All analyses
AI analysis

Bogala Graphite Lanka PLC: research report

Moderately overvaluedbearishSep 9, 2026

Bogala Graphite trades at 42.7 times earnings, far above manufacturing peers, despite a strong June operating quarter. The premium leaves limited tolerance for uneven cash conversion.

Reports without a focus are public, one per stock per day. Generation usually takes about 15 minutes, and we'll notify you when it's ready.

Why bearish

  • Its P/E of 42.7 is at the 95th percentile of manufacturing peers.
  • Its P/B of 8.11 is at the 96th percentile of the sector.
  • The shares are dearer on P/B than 11 of the last 12 year-ends.

Against this. The June operating margin reached 31.9%, among the company's best June-quarter results.

Operating margin
31.9%sector 11.3%
latest quarter
Net margin
16.9%sector 6.3%
latest quarter
Return on equity
20.3%sector 11.4%
full year to Dec 31, 2025
P/E
42.1sector 12.0
earnings Rs 2.92 per share
P/B
7.60sector 1.63
book Rs 16.19 per share
Dividend yield
6.34%sector 2.05%
trailing twelve months

Current figures, updated daily from filings to Jun 30, 2026. The report below was written on Sep 9, 2026. Sector figures are the median of 29 listed companies in the same sector.

Overview

Bogala Graphite Lanka mines, refines and sells Sri Lankan vein graphite for industrial applications, with an emphasis on processed and purified grades. The latest June filing showed a marked improvement in operating profit from the preceding quarter, but the valuation now places a demanding price on maintaining that operational performance.

Price performance

The share gained 64.8% over one year against a 3.4% ASPI gain, although it fell 5.0% in the past month while the index rose 0.5%. The 9.1% three-month advance also exceeded the ASPI's 0.3% return. The closing price was LKR 131.00 on 9 September 2026.

The price sits 22.9% below its 52-week high and 57.6% through its annual range. Sixty-day volatility is 35.0% below its own one-year norm, while trading volume is 68.6% below its 60-day average.

The three-year record contains four pullbacks of at least 15%, including a 33.3% decline that has not regained its prior high. Median daily turnover was LKR 1.64 million, making a LKR 1 million order equal to 61.1% of a typical session.

Valuation

At 42.7 times trailing earnings, Bogala Graphite stands at the 95th percentile of the manufacturing peer group, versus a sector median of 12.38 times. Its 8.11 times book value is likewise at the 96th percentile, against a 1.69 times sector median.

The stock is also expensive against its own record, with P/E dearer than eight of the past 12 year-ends and P/B dearer than 11. The 5.8% dividend yield ranks at the 90th percentile of peers, but the supplied data does not provide a dividend history to establish whether that payout is growing, stable or shrinking. The market-wide valuation screen places it in the Moderately overvalued band, with a score of 37 out of 100.

News and sentiment

Company coverage was normal over the past 90 days, with six material items comprising five neutral articles and one negative article. The main disclosure was an indirect change of control announced on 31 July after the sale of the shareholder holding 86.46%; the company reported no operational or management changes.

The remaining disclosures concerned board committee reconstitutions and a director resignation. These filings provide no quantified change to production capacity, revenue or earnings power.

Financials

June-quarter gross, operating and net margins were 48.3%, 31.9% and 16.9%, respectively. The prior June filing used a group reporting basis while the latest quarter uses a company basis, so a year-on-year margin comparison is not like-for-like. The operating margin was nevertheless among Bogala Graphite's best comparable June-quarter results.

The LKR 77.6 million gap between operating and net profit shows that finance costs, tax and other below-operating items still took a meaningful share of the quarter's earnings. The audited 2025 annual filing recorded lower revenue but higher net profit than 2024. Equity fell from LKR 1.84 billion to LKR 1.53 billion, while the share count was unchanged.

Risks

The clearest operating-quality risk is cash conversion: the twelve months to June 2026 converted operating profit into cash at 0.45 times. The last audited annual figure was 0.74 times, below the prior year's 0.90 times, so reported profit has not consistently translated into operating cash.

Liquidity is otherwise strong, with no reported debt at the latest audited year-end and a current ratio of 4.85, albeit down from 8.7 a year earlier. Manufacturing export conditions softened in July, when Sri Lankan merchandise exports fell 1.3%; this is sector context rather than company-specific evidence, but it adds uncertainty for an export-oriented graphite producer.

Outlook

As at 9 September 2026, the next identifiable catalyst is the September-quarter filing, expected between 12 November 2026 and 2 March 2027. It will replace the June figures and show whether the stronger operating result and weak cash conversion persisted.

The data does not disclose production volumes, realised graphite prices, order backlog or the financial terms of the ownership change. Those omissions limit assessment of the durability of earnings and the commercial effect of the new indirect parent.

About this report. Generated on Sep 9, 2026 from market data up to Sep 9, 2026, 6 material news articles over 90 days and financials to Jun 30, 2026, and scored 37 of 100 on value (moderately overvalued) when it was written. Every figure is drawn from EquityLK's own data on this company. AI research can contain errors, so treat it as a starting point, not investment advice.

Previous reports