating margin bottomed at 2.0% in FY21 and has been rebuilt to 9.5% — that recovery, not sales alone, is what powers the profit growth elsewhere on this page.operating_profit

The gross margin moved the same way (21% → 22%), so this is about input costs and pricing power — the raw-material equation improved.gpm_pctopm_pct

Profit exploded 2,200% — mostly from keeping more of each sale

Mar 26 profit after tax was ₹23.0 Cr, up 2,200% year on year.net_profit

Cash has tracked profit for years — but slipped last year

Over the last 5 profitable years, the business reported ₹130 Cr of profit and collected ₹116 Cr of operating cash — about 89% conversion.operating_cash_flownet_profit

The wrinkle is the latest year: FY26 collected ₹4.0 Cr against ₹26.0 Cr of reported profit — about 15%. One year isn’t a trend, but it is the line to watch.operating_cash_flownet_profit

The gap sits in receivables: customers now take 53 days to pay, up from 32. Profit booked, cash pending.debtor_days

The cash cycle is tightening — money comes home faster

One rupee now takes about 100 days to go out the door as materials and come back as collected cash — down from 123 days the year before.cash_conversion_cycle

The biggest mover: inventory moving faster off the shelf (227 → 83 days).inventory_days

Building hard — new capacity is under construction

The productive asset base has gone from ₹72.0 Cr (FY18) to ₹162 Cr, with another ₹56.0 Cr of capacity under construction right now.fixed_assetscwip

Work-in-progress is 35% of the existing asset base — that is a serious bet on future demand. Capacity like this shows up in sales with a lag; it is tomorrow’s growth being paid for today.cwip

The build is bigger than the cash engine: investing outflows (₹137 Cr) exceeded operating cash (₹115 Cr) over the last 3 years — the difference comes from debt or shareholders.investing_cash_flowoperating_cash_flow

Carrying real debt

For every ₹100 shareholders have put in (and left in), the company has borrowed ₹102 — total borrowings have grown from ₹138 Cr to ₹199 Cr over the window.borrowings

Every ₹100 kept in the business earns ₹14 — decent, not special

Return on capital employed is 14.0% (a year ago: 5.0%). This is the single best test of business quality: what the company earns on the money it keeps.roce_pct

Rising returns on capital while growing is the rarest combination in investing — it means the new projects earn more than the old ones.roce_pct

Institutions have been lightening up

Promoters hold 73.2%, essentially unchanged. Foreign funds own 0.8%, domestic funds 4.0%.promoters_pctfiis_pctdiis_pct

Meanwhile foreign funds have been the sellers — from 3.9% to 0.8% over the window. Someone on the other side of the table disagrees; both sides count.fiis_pct

Strong on the data — worth the deeper look if the story keeps its promises

The numbers lean positive, and the price already assumes the good news continues.

Best thing in the data: profit rising (₹1.0 Cr → ₹23.0 Cr).net_profit

Biggest worry: cash generation falling (₹12.0 Cr → ₹4.0 Cr).operating_cash_flow

One dissent worth hearing: our catalysts lens reads negative — “2 earnings trigger(s): regulatory_approval, product_mix_shift. 3 risk factor(s): Regulatory restriction on capacity (CAQM/NGT), Raw material import ceiling (RPC”. When a lens disagrees with the committee, it is usually pointing at the thing that breaks first.

Machine-written research from Screener data — every number traces to its source column. Sector Alpha is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser; nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell. Not investment advice.

Straight answers from the data