How to Research a Stock

Research starts with a question the evidence can answer. For ITC, a good one is: how does ITC earn its money, and what could weaken that? 'Will the share go up?' is not a research question. No pile of good news from the past can answer it.

Sort every statement into one of three kinds from the start. A fact is filed and dated: ITC's standalone profit for 2025-26 was ₹20,286.42 crore, and the share closed at ₹260.80 on NSE on 19 October 2026. An assumption is about the future: 'cigarette volumes will hold after the tax rise of 1 February 2026'. An interpretation explains facts: 'cigarettes pay for the rest of ITC'. Facts can be checked today. Assumptions and interpretations must be tested.

Then write the strongest question against your own reading. For ITC it could be: what if the higher taxes on cigarettes cut volumes for longer than people expect? One strong contrary point can matter more than five supportive ones. Do not balance the list by count.

Set a scope, but do not treat hours spent as proof of a finished file. Some businesses need specialist knowledge. A good first result is knowing what you understand, what is still open and which document you need next. Not knowing something is information. It is never a reason to invent an answer.

Start with the legal name and the exact security. Our file is on ITC Limited, CIN L16005WB1910PLC001985. Its equity share trades as ITC on NSE and as 500875 on BSE, with ISIN INE154A01025 and a face value of Re 1. The ISIN is the number that identifies this one security. The shareholding pattern at 30 September 2026 shows 12,53,05,17,081 shares in issue, about 1,253.05 crore.

Match the ISIN every time. One NSE shareholding page still shows an older ITC ISIN, INE154A01017. The live equity ISIN used on trading screens is INE154A01025. A small mismatch like this is how numbers from the wrong security slip into a file.

Next, check whether a name belongs to the listed company or to another company in the group. ITC Hotels is a separate listed company since 29 January 2025, after the demerger. ITC and its group companies hold 39.85% of it (ITC Hotels' shareholding pattern at 30 September 2026). Buying ITC does not buy ITC Hotels. ITC Infotech is an unlisted subsidiary. A subsidiary is a company controlled by another company.

Record name changes, demergers and acquisitions before you compare years. The same symbol can carry a different business after a deal. ITC's hotels left in January 2025, and its paper business grew in August 2026 with the purchase of Century Pulp and Paper. Checking identity first stops a correct number from answering a question about the wrong company.

A primary source is the original: the company's filings, the exchange's records, the regulator's rules. ITC's results, annual report and announcements on NSE and BSE are primary. A news story or a screener summarises them and is secondary. Use summaries to find questions, then check every important number in the filing. News reports can describe a quarter's revenue change differently from the filing's own line, for example by leaving out excise duty (see sheet 6). The filing wins, and its notes say which basis it uses.

Know when filings arrive. Under SEBI's listing rules (LODR), a listed company must disclose board decisions within 30 minutes of the meeting ending, other material events within 12 hours (from inside the company) or 24 hours (from outside), the shareholding pattern within 21 days of each quarter end, quarterly results within 45 days and annual audited results within 60 days of the year end. ITC filed its 30 September 2026 shareholding pattern on 13 October 2026, on day 13 of 21.

For each important number, write down six things: the unit, the period, the scope, the exact measure, the level of checking and the source. For example: ₹20,286.42 crore; year ended 31 March 2026; standalone; profit from continuing operations; audited; results filed on NSE on 21 May 2026. Add the date you read it. A number in crore cannot be compared with one in millions, and a quarter cannot be compared with a year.

Primary does not mean neutral. Management chooses what to stress. An audit checks that the accounts follow the rules. It does not say the share is a good buy. Triangulate: check a claim against the results, the notes and later filings. Two websites repeating one press release are one source, not two. If sources disagree, keep the conflict in your file and find out why.

A business model says who pays the company, for what, and what it costs to deliver. Write it in one plain sentence. For ITC: it sells cigarettes, packaged foods and personal-care products to shops through distributors, trades farm goods such as leaf tobacco, and makes paperboard and packaging for other companies.

Then read the segment table. In ITC's 2025-26 standalone results, segment revenue was: Cigarettes ₹37,099.65 crore, FMCG-Others ₹24,209.75 crore, Agri Business ₹20,296.40 crore, Paperboards, Paper and Packaging ₹8,765.61 crore and Others ₹341.79 crore. That adds to ₹90,713.20 crore. After removing ₹9,845.71 crore of sales between ITC's own segments, gross revenue was ₹80,867.49 crore.

