Cupid, a condom maker from Nashik, went from about ₹12 a share in March 2025 to ₹366 in October 2026. Profit rose from ₹41 crore to ₹108 crore in one year, margins jumped, and the company kept raising its targets. Today the share costs about 360 times its last year's profit, so most of the good news is already in the price. We looked for smaller companies showing the same early signs. The first is Vintage Coffee and Beverages, a Hyderabad maker of instant coffee for export. Sales have grown about 4 times in two years, a new plant is being built, and the share costs about 32 times profit. But its cash flow is weak, debt is rising, and it works on thin margins. This is a company to study, not a sure bet.

How Cupid went from ₹12 to ₹366 In March 2025 Cupid's share traded around ₹12 (adjusted for its later 4-for-1 bonus issue). By 8 October 2026 it closed at ₹366, about 30 times higher. The company is now valued at about ₹49,000 crore.

Cupid makes male and female condoms, lubricants and rapid test kits in Nashik, and has recently added deodorants, perfumes, hair oil and other everyday products. About 60% of its sales are exports to more than 125 countries, many through UN agencies and government health programmes.

Why it exploded Profits really grew. Sales nearly doubled from ₹184 crore in 2024-25 to ₹358 crore in 2025-26, and profit rose from ₹41 crore to ₹108 crore. In April-June 2026 sales were ₹155 crore and profit ₹44 crore, about three times a year earlier.

Margins widened. The share of sales left as operating profit rose from about 25% to 39% in under two years, so each extra rupee of sales brought in more profit.

Big, visible orders. In November 2025 Cupid won the largest share of South Africa's five-year condom tender, worth about ₹115 crore a year. It also announced a ₹100 crore export order book and European approval for its test kits.

Targets raised again and again. The 2026-27 sales target went from ₹600 crore to ₹660 crore, then ₹725-750 crore, then ₹800 crore. Each upgrade brought new buyers.

Stock market triggers. A 4-for-1 bonus issue made the share look cheap, promoters cut pledged shares from 36% to 20%, and the share was moved to BSE Group A and added to the Nifty Smallcap 250 index. Nearly 3 lakh small shareholders now own it.

Where Cupid stands now At ₹366 the share costs about 360 times last year's profit, and about 200 times the ₹250 crore profit the company hopes to make in 2026-27. Any slip could hurt the share badly.

There are warning signs. In 2025-26 the business brought in only ₹46 crore of cash against ₹108 crore of profit. The company has also committed ₹332 crore to buy into Style Baazar, a clothing retail chain, and is investing in a Saudi healthcare fund, both far from its core business.

What we looked for Cupid's run began when it was small, cheap and growing fast. So we looked for companies with: sales and profit growing more than 35% a year; a good return on shareholders' money; modest debt; a market value under about ₹5,000 crore; and a share price that has not already gone up many times.

We found a short list. We will cover them one by one. The first is Vintage Coffee and Beverages.

Vintage Coffee: what it does Vintage Coffee and Beverages makes instant coffee at plants in Telangana and sells it, mostly abroad, to coffee brands that put their own name on it. About 90% of customers are brand owners. Its main markets are West Africa (about 30%), Russia and nearby countries (22%), Southeast Asia (20%), Central America (15%) and Europe (10%).

The share closed at about ₹173 on 8 October 2026, giving a market value of about ₹2,500 crore.

The growth so far Sales rose from ₹131 crore in 2023-24 to ₹309 crore in 2024-25 and ₹553 crore in 2025-26. Profit went from ₹12 crore to ₹40 crore to ₹72 crore.

In April-June 2026 sales were ₹161 crore, up 58%, and profit ₹21 crore, up 46%. That was a little below the January-March quarter, which the company says is normal because summer is its slow season.

The share has risen only about 10% in the past year, while profit nearly doubled. At about 32 times last year's profit it is far cheaper than Cupid, which costs about 360 times.

What could drive the next leg More capacity. A new line started in March 2026, raising capacity from 6,500 to 11,000 tonnes a year. The company says the new line ran at 90-95% in its first quarter and that customers have committed to buy its full output for 2026-27.

A higher-value product. It is building a 5,500 tonne freeze-dried coffee plant in Telangana, costing about ₹550 crore, with production expected from mid-2027. Freeze-dried coffee sells for more, and the company says buyers have signed letters of intent for 70-80% of the output.

Better margins. Management hopes operating margins can rise to 23-24% within about two years, from about 18% in 2025-26. It has also started selling roasted and ground coffee for the US and European markets.

