Write an Equity Research Report

Analyze Asian Paints and write a professional initiating coverage report.

Introduction

30 Second Summary

When someone tells you a stock is overvalued or a bargain, an analyst did the math to back that claim up. Their main deliverable is an equity research report with a clear Buy, Hold, or Sell recommendation.

In this project, you will write a professional initiating coverage report on Asian Paints Ltd, India's largest decorative paints company. You will pull real financial data from Screener.in, build a valuation model in Google Sheets, and export a polished PDF that looks like something a sell-side analyst would hand to a portfolio manager.

What You'll Build

You will hand someone a finished PDF report on Asian Paints, walk them through your target price derivation, and defend your investment rating with five years of real financial data.

By the end of this project, you'll have:

A professional PDF report with a cover page displaying your rating, target price, and key financial snapshot that communicates your thesis in 10 seconds.
A peer valuation model in Google Sheets comparing Asian Paints against Berger Paints and Kansai Nerolac on P/E and EV/EBITDA multiples to determine if the stock is overvalued or undervalued.
A defensible Buy/Hold/Sell recommendation backed by calculated growth rates, margin trends, and return metrics pulled from real data.
Secret Mission: Build a simplified DCF (Discounted Cash Flow) model in Google Sheets and add a fundamentals-based intrinsic value to your report.

Are there any prerequisites?

You should have a basic understanding of financial statements (Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow). No prior experience writing research reports is required.

Before We Start

Before diving into data and analysis, you need to commit to the question your report will answer. Your job is not to describe Asian Paints Ltd as a company. Your job is to take a stance: is the stock fairly priced, overvalued, or undervalued at today's market price?

Set Up Your Research Workspace

Before you can analyze a company and form an investment opinion, you need your data sources and document templates ready. Getting everything set up now means the rest of the project is pure thinking and writing.

In this step, you will create a free Screener.in account to access real financial data, set up a Google Sheets workbook for your valuation model, and prepare a Google Docs document formatted for a professional report.

In this step, get ready to:

Create a Screener.in account and verify you can see Asian Paints financial data.
Set up a Google Sheet with tabs for financial data and valuation calculations.
Prepare a Google Doc in professional report format with page numbers and proper margins.

Create a free Screener.in account

Screener.in is a free financial data platform that gives you 10+ years of financial statements, ratios, and peer comparisons for Indian listed companies. This is where all of your raw data for Asian Paints will come from.

Open your web browser and go to www.screener.in
Click Login/Register in the top right corner.
Sign up using your Google account or email address.
Once logged in, type Asian Paints in the search bar at the top and press Enter.
Click on Asian Paints Ltd from the search results.
Click the Consolidated tab near the top of the page to switch to consolidated financials.

You should now see the Asian Paints consolidated page with the Summary section at the top showing key metrics like Market Cap, Stock P/E, and ROCE.

Scroll down and confirm you can see all of these sections on the page: Summary, Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow, and Peers.

Why the consolidated page?

Asian Paints has subsidiaries whose revenue only appears in consolidated numbers. The consolidated page gives you the complete picture of the company's financial performance across all its operations.

Not seeing the Consolidated tab?

Some companies only have standalone data. For Asian Paints, the consolidated page URL is screener.in/company/ASIANPAINT/consolidated/. Try navigating there directly if the tab is not visible.

If you are having trouble signing up or searching, help me create my Screener.in account and find Asian Paints.

Prepare your Google Sheet

Your Google Sheet will hold all the raw numbers and calculations that power your valuation. Separating data from your written report keeps things organized and lets you iterate on calculations without breaking your document formatting.

Open Google Sheets at sheets.google.com and click the blank spreadsheet option to create a new sheet.
Click Untitled spreadsheet in the top left corner and rename it to Asian Paints Valuation.
At the bottom of the screen, double-click the tab labeled Sheet1 to make the name editable.
Type Financials and press Enter to rename it.
Click the + icon at the bottom left (next to your tab) to add a new sheet tab.
Double-click the new tab labeled Sheet2, type Valuation, and press Enter.

You should now see two tabs at the bottom of your spreadsheet: Financials and Valuation.

Tabs not showing at the bottom?

Make sure you are in Google Sheets (not Google Docs). The sheet tabs appear as small rectangles at the very bottom of the browser window. If your browser window is too narrow, scroll the tab bar to the right to see both tabs.

If you are stuck, help me set up my Google Sheet with two tabs.

Set up your Google Doc for the report

Your Google Doc is where the final written report lives. Professional equity research reports need page numbers, consistent margins, and a pages-based layout so the PDF export looks clean.