Now look at where the profit comes from. Cigarettes were 40.9% of segment revenue but 83.7% of segment results (₹21,051.12 crore of ₹25,138.86 crore; our arithmetic). A segment result is the profit a segment earns before shared costs and tax. So the brand most people think of first, the food business, is a large seller but a small earner today.

Trace how money arrives, too. Shops and distributors pay for cigarettes and foods. Buyers of leaf and crops pay the agri business. Packaging customers pay the paperboards business. Revenue is recorded when ITC delivers what it promised, under the accounting rules, not simply when an invoice goes out or cash comes in. The accounting policy note explains the timing.

Revenue moves because of volume, price, product mix, taxes, currency or acquisitions. Mix means the blend of products sold. A higher total does not tell you which driver moved it. Read management's explanation, then check it against the segment table.

List each segment's drivers and where each one is disclosed. Cigarettes depend on volumes and on tax: from 1 February 2026, GST and central excise on cigarettes rose after the GST compensation cess ended (note 5 of ITC's results for the June 2026 quarter). FMCG depends on household spending and on competition from companies such as Hindustan Unilever, Nestlé India, Britannia and Tata Consumer Products. Agri depends on leaf and crop prices.

Watch for changes in scope. On 1 August 2026, ITC completed its purchase of the pulp and paper business of Aditya Birla Real Estate, known as Century Pulp and Paper (NSE filing, 1 August 2026). From the September 2026 quarter, the paperboards segment includes a business it did not have before. Growth in that segment will partly be bought growth.

Look at concentration and shared risks. ITC is spread across four segments, but most of its segment profit comes from one of them. Rules do not require a company to name its customers or show every contract. When the filings do not say something, write 'not disclosed' in your file. Do not fill the gap with a guess.

Before comparing two numbers, check they are measured the same way. ITC's June 2026 quarter is a real test. Standalone revenue from operations was ₹26,943.23 crore, against ₹21,069.81 crore a year earlier: up 27.88% (our arithmetic). But that revenue includes excise duty of ₹10,035.63 crore, against ₹1,309.07 crore a year earlier, because the cigarette tax changed on 1 February 2026.

Take the excise out of both and the picture turns. ₹26,943.23 crore minus ₹10,035.63 crore is ₹16,907.60 crore. ₹21,069.81 crore minus ₹1,309.07 crore is ₹19,760.74 crore. On that basis revenue is down 14.44% (our arithmetic). ITC's own note says the new quarter's revenue is 'not strictly comparable' with earlier periods. Even our excise-free figure is a rough bridge, because the old cess sat outside revenue. Read the note before you trust any growth number.

Standalone figures cover the listed company alone. Consolidated figures cover it and the companies it controls, with sales between them removed. ITC's consolidated revenue for the same quarter was ₹29,523.30 crore, against ₹23,129.35 crore. Use consolidated for the whole group's economics and standalone for the parent's own cash, debt and dividends. Neither replaces the other.

Check the level of checking, too. Annual results are audited. Quarterly results usually get a limited review, which is a lighter check. ITC's June 2026 quarter was reviewed by its auditor, S R B C & CO LLP, with an unmodified report. The three main statements answer different questions: the balance sheet shows the position on one date, the profit and loss statement shows a period's performance, and the cash-flow statement shows a period's cash movement.

Growth is a change against a stated earlier period. ITC's standalone revenue from operations rose from ₹74,238.13 crore in 2024-25 to ₹81,640.11 crore in 2025-26, up 9.97%. Profit from continuing operations rose from ₹20,093.29 crore to ₹20,286.42 crore, up 0.96% (both our arithmetic). Sales grew much faster than profit.

Watch the basis. ITC's reported profit for 2024-25 was ₹35,197.05 crore. That total includes ₹15,103.76 crore from the hotels business, which was demerged on 1 January 2025 (shareholders got 1 ITC Hotels share for every 10 ITC shares). Comparing ₹35,197.05 crore with ₹20,286.42 crore would show a fall that is mostly a change in what ITC owns, not in how it performed.

Ask why the change happened. Did volumes rise, prices change, taxes move or a bought business join? Part of ITC's 2025-26 revenue growth came after the cigarette tax change, because excise is counted inside revenue. An acquisition adds bought sales. Neither shows that the original business grew by itself.

Write the periods, the values, your growth figure and the reason the filings give. Mark demergers, acquisitions and tax effects next to the number. History, however neat, does not show that growth will continue.

