BPCL vs HINDPETRO
Side-by-side comparison of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.. Descriptive only — not investment advice.
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
Energy
Quality Score: 60/100
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
Energy
Quality Score: 42/100
At a glance
| Metric | BPCL | HINDPETRO |
|---|---|---|
| Quality Score | 60/100 | 42/100 |
| P/E (trailing) | 5.3 | 5.4 |
| Forward P/E | 7.2 | 6.5 |
| ROE | — | — |
| Profit margin | +5.5% | +3.5% |
| Debt-to-equity | 56.39 | 110.91 |
| Dividend yield | +6.61% | +4.01% |
| 1Y price return | +3.6% | +1.1% |
| From 52w high | -22.7% | -23.9% |
| Analyst rating1 = Strong Buy, 5 = Strong Sell | 2.45 | 2.58 |
Highlighted value = better on the metric (lower for P/E, D/E, drawdown, analyst rating; higher elsewhere). Descriptive only.
Snapshots
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) is a state-owned oil marketing and refining company trading at ₹302.75, below both its 50-DMA (₹314.11) and 200-DMA (₹330.67). The trailing PE of 5.26 is the lowest among its NSE Energy peers, while a debt-to-equity of 56.39 reflects a heavily leveraged balance sheet typical of large PSU refiners with significant working-capital borrowings. Five-year earnings growth of 88.8% and a dividend yield of 6.61% stand alongside a profit margin of just 5.5%, illustrating the margin-thin nature of the fuel retail and refining business.
Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HINDPETRO) is a state-owned oil marketing and refining company trading at ₹387, a trailing PE of 5.35x and a 52-week drawdown of 23.89%. The stock is above its 50-DMA (₹374.58) but 8.0% below its 200-DMA (₹421.76), with a debt-to-equity ratio of 110.9 and a profit margin of 3.55% reflecting the capital-intensive, thin-margin nature of the downstream energy business.
Pros
- ✓Trailing PE of 5.26 is ranked 1st (lowest) among 6 Energy sector peers, which include COALINDIA (9.05), ONGC (9.24), GAIL (12.77), and RELIANCE (24.05).
- ✓Dividend yield of 6.61% offers a relatively high cash return in the context of a low-PE Energy sector stock.
- ✓Free cash flow was positive in 4 of the years tracked, indicating the business has periodically generated cash above its capital expenditure needs.
- ✓5-year earnings growth of 88.8% reflects significant profitability recovery over the measurement period, even if driven partly by cyclical fuel margin expansion.
- ✓Low trailing PE of 5.35x and dividend yield of 4.01% place HINDPETRO among the lowest-valued peers in the Energy sector (ranked 2nd lowest PE out of 6); BPCL at 5.27x is the only peer cheaper on this metric.
- ✓Five-year revenue CAGR of 4.1% alongside a five-year earnings CAGR of 57.7% reflects a period of significant margin recovery from a low base, primarily driven by refining spread normalisation post-pandemic.
- ✓FCF was positive in 3 of the available assessment years, indicating the core refining-and-marketing business generated cash in more years than not over the measurement window.
- ✓Dividend yield of 4.01% is meaningful in absolute terms and reflects continued government-backed payout policy for a PSU; the 52-week high is ₹508 (implied from 23.89% drawdown), showing the stock has traded materially higher within the past year.
Cons
- ✗Debt-to-equity of 56.39 is exceptionally high for a non-financial company; this leverage amplifies vulnerability to crude price spikes, interest rate changes, and government-mandated under-recoveries.
- ✗Profit margin of 5.5% leaves little buffer against input cost increases — a feature of the refining and fuel-marketing model that is structurally prone to compression when crude oil prices rise sharply.
- ✗The stock has declined 20.84% over the past 3 months and sits 22.7% below its 52-week high, trading below both the 50-DMA and 200-DMA simultaneously.
- ✗Quality score of 53 out of 100 places BPCL near the middle of the peer group, behind COALINDIA (77) on this composite measure; ROE data is unavailable, limiting a full quality assessment.
- ✗Debt-to-equity of 110.9 is extremely high for a non-financial company; combined with a rising debt trend, a deterioration in refining margins or crude price spike could stress debt-servicing capacity.
- ✗ROE has exceeded 15% in only 2 of the measured years, and the consistency score of 22 out of 100 indicates earnings quality is structurally low — the 57.7% five-year earnings CAGR is driven by cyclical normalisation rather than compounding profitability.
- ✗Profit margin of 3.55% leaves minimal buffer: a crude price increase, subsidy under-recovery mandate, or refining spread compression could sharply reduce or eliminate net income, as the thin-margin structure of oil marketing companies historically demonstrates.
- ✗Quality score of 45 ranks 4th out of 6 Energy sector peers, and the forward PE of 6.52 is higher than the trailing PE of 5.35, implying the analyst consensus embeds lower near-term earnings relative to the most recent reported figure.
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