UPL 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.

UPL Ltd trades at ₹604, in a downtrend and 20 weeks into that stage. That is −6.9% against its own 200-day average. It sits at 16% of a 52-week range of ₹565 to ₹805. On relative strength it is currently behind the NIFTY 500 on a trailing-13-week view (26 weeks and counting).

Today the stock is in a downtrend — week 20 of stage 4, confirmed. At ₹604 it trades −6.9% versus its 200-day average and sits at 16% of its 52-week range (₹565–₹805).

Against the market, two honest reads. Cumulative: over the last 10.4 years the stock moved +115% while the NIFTY 500 moved +276% — behind the index over the full window. Recent form: on a trailing-13-week view the stock is currently behind (26 weeks and counting; last ahead the week of 2026-02-20) — 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.

UPL Ltd trades at 28.3× P/E, at the pricey end of its own range (75th percentile). Its long-run median P/E is 21.1×, measured across 10.4 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 28.3× is at the pricey end of its own range (75th percentile), against a long-run median of 21.1× measured over 10.4 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 +114.5% against a −9.1% price move — earnings outran the price, pushing the multiple DOWN its own range.

The price move, decomposed: over 5y, of the −4.9%/yr price move, ~−10.3%/yr came from earnings growth and ~+5.4 pp from the multiple (expanding); over 10y, of the +4.2%/yr price move, ~+4.4%/yr came from earnings growth and ~−0.2 pp from the multiple (roughly flat). 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 full against its own past, so the story rests on the earnings line underneath it, not the multiple.

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).

UPL Ltd reads as mixed on its fundamental arc. Mixed — no clean majority across the growth curves, ROCE lifting at 10.9% — the per-curve reads carry the story. The read is built from 12 quarters across 3 curves, on partial evidence.

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

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

54.2/100 — rank 7 of 24 in Pesticides/Agrochemicals · 90% evidence confidence

UPL Ltd scores 54.2 out of 100 against the 24 companies it is compared with in Pesticides/Agrochemicals, ranking 7. Balanced evidence: keep at normal research priority and require another comparable period before raising conviction.

The four contributions add to the total exactly: 20.6 + 9.3 + 12.5 + 11.8 = 54.2. 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.

UPL Ltd reported ₹18,335 Cr of revenue in the Mar 26 quarter, +17.7% year on year. That is the 8th straight quarter of year-on-year growth. Over 10 years it has compounded at 13.9% a year. The last full year, FY26, came in at ₹51,839 Cr. The last four reported quarters add to ₹51,839 Cr.

FY26 revenue came in at ₹51,839 Cr (+11.2% on the year), capping 10 years at 13.9% compound. The latest quarter (Mar 26) printed ₹18,335 Cr, +17.7% year on year — the 8th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.

Pace check: the last four quarters averaged +10.1% growth against the decade's 13.9% — the current year is running slower than its own long-run rate.

Acceleration check: trailing-twelve-month revenue grew +11.2% over the last 4 quarters against +9.7%/yr over the last 8 — stabilising.

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.

UPL Ltd's operating margin is 19.0% in the Mar 26 quarter, −1.0 percentage points against the same quarter a year ago. Across 13 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 10.0% to 22.0%. The current quarter sits inside that band.

The latest quarter's operating margin is 19.0%, −1.0 pp against the same quarter a year ago. Across 13 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 10.0%–22.0%.

🚨 Why the margin moved: operating margin went −1.3 pp year on year while gross margin went −0.3 pp — the loss 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.

UPL Ltd earned ₹1,294 Cr of net profit in the Mar 26 quarter, +19.9% year on year. Full-year FY26 profit was ₹2,220 Cr. The 10-year compound rate is 8.8%. That is 7.1% of the quarter's revenue. The same quarter a year earlier earned ₹1,079 Cr. 6 of the last 12 reported quarters were loss-making.