A margin is a profit measure divided by revenue. Always name the measure. Operating profit is what the business earns from its operations. Net profit comes after interest and tax. Segment result is the profit a segment earns before shared costs and tax.

ITC's segment margins in 2025-26 (segment result divided by segment revenue, our arithmetic) were very different. Cigarettes kept about 56.7 paise from each rupee of segment revenue. FMCG-Others kept about 7.4 paise, Paperboards about 9.1 paise and Agri about 7.4 paise. Same company, four very different businesses.

This is why the revenue mix and the profit mix differ so much. Cigarettes were 40.9% of segment revenue but 83.7% of segment results. A fast-growing segment with a thin margin adds little profit. A small change in the high-margin segment moves the whole company.

Find the measure in the filed statements and check its definition across years before calculating. Then write a plain sentence, such as 'most of ITC's profit comes from its highest-margin segment', and list the evidence you still need: volumes, costs and the effect of the new taxes.

Recurring earnings are the part of profit you expect could happen again. Deciding that takes judgement. Read the notes for anything labelled 'exceptional'. Exceptional does not mean unimportant. It means you should read what it was.

In ITC's 2025-26 standalone profit and loss statement (annual report p.131), profit before exceptional items and tax was ₹26,951.47 crore. Exceptional items took off ₹183.87 crore (note 29(i)), leaving profit before tax of ₹26,767.60 crore. After tax, profit from continuing operations was ₹20,286.42 crore.

The June 2026 quarter has a one-off gain. Sproutlife Foods became an ITC subsidiary from 1 April 2026. Under the accounting standard for acquisitions (Ind AS 103), ITC re-measured the stake it already held and booked a gain of ₹405.88 crore as an exceptional item in its consolidated results (note 4). Profit for the owners was ₹4,394.13 crore, against ₹5,244.20 crore a year earlier, down 16.21% (our arithmetic), and the gain is inside that figure.

So read the quarter with the gain set to one side: without it, the fall would have been bigger. Do not compute an 'adjusted' after-tax profit yourself, because the filing does not show the tax on this gain. Also watch for costs that are called 'one-off' every year. Relabelling an item does not create cash or remove its effect.

Operating cash flow is the cash a company's operations bring in or use. Profit and cash differ because of timing, costs that use no cash (such as depreciation) and items shown elsewhere. Depreciation spreads the cost of an asset over its life without paying for it again.

In 2025-26, ITC's standalone profit from continuing operations was ₹20,286.42 crore, and its operating cash flow was ₹17,094.97 crore (cash-flow statement, annual report p.134). Cash from operations was 84.3% of profit (our arithmetic). Part of the gap is stock: inventories took up ₹3,157.86 crore of cash in the year.

Subtract spending on plant, property and other long-life assets, ₹2,069.30 crore, and ₹15,025.67 crore is left (our arithmetic). Some call this free cash flow. Definitions vary, so always write yours down. It is not automatically money the company can pay out.

ITC paid ₹17,967.58 crore in dividends during the year: the previous year's final dividend and this year's interim. That is ₹2,941.91 crore more than the cash left after capital spending (our arithmetic). The rest came from other cash flows, such as interest and dividends received and ₹2,000 crore of new short-term borrowing. A gap like this is a question to follow, not proof of trouble or of strength.

Working capital is the cash tied up in running the business day to day. Receivables are what customers owe. Inventory is stock held for sale or for making products. Payables are what the company owes its suppliers. More receivables or more stock ties up cash. More payables frees some up.

ITC's standalone balance sheet (p.130) shows inventories rising from ₹15,061.01 crore on 31 March 2025 to ₹17,931.90 crore on 31 March 2026, up ₹2,870.89 crore or 19.1% (our arithmetic). Trade receivables fell from ₹3,910.79 crore to ₹2,925.60 crore.

The cash-flow statement shows the same story in cash terms: inventories used ₹3,157.86 crore; 'trade receivables, advances and other assets' released ₹662.41 crore; and 'trade payables, other liabilities and provisions' used ₹226.08 crore. These cash lines are wider than the balance-sheet lines and include other items, so they do not match the balance-sheet changes exactly. Our reading, not the company's statement: ITC buys leaf tobacco and other crops in season and stores them, so a lot of its cash sits in stock. Check the inventory note (Note 8) and management's comments before you settle on any explanation.

