Interactive Encyclopedia

Fundamental Analysis

How to read a business through its statements and ratios. Expand a ratio and change the numbers — the calculator updates live. Framework, never a recommendation.

Financial Statements

The three statements every analyst learns to read together.

Balance Sheet

A snapshot of what a company owns (assets) and owes (liabilities) plus shareholders' equity, at a point in time. The core identity is Assets = Liabilities + Equity.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Income Statement (P&L)

Revenue minus expenses over a period, ending in net profit. It shows whether the business is profitable and how its margins evolve over time.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Cash Flow Statement

Tracks actual cash from operating, investing and financing activities — often more revealing than accounting profit, since cash is harder to massage.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Notes to Accounts

The fine print: accounting policies, contingent liabilities and related-party deals — where much of the real story is often hidden.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Annual Report Reading

How to navigate the management discussion, auditor's report and segment data to actually understand a business beyond the headline numbers.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Key Ratios

Numbers that compress profitability, efficiency, leverage and valuation. Expand any ratio and edit the inputs — it recalculates live.

ROE (Return on Equity)

Net Profit ÷ Shareholder Equity — the profit generated per rupee of owners' capital. It is best understood through the DuPont breakdown: net margin × asset turnover × leverage.

DuPont decomposition:

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

ROCE (Return on Capital Employed)

EBIT ÷ Capital Employed. It measures returns on all capital (debt + equity), useful for comparing capital-intensive businesses on a level field.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

PE (Price to Earnings)

Price ÷ Earnings per share — the rupees paid per rupee of annual profit. It is a relative gauge, meaningful only versus peers and the company's own history.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

PB (Price to Book)

Price ÷ Book Value per share. Common for banks and asset-heavy businesses where book value is meaningful.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

PEG

PE ÷ earnings growth rate — it puts the PE 'in context' of growth, so a high PE may look less extreme once growth is considered.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Debt / Equity

Total debt ÷ equity — a leverage and solvency gauge. Higher values describe higher financial risk and bigger interest obligations.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Current Ratio

Current Assets ÷ Current Liabilities — a short-term liquidity check on whether near-term obligations are comfortably covered.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Interest Coverage

EBIT ÷ Interest expense — how comfortably operating profit covers interest. Low coverage is a classic stress signal.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Operating Margin

Operating profit ÷ Revenue — core profitability before financing and tax, and a gauge of pricing power and cost control.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Valuation Concepts

Frameworks for thinking about what a business may be worth.

DCF Concepts

Discounted Cash Flow values a business as the present value of its future free cash flows. It is highly sensitive to the growth and discount-rate assumptions you feed it.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Relative Valuation

Valuing via multiples (PE, EV/EBITDA) against comparable companies rather than absolute cash flows — quick, but only as good as the peer set.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Economic Moat

A durable competitive advantage — brand, network effects, cost edge or switching costs — that protects a company's returns over time.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Intrinsic Value

An estimate of what a business is 'really' worth, independent of its current market price — the anchor of value investing.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Margin of Safety

The buffer between an estimate of value and the price paid, meant to absorb error and bad luck. A risk idea, not a price target.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Qualitative Analysis

The non-numeric judgement that surrounds the numbers.

Sector & Industry Analysis

Understanding the structure, cyclicality and competitive forces (e.g. Porter's Five Forces) that shape a whole group of companies.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Business Analysis

How the company actually makes money — its products, customers, pricing power and unit economics.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Management Analysis

Assessing the leadership's capital-allocation track record, compensation and candour with shareholders.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Corporate Governance

Board independence, promoter pledging, related-party transactions and audit quality — the guardrails on how a company is run.

Educational explanation only — not a signal, recommendation, target or stop loss.

Academic Analysis Only

These are academic explanations and generic calculators that compute ratios from numbers you enter — not valuation opinions, recommendations or target prices for any security. We are not SEBI registered investment advisers or research analysts. Consult a SEBI registered professional before investing.