Z F Steering Gear (India) 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.

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd trades at ₹769, in a downtrend and 81 weeks into that stage. That is +1.1% against its own 200-day average. It sits at 36% of a 52-week range of ₹624 to ₹1,026. On relative strength it has been ahead of the NIFTY 500 on a trailing-13-week view for 1 straight week.

Today the stock is in a downtrend — week 81 of stage 4, confirmed. At ₹769 it trades +1.1% versus its 200-day average and sits at 36% of its 52-week range (₹624–₹1,026).

Against the market, two honest reads. Cumulative: over the last 10.5 years the stock moved −36% while the NIFTY 500 moved +267% — behind the index over the full window. Recent form: on a trailing-13-week view the stock has been ahead for 1 straight week — 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.

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd trades at 34.4× P/E, mid-range by its own standards (69th percentile). Its long-run median P/E is 23.2×, measured across 10.5 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 34.4× is mid-range by its own standards (69th percentile), against a long-run median of 23.2× measured over 10.5 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 +3.2% against a −28.6% price move — earnings outran the price, pushing the multiple DOWN its own range.

The price move, decomposed: over 5y, of the +11.0%/yr price move, ~−14.5%/yr came from earnings growth and ~+25.5 pp from the multiple (expanding); over 10y, of the −6.8%/yr price move, ~−1.8%/yr came from earnings growth and ~−5.0 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 full 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 13 June 2026 price, Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd was paying for profit growth of about 29.7% a year. Profit itself has compounded −7.1% a year over the past 10 years. Today the market pays 34.4× P/E, the 69th percentile of its own 11-year range.

What the two numbers say together. The multiple is full against its own past, and the growth the price is paying for is above what this company has actually delivered.

How to hold this number: it is a reading of one day's price, taken on 13 June 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).

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd reads as turning around on its fundamental arc. Turning around — EPS growth swung from −66.3% at the trough to +55.8%, a 3-quarter improving streak, ROCE holding at 6.0%. 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.

The latest quarter’s profit carries a one-off item larger than the operating base, so the profit curve is shown but does not vote in the stage call.

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

41.1/100 — rank 4 of 7 in Auto Ancillaries - Gears · 81% evidence confidence

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd scores 41.1 out of 100 against the 7 companies it is compared with in Auto Ancillaries - Gears, ranking 4. Balanced evidence: keep at normal research priority and require another comparable period before raising conviction.

The four contributions add to the total exactly: 17.1 + 7.8 + 10 + 6.2 = 41.1. 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.

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd reported ₹143 Cr of revenue in the Jun 26 quarter, +7.5% year on year. That is the 7th straight quarter of year-on-year growth. Over 10 years it has compounded at 3.0% a year. The last full year, FY26, came in at ₹571 Cr. The last four reported quarters add to ₹581 Cr.

FY26 revenue came in at ₹571 Cr (+15.6% on the year), capping 10 years at 3.0% compound. The latest quarter (Jun 26) printed ₹143 Cr, +7.5% year on year — the 7th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.

Pace check: the last four quarters averaged +16.2% growth against the decade's 3.0% — the current year is running faster than its own long-run rate.

Acceleration check: trailing-twelve-month revenue grew +16.4% over the last 4 quarters against +9.5%/yr over the last 8 — accelerating; TTM profit +66.7% vs −40.2%/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.

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd's operating margin is 9.0% in the Jun 26 quarter, −5.0 percentage points against the same quarter a year ago. Across 13 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 9.0% to 21.0%. The current quarter sits inside that band.

The latest quarter's operating margin is 9.0%, −5.0 pp against the same quarter a year ago. Across 13 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 9.0%–21.0%.

🚨 Why the margin moved: operating margin went −4.3 pp year on year while gross margin went +1.0 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.

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd earned ₹11.0 Cr of net profit in the Jun 26 quarter, +57.1% year on year. Full-year FY26 profit was ₹12.0 Cr. The 10-year compound rate is −7.1%. That is 7.7% of the quarter's revenue. The same quarter a year earlier earned ₹7.0 Cr. 3 of the last 12 reported quarters were loss-making.

Jun 26 profit was ₹11.0 Cr, +57.1% year on year. On the full year, FY26 printed ₹12.0 Cr (−7.7%), and the 10-year compound rate is −7.1%.