Rising stock can mean growth, a planned build-up or goods that are not selling. Rising receivables can mean growth or slower collection. Read the ageing table for receivables and the inventory note before calling a change healthy or worrying. Ratios such as 'days of inventory' need averages and a stated definition.

A balance sheet shows, on one date, what a company owns (assets), what it owes (liabilities) and what is left for owners (equity). Accounting equity is not what the company would fetch if sold.

On 31 March 2026, ITC's standalone total equity was ₹69,928.61 crore. Its current borrowings were ₹2,026.22 crore, up from ₹1.76 crore a year earlier. That is about 2.9% of equity (our arithmetic). The jump came from a short-term loan taken in the year; Note 18 gives the detail.

Not every obligation sits in the borrowings line. Contingent liabilities are possible claims, such as tax disputes, that are disclosed in the notes but not booked as debts. ITC's were ₹1,008.67 crore (Note 29), about 1.4% of equity (our arithmetic). Leases, guarantees and commitments also live in the notes.

For any company, record the debt, when it is due, the cash that is really available and where repayment would come from. Cash held in a subsidiary, or pledged against a loan, may not be free to repay the parent's debt. Mark anything you cannot find as open.

Return on equity, or ROE, compares profit with shareholders' equity. Return on capital employed, or ROCE, compares operating profit with the capital used in the business, including debt. Both help you ask how well the business uses its money. Definitions vary, so write yours down.

For ITC in 2025-26: profit from continuing operations was ₹20,286.42 crore (p.131). Average equity was ₹69,928.61 crore plus ₹67,893.71 crore, divided by 2, which is ₹68,911.16 crore (p.130). ₹20,286.42 crore divided by ₹68,911.16 crore gives an ROE of about 29.4% (our arithmetic). Both numbers are standalone, so they are on the same basis.

Use an average when profit is earned over a year and equity changes during it. Mixing a year's profit with one end-of-year balance changes the answer. ROCE needs a stated definition of capital employed and of operating profit. If you calculate it, show every input and its page.

A high return is not automatically a better investment. Debt or a shrinking equity base can lift ROE without a better business. A company that pays out most of its profit, as ITC does, keeps its equity base lower, which also lifts ROE. A ratio is a question to interpret, not a badge.

Capital allocation is how management uses the company's money: reinvesting, buying businesses, repaying debt, paying dividends or buying back shares. None is good by default. For ITC in 2025-26, basic earnings per share (EPS) was ₹16.20. The Board declared dividends of ₹14.50 a share: ₹6.50 interim and ₹8.00 final. That pays out about 89.5% of EPS (our arithmetic). Most of the profit went back to shareholders.

EPS divides profit for ordinary shareholders by the average number of shares in the period. So the share count matters, and it moves. ITC had 12,52,94,68,231 shares on 31 March 2026 (Note 13) and 12,53,05,17,081 on 30 September 2026 (shareholding pattern). It allotted 7,35,050 new shares on 17 September 2026 and 13,95,500 on 15 October 2026 to employees using stock options.

Dilution means each existing share owns a slightly smaller slice. On 30 September 2026, ITC had 68,87,808 employee stock options outstanding, which could become 6,88,78,080 shares. That is about 0.55% of the shares in issue (our arithmetic). Diluted EPS (₹16.19 for 2025-26) allows for such potential shares.

Bigger deals change the file too. On 31 August 2026, ITC's subsidiary ITC Infotech agreed to buy 22.106% of Happiest Minds Technologies from its promoters for about ₹1,330 crore in cash and to merge Happiest Minds into ITC Infotech, which is then to be listed. The deal needs approvals from the CCI, the NCLT and the exchanges and is expected to take about 15 months. Read the terms before deciding what it means for each ITC share.

Governance is how decisions are made, checked and owned. Compare what management said earlier with what later happened. Look at pay, big capital choices, related-party deals and how the board oversees management. A related party is a person or company connected to the business. A related-party deal needs context, not suspicion by default.

Read the shareholding pattern. ITC's, at 30 September 2026, shows promoter and promoter group at 0% and public at 100%. ITC's own filings say it 'does not have any promoter / promoter group'. Its largest holder is the BAT group with 22.91%, held by Tobacco Manufacturers (India), Myddleton Investment Company and Rothmans International Enterprises. This stake was bought before foreign investment in tobacco was banned, and it is disclosed under Foreign Direct Investment.

