Power Grid Corporation of India

Consolidated quarterly trend (Screener): Sep-25 sales ₹11,476cr/EBITDA ₹9,055cr/PAT ₹3,566cr; Dec-25 sales ₹12,395cr/EBITDA ₹10,607cr/PAT ₹4,185cr; Mar-26 sales ₹11,666cr/EBITDA ₹5,303cr/PAT ₹4,546cr; Jun-26 sales ₹11,497cr/EBITDA ₹9,430cr/PAT ₹3,598cr. Flag: the Mar-26 quarter's EBITDA margin (about 45%) is far below the 79-86% seen in every other recent quarter even though PAT was the highest of the four - this looks like a one-off accounting item (possibly a provision or depreciation/other-expense adjustment) rather than a genuine operating shift. Not verified - check the Q4 FY26 notes to accounts on the exchange filing before treating that quarter's EBITDA as comparable. On the Q2 FY26 earnings call management reaffirmed FY26 guidance of about ₹28,000cr capex and ₹20,000cr capitalisation, cited an order book of roughly ₹1,52,000cr, and flagged right-of-way and supply-chain delays as execution risks alongside large upcoming opportunities (Brahmaputra basin, HVDC corridors, renewable-energy evacuation).

P/E is reported in a narrow band of roughly 14.6x-16x and P/B around 2.3x-2.5x across sources (Screener, Value Research, Bajaj Broking) - no major outlier to set aside. Why it could look cheap: regulated utilities with falling ROE typically see multiples compress, and this one has fallen alongside the stock's 27% drawdown. Whether it is actually cheap depends on whether the regulator-approved return on equity for future capex (the thing that ultimately sets Power Grid's earnings power) stays at current levels or resets lower - that is a policy variable, not something the current P/E alone answers.

Growth is real but slow: Screener flags 5-year sales growth of only about 3.35% a year, and quarterly sales have been essentially flat in the ₹11,000-12,500cr range for over a year. This is volume-led (new transmission lines coming online, order book of ~₹1,52,000cr) rather than margin-led - margins have if anything been under pressure, with ROE falling from 18.30% (Mar-24) to 15.26% (Mar-26) and ROCE from 12.47% to 8.63% over the same stretch. A commodity-margin story this is not, but a capital-efficiency story that is quietly weakening is.

Debt-to-equity sits around 1.45x-1.48x, which is normal and expected for a regulated, capital-intensive transmission utility that is financed to fund long-lived assets - this is business-model leverage, not distress. The dividend payout ratio is high (Screener cites ~58%), and the TTM dividend of ₹9/share (3.6% yield) has been paid on schedule across first interim, second interim and final tranches for FY26, which is a reasonable proxy that profits are indeed turning into distributable cash. Whether operating cash flow fully covers the capex programme without rising debt is not verified here - check the cash flow statement on Screener before concluding health is unambiguous. The main watch item is business risk (falling ROE/ROCE on new capital) rather than financial/solvency risk.

Promoters are the Government of India, held through the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, at 51.34% (as of June 2026) - unchanged and with a formally declared nil pledge for FY26. Institutions hold about 45.03% and public holders only 3.63%, meaning this is overwhelmingly a government-plus-institutional register with very little free float in individual hands. No specific marquee individual investor is flagged as holding a notable stake in the sources checked - if you were expecting to see a well-known investor's name on this register, it is not there.