Mar 26 profit was ₹1,294 Cr, +19.9% year on year. On the full year, FY26 printed ₹2,220 Cr (+170.7%), and the 10-year compound rate is 8.8%.

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 346% of UPL Ltd's reported profit arrived as operating cash — the cash follows the profit. In FY26 that was ₹7,855 Cr of operating cash against ₹2,220 Cr of profit. After ₹6,914 Cr of capital spending, ₹941 Cr was left as free cash.

FY26: operating cash of ₹7,855 Cr against reported profit of ₹2,220 Cr, leaving free cash of ₹941 Cr after ₹6,914 Cr of capital spending. Across the last 3 fiscal years the conversion rate is 346% 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 346%: the cash cycle stretched 84 days between FY21 and FY26 — more of each rupee of profit waits inside the cycle before arriving.

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).

UPL Ltd's cash conversion cycle runs 135 days in FY26, up from 51 days in FY21. Capital spending ran ₹12,526 Cr over the last 3 years. At FY26 sales of ₹51,839 Cr each day of that cycle holds about ₹142 Cr, so roughly ₹19,173 Cr sits inside the business at any moment.

FY26: debtors at 126 days, inventory at 179 days — roughly 5.9 months of stock waiting to sell; that is where the cash sits while it waits — for a full cycle of 135 days, looser than FY21's 51.

The full loop: cash goes out to suppliers and production on day 0; stock waits 179 days to sell; customers pay about 126 days after that; and suppliers themselves are paid at 169 days — netting out to the 135-day cycle.

In money terms: at FY26 sales of ₹51,839 Cr, each day of the cycle holds about ₹142 Cr — so the 135-day loop keeps roughly ₹19,173 Cr sitting inside the business at any moment.

On the investment side: capital spending of ₹12,526 Cr over the last 3 fiscal years against ₹8,757 Cr of depreciation — building somewhat ahead of wear-and-tear. Capital work-in-progress stands at ₹3,147 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.

UPL Ltd earns a ROCE of 10% in FY26. That is up from a trough of 3% in FY24. Return on invested capital clears the cost of that capital by −4.1 percentage points, so growth here is not yet paying for the capital it uses. The wiring behind it is 4.3% net margin on 0.56× asset turns.

FY26 ROCE is 10%, recovered from a FY24 trough of 3% — the full ladder below shows the fall and the climb, undoctored.

🚨 Why the return is what it is — the wiring (FY26): 4.3% net margin × 0.56× asset turns × 2.68× balance-sheet leverage ≈ 6.5% on equity. Margin does its share; leverage is a meaningful part of the equation.

The capstone test — ROIC − WACC: 7.9% − 12.0% = a −4.1 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. 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.

UPL Ltd carries total debt of ₹23,576 Cr against shareholder equity of ₹41,269 Cr as of Mar 26, a debt-to-equity of 0.57. On the annual view that ratio went from 0.91 in FY22 to 0.57 in FY26. Read the returns elsewhere on this page with that leverage in mind.

Mar 26: total debt of ₹23,576 Cr against shareholder equity of ₹41,269 Cr — a debt-to-equity of 0.57. On the annual view, debt-to-equity went from 0.91 (FY22) to 0.57 (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 8.2 points of UPL Ltd over 8 quarters, the biggest move on the register. That takes foreign institutions to 42.4% of the company. Domestic institutions moved −3.3 points over the same window, to 14.3%. The register is read on the four disclosed classes only; nothing is inferred between filings.

The register over the last two years — Foreign institutions: +8.2 points over 8 quarters to 42.4%; Domestic institutions: −3.3 points over 8 quarters to 14.3%; Promoters: +1.0 points over 8 quarters to 33.5%.

Why the register moved: rotation — foreign institutions +8.2 points against domestic institutions −3.3 points over 8 quarters, with promoters +1.0 points — one class of institutions handing the register to the other, not a verdict change by the people closest to the numbers.

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.

UPL 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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