Check for pledges. A pledge means shares are given as security for a loan. If a promoter must sell them because a loan goes wrong, the price can fall sharply. ITC's 30 September 2026 pattern answers 'No' to promoter shares being pledged, held under non-disposal undertakings or otherwise encumbered. With no promoter, there is nothing to pledge.

Read the auditor's report. For 2025-26, S R B C & CO LLP gave an unmodified opinion on ITC's standalone accounts. Its key audit matter was revenue recognition. A key audit matter is an area the auditor looked at most closely. It is not a qualification or a finding of fraud. Also note routine controls: ITC's trading window for insiders closed from 1 October 2026 until 48 hours after its September-quarter results.

A useful risk links an event to its effect on the business, and says where you would see it. Tax is ITC's clearest one. After the higher taxes on cigarettes from 1 February 2026, the cigarette segment's result in the June 2026 quarter was ₹3,341.23 crore against ₹5,145.28 crore a year earlier, down 35.06% (our arithmetic). You can watch this in each quarter's segment table.

Concentration is the next. With 83.7% of 2025-26 segment results from one segment, a problem there moves the whole company. Integration risk is a third: Century Pulp and Paper joined from August 2026, and the Happiest Minds deal still needs approvals and about 15 months. Each one shows up in later filings, but only after the fact.

Some risks you cannot see early. ITC's results for the September 2026 quarter had not been filed and their date had not been announced as at 22 October 2026. Write 'not yet known' in your file. Do not guess a number. A share price can move before your next review.

Ask how risks combine. Lower volumes plus higher costs can hurt more than either alone. Be fair to the contrary case, but do not force an equal count of good and bad points. Mark which assumptions have no support, which exposures you understand and which are too big for you to judge. 'I cannot judge this' is an honest result.

Price is what one share costs. Valuation compares that price with what the business earns and owns. A low share price does not mean a cheap company: it depends on how many shares the business is split into. ITC closed at ₹260.80 on NSE on 19 October 2026. Times about 1,253.05 crore shares, the market valued the whole company at roughly ₹3,26,796 crore (our arithmetic, using the 30 September 2026 share count).

The price-to-earnings ratio, or P/E, is price divided by EPS. It is not one number; it depends on which earnings you use. At ₹260.80 (our arithmetic): 16.10 times 2025-26 standalone EPS of ₹16.20; 15.79 times consolidated EPS of ₹16.52; 17.24 times the last four quarters' standalone EPS of ₹15.13 (₹16.20, minus ₹3.93 for the June 2025 quarter, plus ₹2.86 for the June 2026 quarter); and 16.46 times the last four quarters' consolidated EPS of ₹15.84.

So ITC's P/E on 19 October 2026 was a range of about 15.8 to 17.2 times, not a single figure. Write the basis next to any P/E you quote. The dividend of ₹14.50 is about 5.56% of the ₹260.80 price (our arithmetic). Over the past year the share traded between ₹253.15 (8 October 2026) and ₹426.40 (31 October 2025). That range is context, not a guide to what comes next.

P/E does not work when earnings are negative or distorted by one-off gains. There is no universal 'cheap' multiple, and a good business can be a poor buy at some prices. This lesson gives no fair value or target for ITC. A ratio alone cannot predict the next price.

A fair peer comparison needs businesses with similar customers, margins, capital needs and reporting. A shared label is not enough. Match the period, currency, scope and ratio definitions, then explain the differences rather than rank companies by whichever ratio looks lowest.

ITC shows why. It is several businesses in one. Its cigarette business has listed peers in Godfrey Phillips India and VST Industries. Its FMCG business competes with Hindustan Unilever, Nestlé India, Britannia, Tata Consumer Products, Dabur and Marico. Its agri and paperboards businesses have no close listed match. No single company matches ITC as a whole.

So compare segment by segment, using each company's own filings: a cigarette segment with cigarette companies, foods with food companies. Comparing ITC's group P/E with a pure food company's P/E mixes a high-margin cigarette business with a thin-margin food one. That gap explains much of any difference in the ratios.

Other measures need care too. Enterprise value, or EV, adds debt to market value and takes off cash. EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. EBITDA is not cash and not money free to repay debt. Banks, insurers and manufacturers need different measures altogether. If a comparison needs special adjustments, say so instead of giving a verdict.

A sensitivity check changes one assumption to see how the answer moves. It is not a forecast and not a target price. Name your assumptions and do not attach probabilities you cannot support.

