Quess Corp 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.

Quess Corp Ltd trades at ₹348, in a confirmed uptrend and 10 weeks into that stage. That is +29.8% against its own 200-day average. It sits at 88% of a 52-week range of ₹174 to ₹372. On relative strength it has been ahead of the NIFTY 500 on a trailing-13-week view for 24 straight weeks.

Today the stock is in a confirmed uptrend — week 10 of stage 2, confirmed. At ₹348 it trades +29.8% versus its 200-day average and sits at 88% of its 52-week range (₹174–₹372).

Against the market, two honest reads. Cumulative: over the last 10.2 years the stock moved +50% while the NIFTY 500 moved +217% — behind the index over the full window. Recent form: on a trailing-13-week view the stock has been ahead for 24 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

Quess Corp 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: MID_CONTRACTION. Our fortnightly research layers last read it on 22 August 2026.

Our read, 22 August 2026. Quess has a mix-led earnings recovery, but the investment case remains conditional on labor-code completion and cleaner conversion of reported profit into operating profit.

From the numbers. The deterministic engine classifies the earnings curve as expanding and the multiple curve as past its prior peak. The current weekly PE snapshot places the cycle in mid-contraction, while the price curve is in stage 2.…

From the price. Price stage 2, week 10 — above its 200-day line, relative strength rising.

From the research. Quess has a mix-led earnings recovery, but the investment case remains conditional on labor-code completion and cleaner conversion of reported profit into operating profit.

🚨 Where they disagree. The deterministic engine classifies the earnings curve as expanding and the multiple curve as past its prior peak. The current weekly PE snapshot places the cycle in mid-contraction, while the price curve is in stage 2. The deeper read is normalized-cheap because operating margin is at the lower end of history; however, margin direction is flat and the current operating cycle is mid expansion, so the investment case requires delivered margin improvement rather than a valuation-only decision.

What is proven. Quess has a mix-led earnings recovery, but the investment case remains conditional on labor-code completion and cleaner conversion of reported profit into operating profit.

What is not proven yet. If labor-code coverage does not reach completion by early Q3 FY27 and consolidated operating margin remains at or below the latest quarter’s level despite revenue growth, the margin-normalization case is invalidated.

🚨 What would change our mind. If labor-code coverage does not reach completion by early Q3 FY27 and consolidated operating margin remains at or below the latest quarter’s level despite revenue growth, the margin-normalization case is invalidated.

🚨 Layer 1 read, 22 August 2026 — DROP. Profit jumped 61% but a tax refund did most of it — the margin has not moved in three years. The reported quarter looks like a turn and mostly is not one: other income went from Rs 3 crore to Rs 26 crore on a Rs 261 crore tax refund that included Rs 22 crore of interest from earlier years, and Rs 176 crore of the revenue growth is a one-off labour-code pass-through that the company simply passes on to clients. Underneath that, the operating margin was 2.0% — inside the same 1.6% to 2.2% band it has occupied for twelve straight quarters — so the entire investment case depends on a margin recovery to 4.9% that has not started. Management credibility is the third strike: the promised 15,000 net headcount additions turned into a reduction, overseas margin guidance was quietly cut, and…

What would change Layer 1’s mind. One observation flips this to P1: labour-code coverage reaching 100% AND consolidated operating margin printing above 2.1% in the Q2 FY27 result — the two together would convert the normalized-margin bridge from a model into a delivered outcome, which is exactly what twelve quarters of a flat 2% margin have failed to do. The mirror flips it to DROP: coverage slipping past early Q3 for a second time while professional-staffing margin falls below 11% for two consecutive quarters (the timeline own…

The test written in advance. If labor-code coverage does not reach completion by early Q3 FY27 and consolidated operating margin remains at or below the latest quarter’s level despite revenue growth, the margin-normalization case is invalidated. — the thesis as written as stated by the next result.

The test written in advance. Labor-code completion and liability timing — Labor-code completion and liability timing Customer coverage remains below 100% at the early-Q3 FY27 update. by the next result.

The test written in advance. Reported PAT quality — Reported PAT quality Other income remains a material share of pre-tax profit without a recurring explanation. by the next result.