Open Google Docs at docs.google.com and click the blank document option to create a new document.
Click Untitled document in the top left corner and rename it to Asian Paints - Initiating Coverage.
Click File in the top menu bar.
Click Page setup.
In the Page setup dialog, select the Pages tab at the top if it is not already selected.
Set all four margins (Top, Bottom, Left, Right) to 1 inch (2.54 cm).
Click OK to apply.

Now add page numbers so your exported PDF will have them at the bottom of each page.

Click Insert in the top menu bar.
Hover over Page elements, then click Page number.
Select the option that places page numbers at the bottom of the page.

You should now see a page number appear at the bottom of your document. The document title shows as Asian Paints - Initiating Coverage in the top left.

What is Pages format?

Google Docs has two layout modes: Pages and Pageless. Pages mode shows page breaks and supports headers, footers, and page numbers. You need Pages mode because your final deliverable is a PDF with a clear page structure.

Don't see page numbers or the Pages option?

If your document opened in Pageless mode, page numbers will not be available. Go to File > Page setup and click the Pages tab, then click OK. Now try inserting page numbers again.

If you are stuck, help me switch my Google Doc to Pages format and add page numbers.

Before moving on, confirm all three pieces of your workspace are ready.

Switch to your Screener.in browser tab and confirm the Asian Paints consolidated page is still open.
Switch to your Google Sheet and confirm you see two tabs at the bottom: Financials and Valuation.
Switch to your Google Doc and confirm a page number is visible at the bottom of the page.

Your research workspace is locked in. Next up, you will dig into the real financial data and start building the story behind the numbers.

Research the Company and Build Your Financial Snapshot

Your research workspace is ready. Now it's time to fill it with the raw material that every investment decision depends on: data about the business itself.

You cannot form an investment thesis without first understanding what a company does, who it competes with, and how its finances have trended over time. This step gives you that foundation by pulling real numbers from Screener.in and noting the key facts that will drive your recommendation later.

In this step, get ready to:

Research Asian Paints' business model and competitive position.
Extract 5 years of financial data into your Google Sheet.
Identify key peer companies and note their valuation metrics.

Understand the business model

Before you can value a company, you need to understand what it actually does. A few minutes reading the business description and noting the key facts gives you the narrative backbone of your report.

Switch back to your Screener.in browser tab with the Asian Paints consolidated page open.
Read the company description at the top of the page. Note the key facts: Asian Paints manufactures and sells decorative paints, it holds approximately 50% of India's decorative paints market, and its key brands include Asian Paints and Apco.
Switch to your Google Doc (Asian Paints - Initiating Coverage).
Type the heading Company Overview and format it as Heading 2 using the style dropdown in the toolbar.
Below the heading, write 3-4 sentences describing: what Asian Paints does (decorative paints manufacturer), its market position (#1 in India with approximately 50% decorative market share), and its key brands (Asian Paints, Apco).

Keep it concise for now

You are not writing the final polished version yet. Write factual sentences that capture the core of the business. You will refine the language in Step 5 when you assemble the full report.

Open a new browser tab and go to Yahoo Finance.
In the search bar, type ASIANPAINT.NS and press Enter.
Note the current stock price displayed at the top of the page.
Find the 52 Week Range in the summary section and note the low and high values.
Switch back to your Google Doc and add a line below your Company Overview sentences noting the current price and 52-week range (e.g. Current Price: Rs. XXXX | 52-Week Range: Rs. XXXX - Rs. XXXX).

Your Google Doc now has the narrative foundation. You know what the company does and where its stock sits today.

Extract 5-year financial data

The company description tells you the story. The financial statements tell you whether that story is backed by real performance. You will now pull 5 years of annual data so you can spot trends in revenue, profit, and earnings.

Switch back to your Screener.in tab with the Asian Paints consolidated page.
Scroll down to the Profit & Loss section on the page.
Locate the annual data table showing financial years as columns (Mar 2022 through Mar 2026).

What does consolidated mean?

Consolidated financials include revenue and profits from Asian Paints and all its subsidiaries combined. This gives the complete picture of the company's performance, which is what analysts use for valuation.

Switch to your Google Sheet and click the Financials tab at the bottom.
In cell A1, type Metric. In cells B1 through F1, type the year headers: FY22, FY23, FY24, FY25, FY26.
In cells A2 through A5, type the row labels: Sales (Revenue), Operating Profit, Net Profit, EPS.
From the Screener.in Profit & Loss table, copy the Sales values for each year into the Sales row (B2 through F2). The values are in Rs. Crores.
Copy the Operating Profit values into B3 through F3.
Copy the Net Profit values into B4 through F4.
Copy the EPS values into B5 through F5.

Your Financials tab should now have a clean 4-row by 5-column data table with years running left to right.

What values should I see?

As a reference, FY26 Sales should be approximately Rs. 35,584 Cr and FY26 EPS should be approximately Rs. 45.09. If your numbers are significantly different, make sure you are on the consolidated page, not the standalone page.