Here is one way to use it without predicting a price. Keep ITC's price fixed at ₹260.80 (19 October 2026) and change the yearly EPS you assume. These EPS figures are teaching assumptions, not forecasts. If EPS were ₹13.00, the price would be 20.1 times earnings. At ₹16.20, the 2025-26 actual, it is 16.1 times. At ₹18.00 it would be 14.5 times (our arithmetic).

The question this answers is: what earnings does today's price already assume? If you believe earnings will fall, the same price looks more expensive. If you believe they will rise, it looks less so. Lower earnings and a lower multiple can also arrive together, which makes a fall worse. None of these cases is a floor, a fair value or a ceiling.

Ask which evidence supports each earnings assumption: the tax change, cigarette volumes, the new paper business. If you cannot explain your inputs, a neat table only gives false precision. Write down what you assumed and why.

Now try it yourself. Open ITC's results for the quarter ended 30 June 2026, approved by the Board on 31 July 2026 and filed on NSE that day. Find five things: revenue from operations, excise duty, standalone profit for the period, basic EPS and whether the figures were audited or reviewed.

You should find: revenue from operations ₹26,943.23 crore; excise duty ₹10,035.63 crore; standalone profit ₹3,578.82 crore, against ₹4,910.73 crore a year earlier; basic EPS ₹2.86, against ₹3.93; and a limited review by S R B C & CO LLP with an unmodified report. If your number differs, check the column: standalone or consolidated, this quarter or the year-ago one.

Then read note 5 on the cigarette taxes, and the note on Sproutlife Foods (note 3 in the standalone statement, note 4 in the consolidated one). Write one fact, one interpretation and one open question, each in its own sentence. Record the document title, its date and the page, so another reader can find exactly what you read.

For a second exercise on a very different business, use the annual report of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for 2025-26, published on 15 May 2026. A services company has no stock of leaf tobacco and no excise in its revenue, so its file asks different questions. Remember that any report is out of date for events after its date, so check the later announcements too.

Put your file on one page. For each line, write the item, your entry and its source, and mark it as filed, our arithmetic or open. For ITC: company and ISIN (ITC Limited, INE154A01025); the business in one line; the biggest segment by results (cigarettes, 83.7%); the revenue basis warning (excise counted in revenue); profit for 2025-26 (₹20,286.42 crore); operating cash as a share of profit (84.3%); borrowings (₹2,026.22 crore); ROE (about 29.4%).

Continue with: promoter and pledge (no promoter; no pledge); the auditor's opinion (unmodified); the P/E range on 19 October 2026 (about 15.8 to 17.2 times); the top risk (cigarette taxes); one-off items (the ₹405.88 crore Sproutlife gain in the June 2026 quarter); and the open item (the September 2026 quarter results, date not announced as at 22 October 2026). Leave open lines visibly blank.

Then write your central explanation in plain words: what drives this business and which evidence supports that. List the assumptions it rests on and the evidence that would change your mind. This is sometimes called an investment thesis. Writing one is not a reason to invest.

Do not turn the ticks into a score. One serious open question can outweigh several good trends, and a vague worry is not a fact. Your own goals, how much risk you can carry and how you would place an order are separate decisions, outside this file.

A research file is dated. It is never final. Keep the first version and add dated changes, so you can tell new facts apart from things you misread. ITC's own filings from July to October 2026 show how often a file needs touching: the AGM on 23 July, June-quarter results on 31 July, Century Pulp and Paper completed on 1 August, the Happiest Minds deal on 31 August, an ITC Infotech NCLT update on 1 September, share allotments on 17 September and 15 October, the trading-window notice on 25 September, Sproutlife becoming wholly owned on 28 September and the shareholding pattern on 13 October.

Not every filing changes your view. Write which sheet each one touches. The share allotments change the share count. Century changes the paperboards segment. The Happiest Minds deal adds an integration risk. Many filings change nothing, and saying so is part of the record. The next big entry for ITC is its September 2026 quarter results, not yet dated as at 22 October 2026.

Know what would invalidate your reading: evidence that breaks an assumption the file depends on. A business view and a price level are different things. A share falling through a chart level does not show the business got worse, and a better business does not promise a better price. Screeners and AI tools can help you find documents. Check their numbers, units and dates against the filing, because a confident summary can name the wrong company or an invented source.

The skill you are building is to explain a business, its evidence, the assumptions behind any valuation and what would make you look again. No method removes uncertainty or promises returns. When the evidence is thin or the business is beyond your understanding, saying so is a sound research result.