What the company does. Revenue and reported PAT improved in the latest quarter, while professional staffing and overseas operations lift the portfolio mix. The apparent valuation is moderate on trailing earnings but inexpensive on the code-normalized margin bridge; that bridge is not yet a delivered margin outcome. Labor-code coverage, general-staffing execution, and other-income quality are the deciding checks.

🚨 What the surface reading misses. The surface reading is: A mid-range trailing multiple appears neither cheap nor expensive. The research reads it further: The denominator reflects operating margin near the low end of history, which mechanically lowers normalized PE when a historical margin is applied.

🚨 What the surface reading misses. The surface reading is: A 2.0% operating margin indicates a thin-margin business. The research reads it further: The margin includes labor-code pass-through effects and a lower-margin scale business; higher-margin businesses are intended to change mix over time.

Lever 2 · Value-added mix — BUILDING. Professional staffing and overseas operations can lift consolidated profitability if their segment economics persist while the scale business grows. What proves it keeps working: Higher-margin portfolio mix. It stops working if Professional staffing loses its margin range or overseas operations fall below their guided margin path while general staffing remains the sole source of growth.

Lever 12 · New product launch — BUILDING. GCC-linked professional staffing has a higher segment margin and a visible mandate pipeline, although mature GCC hiring is a risk. What proves it keeps working: Professional staffing and GCC conversion. It stops working if New-logo conversion stalls and segment margin falls below the stated range for two quarters.

Lever 10 · New geographies — BUILDING. Japan execution and prospective European agreements may add higher-value staffing revenue without a large capital commitment. What proves it keeps working: Partner-led international corridors. It stops working if No signed agreements or first sales are disclosed over the next two reported quarters.

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.

Quess Corp Ltd reported ₹4,182 Cr of revenue in the Jun 26 quarter, +14.5% year on year. That is the 2nd straight quarter of year-on-year growth. Over 10 years it has compounded at 16.1% a year. The last full year, FY26, came in at ₹15,305 Cr. The last four reported quarters add to ₹15,836 Cr.

Why this happened. Management identified new accounts, open mandates, and festive demand as the near-term volume mechanism. The Operating Leverage Catapult model applies only if incremental volume converts without a matching rise in fixed costs or further margin dilution.

FY26 revenue came in at ₹15,305 Cr (+2.3% on the year), capping 10 years at 16.1% compound. The latest quarter (Jun 26) printed ₹4,182 Cr, +14.5% year on year — the 2nd consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.

Pace check: the last four quarters averaged +5.5% growth against the decade's 16.1% — the current year is running slower than its own long-run rate.

Acceleration check: trailing-twelve-month revenue grew +5.4% over the last 4 quarters against −2.7%/yr over the last 8 — accelerating; TTM profit +416.3% vs −5.3%/yr — accelerating.

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.

Quess Corp Ltd's operating margin is 2.0% in the Jun 26 quarter, +0.1 percentage points against the same quarter a year ago. Across 13 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 1.7% to 6.0%. The current quarter sits inside that band.

Why this happened. Management states that higher-margin businesses account for half of profitability and plans to increase their revenue share over the medium term. This is an application of the Value Chain Climb model: the mix shift matters only when it reaches revenue scale and survives delivery checks.

The latest quarter's operating margin is 2.0%, +0.1 pp against the same quarter a year ago. Across 13 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 1.7%–6.0%.

Why the margin moved: operating margin went +0.1 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.

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

Quess Corp Ltd earned ₹82.0 Cr of net profit in the Jun 26 quarter, +60.8% year on year. Full-year FY26 profit was ₹222 Cr. The 10-year compound rate is 10.6%. That is 2.0% of the quarter's revenue. The same quarter a year earlier earned ₹51.0 Cr. 1 of the last 12 reported quarters were loss-making.

Jun 26 profit was ₹82.0 Cr, +60.8% year on year. On the full year, FY26 printed ₹222 Cr (+382.6%), and the 10-year compound rate is 10.6%.

Why profit moved: revenue contributed +14.5% and the margin +0.1 pp — the quarter was revenue-led, with the margin roughly flat.

Pace comparison, last four quarters: profit +31.3% vs revenue +5.5%. 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.

