W S Inds. (WSI)
TurnaroundScore breakdown: P/E: 0/3 · ROCE: 0/2 · Growth: 2/2 · Dividend: 0/1
Key Financials
| Current Price | ₹59.65 |
| Market Cap | ₹452.72 Cr |
| P/E Ratio | 180.76 |
| ROCE | 5.3% |
| ROE | -0.56% |
| Dividend Yield | 0% |
| Profit Growth | 15.8% |
| Debt/Equity | 0.17 |
| Sales Growth | -98.3% |
| Promoter Holding | 51.57% |
| 52-Week Range | ₹53.15 — ₹95 |
| Sector | Construction |
| Book Value | ₹57.93 |
Strengths
- Promoter holding of 51.57% aligns management with public shareholders.
- Debt/equity of 0.44 is moderate, not heavily leveraged for a construction business.
- Piotroski F-score of 6/9 suggests the company is not in acute financial distress.
- Book value of ₹44.75 per share provides an asset base, and P/B of 1.60 is not an extreme speculative premium.
Concerns
- Trailing earnings are negative: P/E is zero, ROE is -0.56%, and the latest quarter showed a net loss of ₹2 crore.
- Revenue collapsed by 68.64%, with latest quarterly sales of only ₹21 crore.
- ROCE of just 5.30% is below a reasonable cost of capital, and zero dividend gives no compensation for waiting.
- At ₹71.57, the price is 1.6 times book value for a loss-making business; FairStock Score of 8/100 flags high risk.
AI Analysis
As a value investor, I first ask what a business earns. W S Inds. does not earn anything today: the P/E is effectively zero, ROE is -0.56%, and the latest quarter still lost ₹2 crore on sales of just ₹21 crore. Sales growth has collapsed by 68.64%. That is not the profile of a compounding franchise; it is a cyclical contraction or a company fighting for survival. Construction has never been a great moat business—it is capital-hungry, competitive, and dependent on external cycles and execution. The balance sheet is, at best, moderate: debt/equity of 0.44 and a book value of ₹44.75. But I am being asked to pay ₹71.57, or 1.6 times book, for negative earnings and a ROCE of only 5.30%, which is below what a risk-free fixed income would give me. No dividend means I am not paid to wait. The reported profit growth of 91.92% looks tempting, but when the base is a loss, improvement can be arithmetic, not economic. Promoter holding of 51.57% is a positive alignment signal, and the Piotroski score of 6/9 suggests the company is not financially broken. Still, the FairStock Score of 8/100 matches my verdict: risky. Graham would say price is what you pay, value is what you get. Here I would be paying close to twice book for a business that earns negative returns. I need to see a credible, durable return to profitability before I can treat W S Inds. as a value candidate. For now, it fails my margin-of-safety test.
Data from BSE/NSE filings. AI analysis is for educational purposes only — not investment advice. Scoring methodology · Disclaimer