Scroll back up to the top of the Screener.in consolidated page.
In the summary section, find the ROCE (Return on Capital Employed) and ROE (Return on Equity) values.
In your Google Sheet, add these below your data table. In cell A7, type ROCE and in B7 enter the value. In A8, type ROE and in B8 enter the value.

Why note ROCE and ROE?

ROCE tells you how efficiently the company uses its total capital (debt + equity) to generate profit. ROE tells you the return specifically for equity shareholders.

For Asian Paints, you should see ROCE around 26.3% and ROE around 21.8%. These are strong numbers that signal an efficient, profitable business. You will reference these in your report's financial analysis section.

Data looks different from what's described?

Make sure you are on the consolidated page (the URL should end with /consolidated/). The standalone page shows different numbers because it excludes subsidiary revenue.

If you see fewer than 5 years of data, click the Profit & Loss heading text itself to expand the full table.

Still stuck? Help me find the right financial data on Screener.in for Asian Paints.

Identify peers and note their data

A company's financials alone cannot tell you if the stock is cheap or expensive. You need a frame of reference. Peer companies in the same industry provide that frame by showing what the market pays for similar businesses.

On your Screener.in tab, scroll to the Peer Comparison section on the Asian Paints consolidated page.
Find Berger Paints (NSE: BERGEPAINT) in the peer list. Note its P/E ratio, Market Cap, and ROCE.
Find Kansai Nerolac (NSE: KANSAINER) in the same list. Note its P/E ratio, Market Cap, and ROCE.

Why these two peers?

Berger Paints is India's #2 decorative paints company with approximately 20% market share. Kansai Nerolac is #3 in decorative paints (approximately 15% share) and also leads in industrial coatings. Together with Asian Paints, these three dominate the listed Indian paints sector.

In Step 4, you will use their P/E ratios to calculate a peer-average valuation for Asian Paints. The data you note now feeds directly into your target price calculation.

Switch to your Google Sheet and click the Financials tab.
Below your ROCE/ROE entries (around row 10), type a section header: Peer Data in column A.
In the rows below, create a small table with columns: Company, P/E, Market Cap, ROCE.
Fill in a row for Berger Paints and a row for Kansai Nerolac with the values you noted from Screener.in.

Your Financials tab now contains both Asian Paints' own performance data and the peer benchmarks you will use for valuation.

What values should I see for peers?

As a reference from the Screener.in Paints Companies page: Berger Paints has a P/E of approximately 51.32, Market Cap of Rs. 58,061 Cr, and ROCE of 21.55%. Kansai Nerolac has a P/E of approximately 26.98, Market Cap of Rs. 15,624 Cr, and ROCE of 11.99%.

Your numbers may differ slightly if data has updated since this project was written. That is perfectly normal for live market data.

Can't find the peers section?

If the Peer Comparison section is not visible on the consolidated page, try clicking the Peers tab near the top of the page. You can also navigate directly to Screener.in's Paints Companies industry page to see all listed paints companies with their metrics side by side.

Need help? Help me find peer comparison data for Berger Paints and Kansai Nerolac on Screener.in.

Before you move on, take a moment to look at your work. Do you think Asian Paints' P/E ratio of approximately 58.6 looks high or low compared to Berger's 51.32 and Kansai Nerolac's 26.98?

That difference in valuation multiples is the puzzle you will solve in Step 4. For now, you have all the raw data you need.

Your research foundation is complete. You know the business, you have 5 years of financial performance data, and you have peer benchmarks for comparison. Next up, you will analyze these numbers to find the story they tell about Asian Paints' trajectory.

Analyze the Financials and Identify the Story

Your spreadsheet now holds 5 years of raw financial data for Asian Paints. Numbers alone tell you nothing about where the business is heading.

In this step, you will calculate growth rates, margins, and trends so you can articulate what is happening to the business. This is where you develop your analytical voice and start forming an opinion about whether Asian Paints is getting stronger or weaker.

In this step, get ready to:

Calculate year-over-year growth, operating margins, and 5-year revenue CAGR.
Identify the story behind the numbers and label each trend.
Articulate the key question your analysis raises about valuation.

Calculate growth and margins

Raw revenue and profit numbers are hard to compare across years without expressing them as percentages. Growth rates and margins normalize the data so you can spot acceleration, deceleration, or compression at a glance.

Switch back to your Google Sheets spreadsheet "Asian Paints Valuation" and open the Financials tab.
In the row directly below your Sales (Revenue) data, type the label YoY Revenue Growth (%) in the first column.
In the cell for FY23 in that row, enter the year-over-year growth formula:

=((FY23 Revenue - FY22 Revenue) / FY22 Revenue) * 100

How to adapt this formula to your sheet

Replace "FY23 Revenue" and "FY22 Revenue" with the actual cell references in your sheet. For example, if FY22 Revenue is in cell B2 and FY23 Revenue is in C2, your formula would be =((C2-B2)/B2)*100.