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 208% of Quess Corp Ltd's reported profit arrived as operating cash — the cash follows the profit. In FY26 that was ₹230 Cr of operating cash against ₹222 Cr of profit. After ₹90.0 Cr of capital spending, ₹140 Cr was left as free cash.

FY26: operating cash of ₹230 Cr against reported profit of ₹222 Cr, leaving free cash of ₹140 Cr after ₹90.0 Cr of capital spending. Across the last 3 fiscal years the conversion rate is 208% 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 208%: the cash cycle tightened 23 days between FY21 and FY26 — cash that used to wait in the cycle now reaches the bank sooner.

Router verdict: no single sink dominates — the next section checks both the working-capital cycle and the capital spending.

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).

Quess Corp Ltd's cash conversion cycle runs 38 days in FY26, down from 61 days in FY21. Capital spending ran ₹−1,284 Cr over the last 3 years. At FY26 sales of ₹15,305 Cr each day of that cycle holds about ₹41.9 Cr, so roughly ₹1,593 Cr sits inside the business at any moment.

FY26: debtors at 38 days (an asset-light business — no inventory to speak of) — for a full cycle of 38 days, tighter than FY21's 61.

In money terms: at FY26 sales of ₹15,305 Cr, each day of the cycle holds about ₹41.9 Cr — so the 38-day loop keeps roughly ₹1,593 Cr sitting inside the business at any moment.

On the investment side: capital spending of ₹−1,284 Cr over the last 3 fiscal years against ₹141 Cr of depreciation — spending at or below maintenance level. Capital work-in-progress stands at ₹2.0 Cr (FY26) — capacity paid for but not yet earning.

The synthesis: neither the cycle nor the build-out is hoarding the cash — the machine is reasonably clean.

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.

Quess Corp Ltd earns a ROCE of 24% in FY26. That is up from a trough of 5% in FY24. A return-on-invested-capital spread against the cost of capital is not computable from what is held here. The wiring behind it is 1.5% net margin on 5.04× asset turns.

FY26 ROCE is 24%, recovered from a FY24 trough of 5% — the full ladder below shows the fall and the climb, undoctored.

Why the return is what it is — the wiring (FY26): 1.5% net margin × 5.04× asset turns × 2.61× balance-sheet leverage ≈ 19.7% on equity. Margin does its share; leverage is a meaningful part of the equation.

The quarterly return curves and the return-on-invested-capital overlay, which only the second data source carries, are not drawn on this page: its two data sources disagree by up to 143% on reported income across 13 comparable periods. A figure two sources cannot agree on is not drawn — the gap is a decision, not missing data.

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.

Quess Corp Ltd carries ₹124 Cr of borrowings against ₹1,166 Cr of equity in FY26, a debt-to-equity of 0.11. Operating profit covers the interest bill 7×. Over 5 years borrowings went from ₹791 Cr to ₹124 Cr. Capital spending ran ₹−1,284 Cr across the last 3 of those years.

FY26: borrowings of ₹124 Cr against equity of ₹1,166 Cr — a debt-to-equity of 0.11. Operating profit covers the interest bill 7×. Over 5 years borrowings went from ₹791 Cr to ₹124 Cr while capital spending ran ₹−1,284 Cr in just the last 3 — the build-out is being paid for out of cash, not debt.

The total-debt and debt-to-equity series, which only the second data source carries, are not drawn on this page: its two data sources disagree by up to 143% on reported income across 13 comparable periods. A figure two sources cannot agree on is not drawn — the gap is a decision, not missing data.

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 cut 7.3 points of Quess Corp Ltd over 8 quarters, the biggest move on the register. That takes foreign institutions to 8.6% of the company. Domestic institutions moved +0.9 points over the same window, to 11.9%. The register is read on the four disclosed classes only; nothing is inferred between filings.

The register over the last two years — Foreign institutions: −7.3 points over 8 quarters to 8.6%; Domestic institutions: +0.9 points over 8 quarters to 11.9%; Promoters: +0.2 points over 8 quarters to 56.8%.

🚨 Why the register moved: foreign institutions drove it (−7.3 points), absorbed on the other side by domestic institutions (+0.9 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.