Why profit moved: revenue contributed +7.5% and the margin −5.0 pp — the quarter was revenue-led despite a thinner margin.

Pace comparison, last four quarters: profit −97.6% vs revenue +16.2%. Profit is growing slower than sales — costs are eating the growth before it reaches 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 251% of Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd's reported profit arrived as operating cash — the cash follows the profit. In FY26 that was ₹98.0 Cr of operating cash against ₹12.0 Cr of profit. After ₹85.0 Cr of capital spending, ₹13.0 Cr was left as free cash.

FY26: operating cash of ₹98.0 Cr against reported profit of ₹12.0 Cr, leaving free cash of ₹13.0 Cr after ₹85.0 Cr of capital spending. Across the last 3 fiscal years the conversion rate is 251% 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 251%: the cash cycle tightened 87 days between FY21 and FY26 — cash that used to wait in the cycle now reaches the bank sooner.

Router verdict: the bigger cash user is investment — capital spending ran 2.1× 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).

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd's cash conversion cycle runs 77 days in FY26, down from 164 days in FY21. Capital spending ran ₹257 Cr over the last 3 years. At FY26 sales of ₹571 Cr each day of that cycle holds about ₹1.6 Cr, so roughly ₹120 Cr sits inside the business at any moment.

FY26: debtors at 64 days, inventory at 73 days — roughly 2.4 months of stock waiting to sell; that is where the cash sits while it waits — for a full cycle of 77 days, tighter than FY21's 164.

The full loop: cash goes out to suppliers and production on day 0; stock waits 73 days to sell; customers pay about 64 days after that; and suppliers themselves are paid at 61 days — netting out to the 77-day cycle.

In money terms: at FY26 sales of ₹571 Cr, each day of the cycle holds about ₹1.6 Cr — so the 77-day loop keeps roughly ₹120 Cr sitting inside the business at any moment.

On the investment side: capital spending of ₹257 Cr over the last 3 fiscal years against ₹124 Cr of depreciation — the company is building well ahead of wear-and-tear. Capital work-in-progress stands at ₹68.0 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.

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd earns a ROCE of 6% in FY26. That is up from a trough of 1% in FY20. Return on invested capital clears the cost of that capital by −9.6 percentage points, so growth here is not yet paying for the capital it uses.

FY26 ROCE is 6%, recovered from a FY20 trough of 1% — the full ladder below shows the fall and the climb, undoctored.

🚨 Why the return is what it is — the wiring (FY26): 2.1% net margin × 0.85× asset turns × 1.40× balance-sheet leverage ≈ 2.5% on equity. Margin does its share; leverage is modest — this is an earned return, not a borrowed one.

The capstone test — ROIC − WACC: 2.4% − 12.0% = a −9.6 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; interest cover says how many times operating profit pays the interest bill. Low and high, respectively, is the safe corner.

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd carries ₹106 Cr of borrowings against ₹481 Cr of equity in FY26, a debt-to-equity of 0.22. Operating profit covers the interest bill 9×. Over 5 years borrowings went from ₹32.0 Cr to ₹106 Cr. Capital spending ran ₹257 Cr across the last 3 of those years.

FY26: borrowings of ₹106 Cr against equity of ₹481 Cr — a debt-to-equity of 0.22. Operating profit covers the interest bill 9×. Over 5 years borrowings went from ₹32.0 Cr to ₹106 Cr while capital spending ran ₹257 Cr in just the last 3 — part of the build-out is riding on borrowed money.

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.

Promoters cut 4.4 points of Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd over 8 quarters, the biggest move on the register. That takes promoters to 62.8% of the company. Domestic institutions moved +0.0 points over the same window, to 0.0%. The register is read on the four disclosed classes only; nothing is inferred between filings.

The register over the last two years — Promoters: −4.4 points over 8 quarters to 62.8%; Domestic institutions: +0.0 points over 8 quarters to 0.0%.

🚨 Why the register moved: promoters drove it (−4.4 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.

Z F Steering Gear (India) Ltd: the Z-score reads 4.78. A Z-score above roughly 3 reads as safe and below roughly 1.8 as the distress zone, so this sits well clear of distress. It is a distance-to-distress estimate from the balance sheet, not a forecast of failure.

Why it matters: a Z-score of 4.78 sits well clear of the distress zone — the balance sheet is not the risk here.

The safety line in one sentence: the Z-score reads 4.78.

Frequently asked questions