The risks Weak cash flow. In 2025-26 the business brought in only ₹15 crore of cash against ₹72 crore of profit, and spending on plants pushed free cash flow to about minus ₹142 crore. This is the biggest gap with a strong company.

More debt and more shares. Debt was about ₹124 crore in March 2026, and the company has said it expects about ₹400 crore by 2027-28 for the new plant. It raised about ₹216 crore by selling new shares in 2025 and plans more warrants for promoters at ₹164.

Thin, commodity margins. Prices are set every quarter on a cost-plus basis, so a part of the sales growth simply reflects higher coffee bean prices. If coffee prices fall, sales will look weaker even if volumes hold.

Governance points to watch. In September 2026 the board proposed raising the managing director's pay to ₹30 lakh a month plus 3.5% of profit, changed the auditor, and changed how the money from the 2025 share sale will be used.

Our verdict Vintage Coffee shares some of Cupid's early signs: a small company, fast real growth, new capacity and a share price that has not yet run up. But it is a lower-margin business that needs a lot of money to grow, and its cash flow has not caught up with its profit.

If the freeze-dried plant starts on time and margins improve, the numbers could grow a lot. If not, the new debt and shares will weigh on it. Past returns like Cupid's are rare, and no one can promise them.

What to watch: cash from operations, the freeze-dried plant's progress in 2027, and margins once coffee prices settle.

More gems coming Vintage Coffee is the first name on our list. In the coming posts we will look at other small companies that show similar early signs of real growth, one at a time. Watch this space.

For information only, not investment advice.

This report was produced entirely by AI. Using the same AI research platform accessible on stocktracker.co.in.

After splitting off its aluminium, power, oil and gas, and iron and steel businesses, the remaining Vedanta earned a record ₹5,294 crore in April–June 2026, up 152%. Sales rose 51% to ₹23,456 crore. The company says the main driver was higher metal prices and a weaker rupee, helped by more output and lower zinc costs. That makes the profit strong but tied to metal prices.

What is left in Vedanta now

Vedanta has split into separate listed companies. Aluminium, power, oil and gas, and iron and steel now each have their own listing. What remains in Vedanta Limited is mainly zinc and silver (through Hindustan Zinc in India and mines in South Africa), copper, ferrochrome (Facor) and a port berth at Vizag.

So the figures here cover only these remaining businesses. The company has restated last year's numbers on the same basis, so the comparison is like for like.

The record quarter

In April–June 2026 sales were ₹23,456 crore, up 51% from ₹15,537 crore a year earlier, and roughly flat on the January–March quarter.

Operating profit (before interest, tax and depreciation) almost doubled, from ₹4,267 crore to ₹8,469 crore, a company record. Excluding copper, it kept about 57 rupees of every 100 rupees of sales as operating profit, up from 47 a year ago.

Profit after tax was ₹5,294 crore, up 152% from ₹2,102 crore, and 24% higher than the January–March quarter.

Driver 1: metal prices and the rupee

The company itself names higher world metal prices (the London Metal Exchange price), higher premiums paid over that price, and gains from a weaker rupee as the main reasons for both higher sales and higher profit.

This matters because sales grew 51% while output grew only a few percent. When sales jump that much without a similar jump in tonnes, most of the gain is coming from price.

Silver is a big part of Hindustan Zinc's profit, and its output of 149 tonnes was flat. Any rise in profit there came from price, not volume.

Driver 2: a bit more output

Volumes helped, but modestly. Hindustan Zinc mined a record 268 thousand tonnes for a first quarter, up just 1%, and made 260 thousand tonnes of refined metal, up 4%.

Facor had its best quarter ever, with ore output up 41% and ferrochrome up 4%. The copper plant at Silvassa had its best first quarter in eight years, with sales up 3%. The Vizag port berth handled 40% more cargo.

Not everything grew. Mined metal in South Africa fell 14% because an older mine is near its end. Copper rod sales in the UAE halved after the Strait of Hormuz was closed.

Driver 3: lower costs

Hindustan Zinc's cost to make a tonne of zinc fell 16% to $851, its lowest since it moved to underground mining. Lower cost while prices rose is what pushed the profit share of sales up so sharply.

Below operating profit, things also helped. Interest costs rose only slightly, income from its cash pile rose 50%, and the tax rate fell to about 26% from 28%.

So which was it?

Mostly prices. Output grew by single digits and costs fell in zinc, but those alone cannot explain sales rising by half and profit by one and a half times. The company's own explanation puts metal prices, premiums and the rupee first.