Quess Corp 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.

Quess Corp Ltd trades at 20.1× P/E, mid-range by its own standards (53rd percentile). Its long-run median P/E is 19.2×, measured across 10.2 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 20.1× is mid-range by its own standards (53rd percentile), against a long-run median of 19.2× measured over 10.2 years of weekly readings. This is a comparison against the stock's own history — not a claim about what it is worth.

Why the multiple sits where it does: over the past year annual EPS moved +381.8% against a +31.6% price move — earnings outran the price, pushing the multiple DOWN its own range.

The price move, decomposed: over 5y, of the −3.9%/yr price move, ~+30.8%/yr came from earnings growth and ~−34.7 pp from the multiple (compressing); over 10y, of the +3.1%/yr price move, ~−0.2%/yr came from earnings growth and ~+3.3 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 unremarkable against its own past, so the story rests on the earnings line underneath it, not the multiple.

The PEG ratio and its quarterly curve, which only the second data source carries, are not drawn on this page: its two data sources disagree by up to 143% on reported income across 13 comparable periods. A figure two sources cannot agree on is not drawn — the gap is a decision, not missing data.

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 25 August 2026 price, Quess Corp Ltd was paying for profit growth of about 10.6% a year. Profit itself has compounded 10.6% a year over the past 10 years. Today the market pays 20.1× P/E, the 53rd percentile of its own 10-year range.

What the two numbers say together. The multiple is unremarkable 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 25 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: 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).

Quess Corp Ltd reads as turning around on its fundamental arc. Turning around — profit growth swung from −82.6% at the trough to +416.3%, a 4-quarter improving streak, ROCE lifting at 24.0%. The read is built from 8 quarters across 4 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.

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.

4-Factor Sector Score

73.0/100 — rank 1 of 4 in Facility Management · 79% evidence confidence

Quess Corp Ltd scores 73.0 out of 100 against the 4 companies it is compared with in Facility Management, ranking 1. Confirmed research leader: earnings, capital efficiency and relative strength agree. Move to management, catalyst and risk diligence.

The four contributions add to the total exactly: 25 + 17.7 + 10.3 + 20 = 73. 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 Quess Corp 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.

🚨 Labor Code Completion Window Slips · 30 July 2026. In May 2026, management said full client confirmation was expected by Q1 and most likely by the end of Q2. By Jul 2026, it reported that only 68% of customers were covered and extended the possible completion window to early Q3, without explaining the slippage; this creates a timing issue for labor-code liability and associated pass-through revenue recognition.

🚨 Q4 FY26 Headcount Addition Target Missed · 5 May 2026. In the Jan 2026 call closing remarks, management committed to delivering net headcount additions exceeding 15,000 in Q4 FY26 with no new risk factors flagged to execution. However, the May 2026 call revealed total company headcount actually declined from 483,503 at the end of Q3 to 478,594 at year-end - a net reduction of approximately 4,900 associates - representing a swing of roughly 20,000 headcount below the stated target. The explanation of "global factors and supply-side talent shrinkage" was not flagged as a risk in the Jan 2026 call.

🚨 Overseas Business Margin Guidance Downgraded Without Explanation · 5 May 2026. In the Jan 2026 call, management explicitly anchored overseas margins at a steady-state range of 6.5% to 7%. The May 2026 call revealed FY26 overseas EBITDA margins of approximately 6.4%, below the guided range floor, and forward guidance was revised down to "6% plus" - meaningfully reducing the lower bound from 6.5% to just above 6% without any explanation for why the prior steady-state range was no longer achievable.

General Staffing Medium-Term Margin Target Quietly Dropped · 5 May 2026. In the Jan 2026 call, management set an explicit medium-to-long-term EBITDA margin target of 1.8% for General Staffing, above a near-term corridor of 1.5% to 1.6%. In the May 2026 call, when mapping FY27 consolidated margin projections, General Staffing is simply characterized as "a 1.5% EBITDA margin business" with no reference to a path toward 1.8%, implicitly resetting the GS margin trajectory that analysts would have embedded in forward models without acknowledgment of the change in target.

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

Frequently asked questions