Mastering the Compare Feature

How to Open the Compare Feature

There are two ways to reach the Compare page:

1. From a stock page: On any stock page (finmagine.com/stock/?q=SYMBOL), look for the action bar at the top of the page — it contains ⚖️ Compare, 🔔 Alerts, ✨ Generate Report, and 📚 Guides. Click ⚖️ Compare and the Compare page opens with that stock already loaded as your first entry.
2. Directly: Navigate to finmagine.com/compare/ and add stocks manually using the search box.

Adding Stocks to the Grid

The Compare page has a search box at the top. Type any NSE ticker symbol (e.g. RELIANCE, HDFCBANK, INFY) or a partial company name — the search suggests matching stocks as you type. Click a suggestion to add it to the grid. Each stock appears as a column in the comparison table. To remove a stock, click the × on its column header.

How many stocks you can compare at once depends on your account tier:

When you hit your tier's limit, an upgrade prompt appears above the grid explaining exactly what the next tier unlocks. Professional subscribers see an ⬇ Export CSV button above the comparison table, which downloads the currently visible rows as a spreadsheet — useful for building your own scoring model outside Finmagine.

Sector Median — a built-in benchmark column

Premium and Professional users see an extra "Sector Median" column at the right edge of the table, automatically computed and shown whenever every stock you're comparing shares exactly one industry classification. It shows the industry name, how many companies were used to compute the median, and the median value for every ratio row — a free "is this good for the sector" benchmark without leaving the page. If your comparison mixes stocks from more than one industry, the column is intentionally omitted — a blended median across dissimilar industries would be misleading rather than useful.

Add a Company (Peers tab) vs the Compare page

The Compare page (this guide) is where you build a comparison from scratch, symbol by symbol, with no limit on which companies you pick. The stock page's Peers tab works the other way — it auto-selects the company's real industry cohort for you, and a separate "+ Add a company" box there lets you pull in one or two outside names into that auto-selected peer table. Use Compare when you're deliberately choosing every name yourself; use Peers → Add a company when you want the platform's own peer group plus a couple of your own additions.

The Five Comparison Sections

The comparison table is organised into five sections. Each section header appears as a full-width row to visually separate the groups.

Section 1 — Valuation

This section anchors each stock's size and market positioning:

• Market Cap: Total market value in crores. Use this to ensure you're comparing like-for-like — a ₹500 Cr small-cap and a ₹5,00,000 Cr large-cap are in fundamentally different risk tiers.
• Current Price: Live price (or last available price). Absolute price alone is not meaningful for comparison — always look at it alongside PE and Book Value.
• PE Ratio: Price-to-Earnings. A lower PE can indicate a cheaper stock, but only within the same sector — technology companies routinely trade at 40x while PSU banks trade at 8x.
• Book Value: Net asset value per share. Useful for asset-heavy businesses (banks, manufacturing).
• 52W Range: A visual bar showing where the current price sits within the 52-week high–low band. A stock at 95% of its 52W high may have less upside; one at 20% may reflect recent distress or opportunity.

Section 2 — Profitability

Three core return-on-capital metrics that indicate how efficiently a business converts inputs to profit:

• ROCE % (Return on Capital Employed): The most comprehensive profitability metric — measures return generated on all capital (equity + debt) deployed in the business. Higher is better.
• ROE % (Return on Equity): Return generated on shareholders' equity only. Powerful for banks and NBFCs where leverage is a core part of the business model.
• OPM % (Operating Profit Margin): Operating profit as a percentage of revenue. Measures core business efficiency before financing costs.

The Profitability section uses bestOnly highlighting: only the top-ranked stock turns green. Others remain plain — they are not penalised with red simply for being lower. This is the correct behaviour because a 20% ROCE is excellent in absolute terms even if one peer achieves 25%.

Section 3 — Growth

Three growth metrics that reveal momentum and recent business performance:

• Revenue Growth (1Y): Year-on-year sales growth. Positive growth signals business expansion; flat or negative growth deserves closer scrutiny.
• PAT Growth 3Y: Profit After Tax CAGR over 3 years. A 3-year view smooths out single-year anomalies and reveals sustained earnings growth.
• 1Y Price Return: Total price return over the past year. High returns mean the market already rewards the stock — check whether fundamentals justify the move.

Growth uses absolute colour coding: any positive value is green, any negative is red — regardless of relative ranking. This is because negative revenue or profit growth is a genuine concern, not merely a relative position. A stock with -5% PAT growth is flagged red even if all peers are worse.

Section 4 — Financial Health

Structural metrics that reveal the balance sheet risk and ownership quality of each stock:

• Debt / Equity: Total debt divided by shareholders' equity. Lower is generally safer for non-financial businesses. Above 1x warrants attention; above 2x requires strong cash flows to justify.
• Promoter %: The percentage held by promoters (founders/controlling shareholders). Higher promoter holding generally indicates alignment of interests with minority shareholders.
• FII %: Foreign Institutional Investor holding. High FII ownership indicates global investor confidence but can also increase volatility during FII outflows.
• Pledge %: Percentage of promoter shares pledged as collateral. Any significant pledge % is a red flag — forced selling can trigger sharp price falls.

Section 5 — Scorecard (Premium)

The Scorecard section shows Finmagine's proprietary grades for each stock across four dimensions:

• Performance: Historical earnings consistency, ROCE trajectory, and revenue stability.
• Valuation: Whether the current price is cheap, fair, or stretched relative to historical ranges and peers.
• Growth: Forward-looking growth quality — revenue, profit, and EPS momentum across time horizons.
• Entry Point: Technical and fundamental signal alignment — whether now is a favourable entry relative to the stock's own history.

Free users see the Scorecard section locked. Upgrade to Premium to unlock grades for all four dimensions across every stock you compare.

Practical Comparison Workflows

Workflow 1 — Picking the Best Stock in a Sector

1. Open any stock in the sector (e.g. HDFCBANK)
2. Click ⚖️ Compare and add 2–3 peers (ICICIBANK, KOTAKBANK, AXISBANK)
3. Check Profitability: identify the ROCE/ROE leader
4. Check Growth: eliminate any stocks with negative PAT Growth 3Y
5. Check Financial Health: flag any with Pledge % > 10%
6. If Premium: use Scorecard Entry Point to identify the best-timed entry among the survivors

Workflow 2 — Validating a Screener Result

1. Run a screen on finmagine.com/screen/ and note the top 3–4 results
2. Open the Compare page and add all 3–4 stocks
3. The grid immediately shows whether the screener champion leads across all five sections or only on the specific screener criteria

Workflow 3 — Portfolio Peer Review

1. Open an existing holding from your portfolio
2. Click ⚖️ Compare and add its 2 closest competitors
3. If the holding no longer leads on ROCE, Growth, or Scorecard grades, it may be worth reconsidering allocation