That means the record profit is real but depends on metal prices staying high. If zinc, silver or other metal prices fall back, profit would fall faster than output does.

What supports it, and what to watch

The finances are strong. Net debt fell by ₹2,223 crore in the quarter to ₹8,299 crore, less than a third of one year's operating profit. Cash stood at ₹19,992 crore. ICRA and Crisil both raised its rating to AA+.

Growth projects should add some volume. Phase 2 of the Gamsberg zinc mine in South Africa was due to start in July–September 2026.

To watch: metal and silver prices, the rupee, whether Gamsberg ramps up on time, the UAE copper business while shipping routes stay disrupted, and debt at the parent company, Vedanta Resources, though it says it cut $1.1 billion of group debt in the quarter.

ITC's shares have fallen from about ₹400 a year ago to ₹265, a drop of about a third. Its June 2026 quarter sales look 28% higher, but that is mostly a bigger cigarette tax passing through the books. After the tax, cigarette profit fell 35% and company profit fell 27%. The other businesses are doing better, but they are still too small to make up for it.

The fall in numbers

ITC closed at about ₹400 in early October 2025. On 6 October 2026 it closed at ₹265, about 34% lower. It touched a low of about ₹255 on 1 October 2026.

The damage came in steps. The share was ₹403 on 31 December 2025. On 1 January 2026 it fell almost 10% to ₹364 in a single day, with about 28 crore shares traded, around 40 times a normal day. It kept sliding through the year: ₹309 at the end of January, ₹292 in March, ₹280 in May and ₹256 by the end of September.

What happened: a big new tax on cigarettes

A special extra tax on cigarettes, collected with GST, came to an end. The government replaced it with a much higher excise duty on cigarettes from 1 February 2026. The sharp fall on 1 January was the market reacting as this became clear.

Cigarettes are where ITC makes most of its money. In the year to March 2026, cigarettes earned about ₹21,051 crore of the ₹25,139 crore profit from all its businesses, about 84%. So any hit to cigarettes hits the whole company.

Why sales went up but profit went down

In April–June 2026, ITC's main company reported sales of ₹26,794 crore, up 28% from ₹20,922 crore a year earlier. That sounds great, but it is mostly tax. The company's own notes say the new excise duty is counted inside sales, while the old tax was not, so the figures are not comparable.

Excise duty paid jumped from ₹1,309 crore to ₹10,036 crore in a year. Take that out and sales were about ₹16,760 crore, down from about ₹19,610 crore.

The bottom line tells the real story. Profit fell from ₹4,911 crore to ₹3,579 crore, a drop of 27%. Earnings per share fell from ₹3.93 to ₹2.86.

Cigarettes took the hit

Cigarette sales including the tax rose from ₹8,520 crore to ₹15,384 crore. But cigarette profit fell from ₹5,145 crore to ₹3,341 crore, down 35%.

When tax goes up this much, ITC must choose between raising prices, which can push smokers to cheaper or illegal cigarettes, and absorbing part of the tax, which cuts its margin. The numbers suggest it is facing some of both.

The rest of ITC is doing fine, but it is small

The non-cigarette consumer business (biscuits, atta, noodles, soaps and more) grew sales from ₹5,787 crore to ₹6,482 crore, up 12%, and profit from ₹396 crore to ₹479 crore, up 21%.

Paper and packaging profit rose from ₹163 crore to ₹224 crore. The farm products business made ₹354 crore, down from ₹434 crore.

Together these businesses made about ₹1,050 crore of profit in the quarter. Cigarette profit fell by about ₹1,800 crore. The growing businesses cannot yet fill that hole.

ITC is also still buying: it took control of Sproutlife Foods, raised its stake in baby-care brand Mother Sparsh, and its IT arm agreed on 31 August 2026 to buy 22% of Happiest Minds Technologies.

Is it cheap now?

At ₹265, ITC trades at about 17.5 times its profit per share of the last four quarters (about ₹15.1). That is low for ITC, which used to trade well above 20 times.

But the price is low because the profit itself shrank. If cigarette profit stays down, the share is not as cheap as it looks.

Big investors still hold on. In June 2026 foreign investors owned about 34% of ITC and Indian institutions about 49%, including 16.5% by mutual funds.

The bottom line

ITC did not fall because the business broke. It fell because the government took a much bigger slice of every cigarette sold, and cigarettes are most of ITC's profit.

The key things to watch are whether cigarette profit recovers as prices adjust, and how fast the food and personal care business grows. Until one of those changes, the share may stay under pressure.