Polycab India Ltd (POLYCAB) — share price & stock analysis

Market cap

₹1,46,319 Cr

P/E

58.1×

ROE

23.0%

vs own 10-yr valuation

86th pctile

Book value / share

₹798

EPS (TTM)

₹167

10-yr median P/E

41.4×

Revenue (FY26)

₹28,884 Cr

Profit after tax (FY26)

₹2,708 Cr

Weinstein stage

Stage 2 (53 weeks)

Data as of

1 July 2026

5 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 33% — a high-quality engine; effectively no debt; margins at an all-time high. 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, and a quarter of the score comes from our earnings-recovery lens (is the profit cycle turning up off its trough?).

Most of this rally is re-rating, not earnings

Since May 2019, the stock is up 1,531% while earnings per share grew 565%. 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 58.1× means the market is paying up — this is the expensive end of its own history since 2019 (86th percentile).pe_ratio

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 (41.4×).

Stage 2: the trend is up, and has been for 53 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 — 53 weeks so far, confirmed.stage

The price sits above its rising 200-day average (₹8,045 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 58 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

Up in 12 of 12 years — the long arc of a compounder

Over 12 years, sales went from ₹3,986 Cr to ₹28,884 Cr (about 18% a year), and profit from ₹89.0 Cr to ₹2,708 Cr.revenuenet_profit

Margins widened 6.4 points along the way — growth with improving economics.operating_profit

Sales jumped 27% last quarter — growth every single quarter for over 2 years

Mar 26 sales were ₹8,864 Cr, up 27% on the same quarter last year.revenue

That makes 10 quarters of growth in a row — this is a trend, not a blip.revenue

Margins are compressing — 15% → 13% in a year

Of every ₹100 of sales, the company keeps ₹13.1 as operating profit (a year ago it kept ₹14.7).opm_pct

Zoom out and this is the page's quiet hero: annual operating margin bottomed at 10.4% in FY22 and has been rebuilt to 13.9% — that recovery, not sales alone, is what powers the profit growth elsewhere on this page.operating_profit

The gross margin moved the same way (31% → 27%), so this is about input costs and pricing power — the raw-material equation worsened.gpm_pctopm_pct

Profit is treading water

Mar 26 profit after tax was ₹786 Cr, up 7% year on year.net_profit

The profits are real — they turn into cash

Over the last 5 profitable years, the business reported ₹8,757 Cr of profit and collected ₹8,856 Cr of operating cash — about 101% conversion.operating_cash_flownet_profit

One asterisk on that strength: suppliers are being paid 44 days later than a year ago (64 → 108 days). Cash flattered by stretching payables is real cash — but it is borrowed timing, not extra earning power.payable_days

The cash cycle looks tighter — but it is supplier credit doing the work

One rupee now takes about 39 days to go out the door as materials and come back as collected cash — down from 64 days the year before.cash_conversion_cycle

Look inside the improvement, though: suppliers are being paid 44 days later (64 → 108 days), while inventory actually got heavier (86 → 99 days). Supplier credit is funding the cycle — useful, but not the same thing as customers paying faster.payable_daysinventory_days

Building hard — new capacity is under construction

The productive asset base has gone from ₹750 Cr (FY14) to ₹3,740 Cr, with another ₹1,139 Cr of capacity under construction right now.fixed_assetscwip

Work-in-progress is 30% 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 self-funded: the last 3 years' investing outflow (₹4,841 Cr) fits inside the operating cash the business generated (₹6,916 Cr).investing_cash_flowoperating_cash_flow

Almost no debt — this company cannot be killed by a bad year

For every ₹100 shareholders have put in (and left in), the company has borrowed ₹2 — total borrowings have shrunk from ₹458 Cr to ₹236 Cr over the window.borrowings

Every ₹100 kept in the business now earns ₹33 — and the number is rising

Return on capital employed is 33.0% (a year ago: 30.0%). 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

Promoters have trimmed their stake — 3.5 points over 8 quarters

Promoters hold 61.5% (down 3.5 points over 8 quarters). Foreign funds own 18.2%, domestic funds 8.0%.promoters_pctfiis_pctdiis_pct

A falling promoter stake is a red flag until explained — it can be a fund-raise or an exit; the difference matters.promoters_pct

A good business — the question is the price

The numbers are genuinely mixed, and the price already assumes the good news continues.

Best thing in the data: cash generation rising (₹1,809 Cr → ₹3,811 Cr).operating_cash_flow

Biggest worry: domestic-fund holding falling (10.9% → 8.0%).diis_pct

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