Copy this formula across for FY24, FY25, and FY26 (adjusting the cell references for each year).
Leave the FY22 column blank in this row since there is no prior year to compare against.

You should now see four percentage values. FY23 should show strong growth (around 18%), while FY24 onwards shows a clear deceleration.

Add another row below with the label Operating Profit Margin (%) in the first column.
For each year (FY22 through FY26), enter this formula:

=(Operating Profit / Revenue) * 100

What does Operating Profit Margin tell you?

Operating Profit Margin shows what percentage of each rupee of revenue the company keeps after paying all operating costs. A shrinking margin means costs are growing faster than revenue.

Fill in the Operating Profit Margin formula for all five years using the Operating Profit and Sales values already in your sheet.

You should see margins for each year. Look at whether they trend upwards, downwards, or stay flat across the 5-year period.

Add one more row with the label 5-Year Revenue CAGR in the first column.
In the cell next to the label, enter the CAGR formula:

=((FY26 Revenue / FY22 Revenue)^(1/4))-1

Why the exponent is 1/4 and not 1/5

CAGR measures the annualized growth rate over a period. From FY22 to FY26, there are 4 years of growth (not 5). Think of it as four steps from the starting year to the ending year.

Replace "FY26 Revenue" and "FY22 Revenue" with your actual cell references. For example, if FY22 Revenue is in B2 and FY26 Revenue is in F2, your formula is =((F2/B2)^(1/4))-1.

Format this cell as a percentage (select the cell, then click Format > Number > Percent).

Before you look at the result, what do you think the 5-year revenue CAGR will be? Given that FY22 revenue was Rs. 29,101 Cr and FY26 was Rs. 35,584 Cr, would you guess above or below 10%?

The result should show approximately 5.1%. For India's largest paints company trading at a premium valuation, that is a surprisingly modest growth rate. Keep this number in mind.

Seeing a decimal like 0.05 instead of 5%?

If your CAGR cell shows 0.05 instead of 5%, that is actually the same value. Select the cell and apply percentage formatting (Format > Number > Percent). If you already multiplied by 100 in your formula, remove the *100 and use the percentage format instead.

Having trouble with your formulas?

Identify the story in the numbers

Calculated metrics are still just numbers until you interpret them. An analyst's value comes from spotting the trend and explaining what is driving it. Now you will read your calculated rows and write the narrative they reveal.

In your Google Sheet, add a row below each calculated metric and label it Trend: followed by one of three words: Improving, Declining, or Stable.
Look at your YoY Revenue Growth row. If growth peaked early and slowed or turned negative in recent years, label it Declining.
Look at your Operating Profit Margin row. If margins have compressed from earlier years, label it Declining. If they stayed within 1-2 percentage points across all years, label it Stable.

Your Financials tab should now have three calculated rows (YoY growth, OPM, CAGR) each with a trend label below them. The sheet tells a clear story at a glance.

Switch to your Google Docs report "Asian Paints - Initiating Coverage".
Below your existing "Company Overview" section, add a new heading: type Financial Analysis and format it as Heading 2 using the styles dropdown.
Under that heading, write 2-3 bullet points answering these questions based on what you found in your sheet:

Is revenue growing or has growth decelerated? (Reference your CAGR and YoY trend.)
Are operating margins expanding or compressing compared to 5 years ago?
Is the company more or less profitable now? (Reference ROCE and ROE from your sheet.)

Write in your own analytical voice

Do not just restate numbers. A weak bullet says "Revenue CAGR is 5.1%." A strong bullet says "Revenue growth has decelerated sharply from 18% in FY23 to single digits, suggesting the post-COVID demand surge has normalized." Name the trend and suggest a cause.

What should the margin story look like?

For Asian Paints, you will likely notice that operating margins have come under pressure in recent years. New entrants like Birla Opus (Aditya Birla Group) and JSW Paints have intensified competition in the decorative paints market, forcing increased spending on distribution and pricing.

If your margins show a decline from earlier years, that is the correct observation. This competitive pressure is a real analytical point that professionals track.

Note the key question your analysis raises

Your financial analysis confirms that Asian Paints is a strong business. ROCE of 26.3% and consistent profitability over 5 years prove quality. But quality alone does not make a stock a good investment.

In your Google Doc, below your Financial Analysis bullets, write 1-2 sentences capturing this observation: the company is financially strong (high ROCE, consistent profits, market leader), but the numbers alone do not tell you whether the stock is cheap or expensive at today's price.
End with something like: "The next question is whether the current P/E of 58.6x is justified given slowing growth, or whether the market is overpaying for quality."

