The Q1 Report Card: Which Stars Are Fading and Which Are Ready to Shine?

There are many reasons why stock prices move.

However, if there is a significant movement in share price during this time of the year, it is more likely due to the performance of the company during the June quarter.

It is the first quarter of the financial year and often, sets the tone for the rest of the year.

So, today, let us have a look at 10 stocks from the BSE 500 universe that have reported the best combination of topline as well as bottom line growth.

The key term here is the best combination of topline and bottomline growth.

To put it differently, if a company has reported a very strong topline growth but an average or below average bottomline growth, it will not be considered part of this list.

Likewise, a very good bottomline growth but a mediocre or below average topline growth will also keep the company out of this list.

The stock will have to have a combination of both the topline as well as the bottomline growth, which is among the top 10% of the BSE 500 universe.

So, for e.g. if a company has the 5th highest topline growth among all the BSE500 companies and 50th highest bottomline, then there is a strong chance it will be a part of the list of the top 10 companies.

But if a company has the 10th highest topline growth but is ranked 100th on the bottomline growth, it may not get into the top 10 rankings.

With the classification out of the way, here are the top 10 companies that have the best combined rankings of year on year (YoY) topline growth as well as bottomline growth for the quarter ended June 2025.

Company Name	Sales growth (% YoY)	PAT growth (%YoY)
Laurus Labs Ltd.	31.40%	1203.10%
Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Ltd.	92.50%	663.00%
Signatureglobal (India) Ltd.	116.10%	408.80%
Maharashtra Scooters Ltd.	279.10%	328.10%
Chalet Hotels Ltd.	147.80%	234.80%
Coforge Ltd.	56.50%	138.30%
Capri Global Capital Ltd.	37.80%	131.00%
Navin Fluorine International Ltd.	38.50%	128.80%
Sarda Energy & Minerals Ltd.	77.90%	118.50%
Bajaj Holdings & Investment Ltd.	153.50%	116.50%

Source: ACE Equity, Equitymaster

Laurus Labs has recorded the highest bottomline growth of 13x versus a topline growth of 31%. Its topline growth has been good but bottomline growth has been exceptional, perhaps on account of the low base effect.

Up next is Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy followed by Signature Global, Maharashtra Scooters, Chalet Hotels, Coforge, Capri Global Capital, Navin Fluorine, Sarda Energy, and Bajaj Holdings completing the list.

The median topline growth of this group is 85% whereas their median bottomline growth is 186% or almost 3x.

Here's how their share price has done over the last 3 months. The BSE500 has remained more or less flat over the previous 3 months.

With the exception of Signature Global, all the other stocks have managed to outperform the BSE500 index.

Company Name	% Gains in 3 Months
Laurus Labs Ltd.	40.10%
Maharashtra Scooters Ltd.	35.60%
Sarda Energy & Minerals Ltd.	28.20%
Bajaj Holdings & Investment Ltd.	19.00%
Capri Global Capital Ltd.	13.20%
Chalet Hotels Ltd.	8.80%
Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Ltd.	7.40%
Navin Fluorine International Ltd.	5.70%
Coforge Ltd.	3.50%
Signatureglobal (India) Ltd.	-1.70%

Source: ACE Equity, Equitymaster

The top gainer has been Laurus Labs whose share price has seen an impressive 40% jump, followed closely by Maharashtra Scooters, recording 36% growth in share price.

Now, there are some stocks which are best valued from a price to book value perspective and there are some stocks best analysed form a price to earnings or PE perspective.

Here are the stocks that I believe can be best valued from a price to book value perspective.

Company Name	5 yr PBV upside	10 yr PBV upside
Maharashtra Scooters Ltd.	-40.70%	109.30%
Capri Global Capital Ltd.	80.70%	16.70%
Signatureglobal (India) Ltd.	-5.90%	-5.90%
Chalet Hotels Ltd.	-14.80%	-16.90%
Bajaj Holdings & Investment Ltd.	-32.50%	-36.70%

Source: ACE Equity, Equitymaster

What does this table tell you? It tells me that the majority of the stocks are trading at a premium to their 5-year as well as 10-year price to book values.

For e.g., Maharashtra Scooters is trading at a 50% discount to its 10-year price to book value and hence, if the stock is worth its 10-year average price to book, the expected upside would be potentially 109% from the current levels.

Likewise, Capri Global potentially has a 17% upside. Bajaj Holdings actually has a 37% potential downside. In other words, it is already trading at a significant premium to its 10-year average price to book value.

To be honest, Capri Global Capital is the only stock on this list which has a potential upside of 81% or 17% if its price to book value has to go back to its 5-year or 10-year average respectively.

Maharashtra Scooters also has a potential upside (109%) but that is misleading. A change in accounting policy has led to the PBV ratio before March 2017 being rendered meaningless.

So, if one ignores the 10-year upside and focuses only on the 5-year upside, the potential downside is a negative 41%.

Capri Global Capital's strong financial performance in recent years is largely due to its strategic focus on high-growth retail lending segments. The company has aggressively expanded its Assets Under Management (AUM) by diversifying into key areas like MSME loans, gold loans, and affordable housing finance.

This expansion has been supported by a robust branch network growth and technology-led processes, which have enhanced efficiency and customer reach.

Additionally, its focus on co-lending arrangements with banks and a strong capital base, augmented by recent fundraises, have provided the necessary fuel for this rapid, sustained growth.

Therefore, there's maybe a case for an investor to take a more detailed look at Capri Global and its business model. For the other four stocks however, the risk reward does not seem to be in favour of the investor.

Let us now look at the other five stocks and see whether there's any chance of any upside potential in them.

Company Name	5 yr PE upside	10 yr PE upside
Coforge Ltd.	1.90%	-27.80%
Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Ltd.	-19.20%	-32.50%
Navin Fluorine International Ltd.	-5.80%	-36.60%
Laurus Labs Ltd.	-35.10%	-47.90%
Sarda Energy & Minerals Ltd.	-39.10%	-52.10%

Source: ACE Equity, Equitymaster

Well, with the exception of Coforge Ltd, all the other stocks are already trading at a premium to both their 5 year as well as 10 year average PE multiples. In fact, even for Coforge, the potential upside is merely 2%.

Therefore, the risk-reward equation of investing in these stocks is not in favour of investors when considered against their historical valuation multiples.

Does this mean that one should not consider investing in these stocks at all?

Of course not. I have analysed these stocks using my own framework where I need a significant margin of safety in valuations and not momentum, before I consider any stock.

If you think you have a better framework of investing which is logically sound and which has worked for you over the long term, you can certainly consider using the same and see what it leads to.

There's also a bigger lesson that one can walk away with from this exercise. The fastest growing companies do not necessarily make the best investments.

If the growth is already captured in the current stock price and if the stock is already trading at a significant premium to its historical valuations, then investing in such stocks could actually prove to be negative than positive over the medium term.

Happy investing.

Warm regards,


Rahul Shah
Editor and Research Analyst, Profit Hunter
Equitymaster Research Private Limited (formerly Equitymaster Agora Research Private Limited) (Research Analyst)