Zee Entertainment Enterprises 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.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd trades at ₹115, in a confirmed uptrend and 5 weeks into that stage. That is +15.3% against its own 200-day average. It sits at 96% of a 52-week range of ₹73 to ₹116. On relative strength it has been ahead of the NIFTY 500 on a trailing-13-week view for 15 straight weeks.

Today the stock is in a confirmed uptrend — week 5 of stage 2, confirmed. At ₹115 it trades +15.3% versus its 200-day average and sits at 96% of its 52-week range (₹73–₹116).

Against the market, two honest reads. Cumulative: over the last 10.4 years the stock moved −71% while the NIFTY 500 moved +276% — behind the index over the full window. Recent form: on a trailing-13-week view the stock has been ahead for 15 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.

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.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd trades at 39.4× P/E, mid-range by its own standards (69th percentile). Its long-run median P/E is 28.4×, 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 39.4× is mid-range by its own standards (69th percentile), against a long-run median of 28.4× 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 −60.1% against a −1.5% price move — the price outran earnings, pushing the multiple UP its own range.

The price move, decomposed: over 5y, of the −10.8%/yr price move, ~−20.3%/yr came from earnings growth and ~+9.5 pp from the multiple (expanding); over 10y, of the −13.7%/yr price move, ~−10.9%/yr came from earnings growth and ~−2.8 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.

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).

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd reads as mixed on its fundamental arc. Mixed — no clean majority across the growth curves, ROCE slipping at 2.7% — the per-curve reads carry the story. The read is built from 12 quarters across 4 curves, on full evidence.

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

4-Factor Sector Score

36.5/100 — rank 18 of 25 in Entertainment & Media · 90% evidence confidence

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd scores 36.5 out of 100 against the 25 companies it is compared with in Entertainment & Media, ranking 18. Cheap but unconfirmed: require improving earnings before treating the valuation as an opportunity.

The four contributions add to the total exactly: 7.9 + 5.8 + 13.3 + 9.5 = 36.5. 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.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd reported ₹2,025 Cr of revenue in the Mar 26 quarter, −7.3% year on year. Over 10 years it has compounded at 3.4% a year. The last full year, FY26, came in at ₹8,099 Cr. The last four reported quarters add to ₹8,099 Cr.

FY26 revenue came in at ₹8,099 Cr (−2.4% on the year), capping 10 years at 3.4% compound. The latest quarter (Mar 26) printed ₹2,025 Cr, −7.3% year on year.

Pace check: the last four quarters averaged −2.0% growth against the decade's 3.4% — the current year is running slower than its own long-run rate.

Acceleration check: trailing-twelve-month revenue grew −2.4% over the last 4 quarters against −3.2%/yr over the last 8 — stabilising; TTM profit −60.1% vs +38.6%/yr — rolling over.

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.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd's operating margin is −13.0% in the Mar 26 quarter, −27.0 percentage points against the same quarter a year ago. Across 13 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 4.9% to 32.0%. The current quarter is running below every full year in that window.

The latest quarter's operating margin is −13.0%, −27.0 pp against the same quarter a year ago. Across 13 fiscal years the operating margin has ranged 4.9%–32.0%.

🚨 Why the margin moved: operating margin went −26.2 pp year on year while gross margin went +0.0 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.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd posted a net loss of ₹104 Cr in the Mar 26 quarter. Full-year FY26 profit was ₹271 Cr. The 10-year compound rate is −10.5%. That loss is 5.1% of the quarter's revenue. The same quarter a year earlier earned ₹188 Cr. 2 of the last 12 reported quarters were loss-making.

Mar 26 profit was ₹−104 Cr, −155.3% year on year. On the full year, FY26 printed ₹271 Cr (−60.1%), and the 10-year compound rate is −10.5%.

🚨 Why profit moved: revenue contributed −7.3% and the margin −27.0 pp — the quarter was revenue-led despite a thinner margin.

Pace comparison, last four quarters: profit −50.6% vs revenue −2.0%. 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 239% of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd's reported profit arrived as operating cash — the cash follows the profit. In FY26 that was ₹708 Cr of operating cash against ₹271 Cr of profit. After ₹123 Cr of capital spending, ₹585 Cr was left as free cash.

FY26: operating cash of ₹708 Cr against reported profit of ₹271 Cr, leaving free cash of ₹585 Cr after ₹123 Cr of capital spending. Across the last 3 fiscal years the conversion rate is 239% 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 239%: the cash cycle tightened 491 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).

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd's cash conversion cycle runs 78 days in FY26, down from 569 days in FY21. Capital spending ran ₹337 Cr over the last 3 years. At FY26 sales of ₹8,099 Cr each day of that cycle holds about ₹22.2 Cr, so roughly ₹1,731 Cr sits inside the business at any moment.

FY26: debtors at 78 days (an asset-light business — no inventory to speak of) — for a full cycle of 78 days, tighter than FY21's 569.

In money terms: at FY26 sales of ₹8,099 Cr, each day of the cycle holds about ₹22.2 Cr — so the 78-day loop keeps roughly ₹1,731 Cr sitting inside the business at any moment.

On the investment side: capital spending of ₹337 Cr over the last 3 fiscal years against ₹804 Cr of depreciation — spending at or below maintenance level. Capital work-in-progress stands at ₹4.0 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.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd earns a ROCE of 3% in FY26. Return on invested capital clears the cost of that capital by −10.7 percentage points, so growth here is not yet paying for the capital it uses. The wiring behind it is 3.3% net margin on 0.57× asset turns.

FY26 ROCE is 3%.

🚨 Why the return is what it is — the wiring (FY26): 3.3% net margin × 0.57× asset turns × 1.21× balance-sheet leverage ≈ 2.3% on equity. Margin does its share; leverage is modest — this is an earned return, not a borrowed one.

The capstone test — ROIC − WACC: 1.3% − 12.0% = a −10.7 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.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd carries total debt of ₹265 Cr against shareholder equity of ₹11,728 Cr as of Mar 26, a debt-to-equity of 0.02 — effectively unlevered. On the annual view that ratio went from 0.01 in FY22 to 0.02 in FY26. The returns elsewhere on this page are therefore earned rather than borrowed.

Mar 26: total debt of ₹265 Cr against shareholder equity of ₹11,728 Cr — a debt-to-equity of 0.02. On the annual view, debt-to-equity went from 0.01 (FY22) to 0.02 (FY26). The returns on this page are earned, not borrowed.

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.

Domestic institutions cut 14.5 points of Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd over 8 quarters, the biggest move on the register. That takes domestic institutions to 7.8% of the company. Foreign institutions moved +1.2 points over the same window, to 20.1%. The register is read on the four disclosed classes only; nothing is inferred between filings.

The register over the last two years — Domestic institutions: −14.5 points over 8 quarters to 7.8%; Foreign institutions: +1.2 points over 8 quarters to 20.1%; Promoters: +0.0 points over 8 quarters to 4.0%. Note the structure: promoters hold under 20% — this is a widely-held company where institutions, not a family, set the direction.

🚨 Why the register moved: domestic institutions drove it (−14.5 points), absorbed on the other side by foreign institutions (+1.2 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.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises 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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