Why write this gap observation?

This sentence is the bridge between your financial analysis and your valuation work in the next step. Professional reports always articulate the question before answering it. The reader should feel the tension: great company, but is it a great stock at this price?

Take a moment to review your Google Doc. Before checking the expected state, what sections do you expect to see so far?

Your Doc should now have two sections: "Company Overview" (from Step 2) and "Financial Analysis" (with your 2-3 bullets and the valuation gap observation). Your sheet should show calculated rows with trend labels.

✔️ My sheet has calculated rows and my Doc has both sections

Excellent. Your analytical foundation is in place. You have the raw data, the calculated metrics, the trend labels, and the written narrative all connected.

ⓧ I'm not sure my calculations are right

Cross-check your numbers against these reference points from Screener.in's Asian Paints consolidated data:

FY22 Revenue: Rs. 29,101 Cr. FY26 Revenue: Rs. 35,584 Cr.
5-Year CAGR should be approximately 5.1%.
FY23 YoY growth should be approximately 18.5% (the largest single-year jump).
FY25 YoY growth should be negative (revenue declined year-over-year).

If your numbers are close to these, your formulas are correct. Small differences (within 0.1-0.2%) come from rounding.

You now have the analytical foundation: a clear picture of what is happening to Asian Paints financially. But you still cannot answer the most important question: is the stock priced right? Next, you will build a valuation model that compares Asian Paints to its peers and derives an actual target price.

Value the Company Using Peer Comparison

Your financial analysis confirmed that Asian Paints is a profitable, well-run business. But knowing a company is financially strong does not answer the most important investor question: is the stock worth buying at today's price?

A great company can be a terrible investment if you pay too much for it. Relative valuation solves this by comparing Asian Paints' pricing multiples against its closest peers. If the market values similar companies at a lower multiple, Asian Paints might be overpriced. If peers trade at a higher multiple, there could be upside.

In this step, get ready to:

Build a peer comparison table with key valuation metrics for Asian Paints, Berger Paints, and Kansai Nerolac.
Derive a target price using the peer-average P/E method and Asian Paints' historical P/E.
Make a Buy/Hold/Sell recommendation backed by your calculated upside or downside.

Build the peer comparison table

To judge whether Asian Paints' stock price is fair, you need a benchmark. The two closest peers in the Indian paints industry are Berger Paints (NSE: BERGEPAINT) and Kansai Nerolac (NSE: KANSAINER).

Switch to your Google Sheet and click the Valuation tab at the bottom.
In row 1, type the following column headers across cells A1 to F1: Company, Market Cap (Rs. Cr), P/E Ratio, EV/EBITDA, ROCE (%), Revenue Growth (%).
In cell A2, type Asian Paints. In A3, type Berger Paints. In A4, type Kansai Nerolac.

Now you need to fill in each company's metrics from Screener.in.

Switch back to Screener.in. On the Asian Paints consolidated page, find the summary section at the top. Note the Market Cap, Stock P/E, and ROCE values.
Look for EV/EBITDA in the ratios section below the summary. If you cannot find it on the free plan, type N/A in that cell for now.
For Revenue Growth, use the 5-year CAGR you already calculated in your Financials tab.
Enter Asian Paints' values in row 2 of your Valuation tab.

What values should I see for Asian Paints?

Based on the latest Screener.in data: Market Cap is approximately Rs. 2,60,039 Cr, Stock P/E is 58.6, and ROCE is 26.3%. Your exact numbers may differ slightly depending on the current trading day.

Navigate to the Berger Paints page on Screener.in by searching Berger Paints in the search bar and clicking the consolidated page.
Note Berger's Market Cap, P/E, EV/EBITDA (if available), and ROCE from the summary section.
For Berger's Revenue Growth, check the Compounded Sales Growth section on their page and note the 5-year figure.
Enter Berger's values in row 3 of your Valuation tab.
Repeat the same process for Kansai Nerolac. Search Kansai Nerolac on Screener.in, open the consolidated page, and enter its metrics in row 4.

What values should I see for the peers?

From the Screener.in Paints Companies industry page: Berger Paints has a P/E of approximately 51.32, Market Cap of Rs. 58,061 Cr, and ROCE of 21.55%. Kansai Nerolac has a P/E of approximately 26.98, Market Cap of Rs. 15,624 Cr, and ROCE of 11.99%.

Now calculate the peer-average P/E, which you will use to derive a target price.

In cell A6, type Peer Avg P/E.
In cell C6, enter a formula that averages the P/E values of Berger Paints and Kansai Nerolac (cells C3 and C4):

=(C3+C4)/2

Why exclude Asian Paints from the average?

You are valuing Asian Paints by comparison. If you included its own P/E in the average, you would be partially comparing it to itself. The peer average should only contain the companies you are benchmarking against.

