Learn and financial ratios

Learn and Ratios explain the concepts and numbers you see across DocStoX, for readers who are new to investing or want a refresher.

Learn#

Learn is a set of articles written for someone new to Indian stock market investing. Topics include:

• The P/E ratio, explained with Indian stock examples.
• How to read a company's shareholding pattern (promoter, FII, DII holdings).
• ROE versus ROCE, and which matters more.
• A repeatable checklist for analysing a stock in 10 minutes.
• FII versus DII: who actually moves Indian markets.
• How to think about finding multibagger stocks, grounded in what the data actually shows.
• The debt-to-equity ratio, and how much debt is too much.
• How to read a company's financial results: profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow.
• Nifty 50 versus Nifty Next 50 versus midcap indices, and which to track.
• Large cap versus mid cap versus small cap stocks in India.

Each article links out to the DocStoX pages where you can see the concept applied to a real company, sector or screen.

Ratios#

Ratios is a reference for the financial ratios DocStoX uses across stock pages, the screener and the calculators, grouped by valuation, profitability, leverage, liquidity, efficiency and per-share ratios: for example P/E, P/B, ROE, ROCE, debt-to-equity, interest coverage, current ratio, quick ratio, dividend yield, EPS, book value per share, operating margin, net profit margin, PEG ratio and earnings yield.

Each ratio's page has the same structure:

1. 1

   The definition and formula#

   What the ratio measures, and how it is calculated, in plain language.

2. 2

   An interactive calculator#

   Type your own numbers and see the ratio computed live.

3. 3

   What counts as a good value#

   A reference band, since a ratio only means something in context: what counts as cheap, fair or expensive varies by sector and by the company's own history.

4. 4

   Common mistakes#

   The ways this ratio is most often misread, such as comparing it across unrelated sectors.

Each ratio page links to the matching calculator for deeper scenarios, and to related ratios worth reading alongside it.

How ratios are computed on DocStoX#

Ratios shown against a real company, in the screener or on a stock page, are computed from that company's own reported financials, not estimated. Source data occasionally carries an implausible value, most often from a very small denominator (for example, a company with almost no equity can show a triple-digit return on equity that is technically real but not meaningful for comparison, or a holding company's income can push a margin ratio above what a normal operating business could ever show). Where a computed ratio falls outside a plausible range for that metric, DocStoX flags it rather than either hiding it or silently correcting it, so you can see there is a data quality issue instead of mistaking a broken number for an exceptional one.

This is for informational purposes only and not investment advice. Please consult a SEBI-registered advisor before investing.