Check your completed table. You should see three rows of company data plus the peer-average P/E calculated in row 6.

Derive a target price

With the peer-average P/E in hand, you can now calculate what price Asian Paints "should" trade at if the market valued it the same way it values its peers.

In cell A8, type Asian Paints Trailing EPS. In cell B8, enter Asian Paints' FY26 EPS from your Financials tab (Rs. 45.09).
In cell A9, type Target Price (Peer Avg P/E). In cell B9, enter a formula that multiplies the peer-average P/E by the trailing EPS:

=C6*B8

In cell A10, type Target Price (Historical P/E). Asian Paints has historically traded at a premium P/E of approximately 55-60x due to its market leadership. In cell B10, enter a formula using 57.5 as a midpoint:

=57.5*B8

Why two target prices?

The peer-average method tells you what the stock is worth if the market stops giving it a premium. The historical-P/E method tells you what it is worth if the market continues to value it at its usual premium. Together, they give you a range rather than a single point estimate.

Professional analysts always present a range because valuations are inherently uncertain.

Now calculate how far the current market price sits from your target prices.

In cell A12, type Current Market Price. In cell B12, enter the current stock price you noted from Yahoo Finance earlier (for ASIANPAINT.NS).
In cell A13, type Upside/Downside vs Peer Avg. In cell B13, enter this formula:

=(B9-B12)/B12*100

In cell A14, type Upside/Downside vs Historical. In cell B14, enter:

=(B10-B12)/B12*100

Before you look at the results, pause and predict. Based on what you know (Asian Paints trades at a P/E of 58.6, while the peer average is around 39), do you expect to see upside or downside from the peer-average method?

Look at cell B13. You should see a negative percentage, indicating the stock is currently priced above what the peer-average P/E would suggest. Cell B14 should show a result closer to zero or slightly negative, since Asian Paints' current P/E (58.6) is near its historical average of 55-60x.

Seeing a very large negative number?

Double-check that your Current Market Price in B12 is the per-share price (around Rs. 2,600-2,800), not the market cap. Also confirm your EPS in B8 is the per-share figure (around Rs. 45), not total net profit.

Help me debug my upside/downside calculation.

Make your recommendation

The final piece of any equity research report is converting your numbers into a clear verdict. Portfolio managers do not want ambiguity. They want a rating and a reason.

What is a Buy/Hold/Sell recommendation?

Analysts use a simple threshold system. If the target price implies more than 15% upside from the current price, the stock is a Buy. If it sits between -10% and +15%, it is a Hold. If it implies more than 10% downside, it is a Sell.

These thresholds vary by brokerage, but this range is a common starting point for initiating coverage.

In cell A16, type Recommendation.
In cell B16, type your rating: Buy, Hold, or Sell based on the threshold rules above. Consider both your peer-average and historical-P/E target prices when making your decision.
In cell A17, type Rationale. In cell B17, write one sentence explaining your recommendation. For example: "Trading near historical average but at a 50% premium to peers. Market-leading position justifies some premium, but limited upside from current levels."

Your recommendation is YOUR call

There is no single correct answer. Reasonable analysts disagree on Asian Paints all the time. What matters is that your reasoning is consistent with your numbers. If your target price shows 5% upside and you rate it a Buy, that contradicts your own analysis.

Review your completed Valuation tab. You should see: the peer comparison table in rows 1-4, the peer-average P/E in row 6, both target prices in rows 9-10, the upside/downside percentages in rows 13-14, and your recommendation with rationale in rows 16-17.

Not sure if your recommendation makes sense?

Read your rationale sentence out loud. Does it explain WHY the stock deserves its current price, or why it does not? If you cannot articulate the reason in one sentence, your thesis is not clear enough yet. Rewrite it.

Help me check whether my recommendation is consistent with my numbers.

Your valuation model is complete. You now have a data-backed answer to the question your financial analysis raised: is Asian Paints cheap or expensive at today's price? Next up, you will turn all of this research into a polished professional report that a portfolio manager could read in five minutes.

Write and Format the Professional Report

You have a valuation model with peer comparisons, target prices, and a clear recommendation. The analytical heavy lifting is complete.

Numbers sitting in a spreadsheet do not persuade anyone. This step turns your analysis into a professional deliverable that communicates your thesis clearly and persuasively. You will format it to the standard that hiring managers and portfolio managers expect.

In this step, get ready to:

Write all report sections from cover page to recommendation.
Format the document with professional fonts, headers, and table styling.
Export as PDF and verify it looks polished and complete.

Write the cover page and investment thesis

The cover page is what a portfolio manager sees first. It needs to communicate your thesis in 10 seconds: the company name, your rating, and your target price, all at a glance.

Switch back to your Google Doc (Asian Paints - Initiating Coverage).
Place your cursor at the very top of the document, before your existing Company Overview heading.
Press Enter several times to push the existing content down and create space for your cover page.
At the top, type the company name in large bold text: Asian Paints Ltd.
Below it, type the ticker and exchange: NSE: ASIANPAINT.
Add your name and today's date on the next line.
Add the current stock price (from Yahoo Finance, ticker ASIANPAINT.NS), your target price (from your Valuation tab), and your Buy/Hold/Sell rating in large bold text.
Below the rating, insert a small table (2 columns, 5 rows) with these metrics from your Valuation tab and Screener.in: Market Cap, P/E, ROCE, ROE, and Dividend Yield.

Scroll down and confirm your cover page fills roughly one page. The rating and target price should be the most prominent elements.

Make the rating stand out

Increase the font size of your Buy/Hold/Sell rating to 18pt or larger. Use a colour to draw the eye: green for Buy, orange for Hold, red for Sell.

After the cover page content, insert a page break: click Insert in the menu bar, then select Break, then Page break.
On the new page, type the heading Investment Thesis in bold.
Write 3-4 bullet points summarising your core argument for the stock. Each bullet should be one sentence explaining why you assigned your rating.

What goes in an investment thesis?

Think of the thesis as your elevator pitch. A portfolio manager reads these bullets and decides whether to keep reading. Include your strongest arguments: the company's market position, the valuation gap you identified, and any catalyst or risk that tips the balance.

For example: if your analysis shows Asian Paints trades at a premium to peers but margins are compressing due to new entrants, that tension IS your thesis.

Scroll through your document. You should now see a cover page with your rating, then a second page starting with your Investment Thesis bullets, followed by your existing Company Overview and Financial Analysis sections.

Complete the remaining report sections

Your doc already has the Company Overview and Financial Analysis from earlier work. Now you will enhance those with tables and then add the final three sections that complete the report.

Scroll down to your Financial Analysis section.
Switch to your Google Sheet Financials tab.
Select your data table (Revenue, Operating Profit, Net Profit, EPS, and your calculated margins for FY22 through FY26).
Copy it with Cmd+C (macOS) or Ctrl+C (Windows).
Return to your Google Doc, place your cursor inside the Financial Analysis section, and paste with Cmd+V (macOS) or Ctrl+V (Windows).
Below the pasted table, write a short paragraph (2-3 sentences) interpreting the key trend: is revenue growing or flat, and are margins expanding or compressing?

Your Financial Analysis section should now show the actual data alongside your written interpretation. This combination of numbers and narrative is what separates a professional report from a raw data dump.

Insert a page break after Financial Analysis.
Type the heading Valuation in bold.
Switch to your Google Sheet Valuation tab.
Select your peer comparison table (Company, Market Cap, P/E Ratio, EV/EBITDA, ROCE, Revenue Growth for all three companies).
Copy and paste it into the Valuation section of your Google Doc.
Below the table, write a paragraph explaining your target price derivation: which method you used (peer-average P/E), what it implies, and how it compares to the current market price.

Scroll through the Valuation section. You should see your peer table and a written explanation of how you arrived at your target price.

Below the Valuation section, type the heading Risk Factors in bold.
Write 3-4 bullet points, each describing a specific risk to your investment thesis. Include: new competition from Birla Opus and JSW Paints entering the market, raw material price volatility, and demand slowdown in the housing sector.
After Risk Factors, type the heading Recommendation in bold.
Write a short paragraph (2-3 sentences) restating your Buy/Hold/Sell rating, your target price, and the one-line reason from your Valuation tab.

Scroll through the entire document from top to bottom. You should see seven sections in order: Cover Page, Investment Thesis, Company Overview, Financial Analysis, Valuation, Risk Factors, and Recommendation.

How long should each section be?

Cover Page: 1 page. Investment Thesis: half a page. Company Overview: 1 page. Financial Analysis: 1-2 pages (the tables take space). Valuation: 1 page. Risk Factors: half a page. Recommendation: a short paragraph.

Your total should land between 5 and 8 pages. If you are under 5, expand your Financial Analysis interpretation or Company Overview. If over 8, tighten your prose.

Format and export as PDF

Content is complete. Now you make it look like something a hiring manager would take seriously. Consistent formatting signals professionalism and attention to detail.

Select all text in the document with Cmd+A (macOS) or Ctrl+A (Windows).
Set the body font to Arial or Calibri at 11pt using the font and size dropdowns in the toolbar.
Go through each section heading (Investment Thesis, Company Overview, Financial Analysis, Valuation, Risk Factors, Recommendation) and set them to 14pt bold.
Click on each pasted table. Right-click and select Table properties. Set the border width to 0.5pt and ensure columns are evenly distributed.

Scroll through the document. Your headings should be visibly larger than body text, and your tables should have clean borders with aligned columns.

Double-click the header area at the top of page 2 (any page after the cover page).
Type: Asian Paints Ltd | Initiating Coverage | followed by today's date.
Check the Different first page checkbox that appears in the header options bar. This keeps the cover page clean with no header.

Where is the Different first page checkbox?

When you click into the header area, Google Docs shows an options bar just below it. The Different first page checkbox is right there. Checking it means the first page of your document gets its own blank header while all other pages display your typed header text.

Scroll to page 1 and confirm there is no header on the cover page. Then scroll to page 2 and confirm the header text appears.

Header showing on the cover page?

Make sure you checked the Different first page checkbox. If you typed in the header on page 1 by mistake, click into the page 1 header area and delete the text. The page 2+ header should remain unaffected.

Help me remove the header from just the first page of my Google Doc.

Before you export, take one last scroll through the full document. How many pages does it come to? Do you think it will look clean as a PDF, or are there tables that might get cut across page breaks?

If any table is split across two pages, place your cursor just before the table and insert a page break (Insert > Break > Page break) to push the entire table onto the next page.
Click File in the top menu bar.
Click Download.
Select PDF Document (.pdf).

Open the downloaded PDF on your computer. This is the final deliverable.

Confirm the cover page shows your rating and target price prominently.
Confirm tables are not cut off between pages.
Confirm page numbers are visible at the bottom of each page.
Confirm the total page count is between 5 and 8 pages.

PDF looks different from the Google Doc?

Google Docs PDF export preserves headers, footers, and page numbers. If fonts look different in the PDF, ensure you used web-safe fonts like Arial or Calibri. If tables are still split, go back to the Doc, adjust your page breaks, and re-export.

Help me fix formatting issues in my exported PDF.

You now have a professional equity research report exported as a polished PDF. This is the exact deliverable that analysts produce at brokerages and asset management firms. Next up, you will tackle the Secret Mission and add a DCF valuation to give your report a second analytical anchor.

Secret mission

Add a DCF Valuation

Your peer comparison tells you what the market WILL pay for Asian Paints based on similar companies. But what is the company actually WORTH based on the cash it generates? Build a simplified DCF model in Google Sheets and add a second valuation anchor to your report.

Clean Up Your Resources

Decide whether to keep your resources running, pause them to come back later, or delete them entirely. This project runs entirely on free tools (Screener.in, Google Sheets, Google Docs), so there are no ongoing costs.

Resources you used:

Google Sheet: Asian Paints Valuation (3 tabs: Financials, Valuation, DCF).
Google Doc: Asian Paints - Initiating Coverage.
Downloaded PDF: Asian Paints - Initiating Coverage.pdf.

Keep everything running

No action needed. Choose this if you plan to refine your report, update it with the next quarterly results, or use it as a template for analyzing other companies.

Your Google Sheet and Google Doc remain in your Google Drive.
Your PDF stays in your Downloads folder (or wherever you saved it).
Your Screener.in free account stays active for future research on other companies.

Pause - I'll come back to this later

Since all your files live in Google Drive, there is nothing to shut down or pause. Your files will remain accessible whenever you return.

Consider moving both the Google Sheet and Google Doc into a dedicated folder in Google Drive (e.g., Equity Research Projects) so they are easy to find later.
Keep the PDF in a known location on your computer for quick sharing.

Delete - I don't want to use this again

Remove all project files to start fresh. This permanently deletes your work.

Open Google Drive at drive.google.com.
Find Asian Paints Valuation (Google Sheet). Right-click it and select Move to trash.
Find Asian Paints - Initiating Coverage (Google Doc). Right-click it and select Move to trash.
Open Trash in the left sidebar of Google Drive, then click Empty trash to permanently delete both files.
Delete the PDF from your Downloads folder. On macOS, open Finder and navigate to Downloads. On Windows, open File Explorer and navigate to Downloads. Right-click the file and delete it.

Nice Work!

You just wrote a professional initiating coverage equity research report on Asian Paints Ltd from scratch. This is the exact deliverable that sell-side analysts produce and portfolio managers read before making investment decisions.

Here's what you accomplished:

Built a complete equity research report with cover page, investment thesis, financial analysis, valuation, and risk factors, formatted and exported as a polished PDF.
Constructed a peer comparison valuation model in Google Sheets using P/E multiples to derive a data-backed target price for a real publicly listed company.
Made a defensible Buy/Hold/Sell recommendation supported by 5 years of financial data, calculated growth rates and margins, and quantitative peer analysis.
Secret Mission: Built a DCF model to triangulate your valuation with a fundamentals-based intrinsic value estimate using projected free cash flows and a discount rate.

Ready to quiz yourself?