How to read quarterly results on results day, column by column

Friday, 15 May 2026. Sameer Chai Ltd's board has just approved the results for the year to 31 March, and the filing is already up on the stock exchange websites. Sameer opens it on his phone and frowns at six pages of small print.

Why today, and why so fast?

Regulation 33 of SEBI's listing rules (LODR) sets the deadlines. Results for each of the first three quarters are due within 45 days of the quarter's end. The fourth quarter comes with the audited results for the whole year, so it gets 60 days.

Two smaller rules set the rhythm of the day itself. The company must tell the exchanges about the board meeting at least two working days ahead (Regulation 29). And once the board approves the results, they must reach the exchanges within 30 minutes of the meeting ending (Regulation 30). If the meeting ends after market hours, and more than three hours before the next day's trading opens, the company gets three hours instead. So results can land at any hour, even after the market shuts: the clock starts when the meeting ends.

Which set of numbers is this?

Read the title of the statement before any figure. "Standalone" means Sameer Chai Ltd on its own: the stalls and the office supply business. "Consolidated" adds Sameer Chai Foods, the premix company we own outright.

A company with subsidiaries has to file both, every quarter, not just at the year end. So our filing has two full statements, one after the other. For the year:

The ₹8 crore and ₹0.5 crore gap is Sameer Chai Foods. Pick one set and stay in it for everything that follows. Analysts usually read consolidated, because it covers everything the company controls.

What are all these columns?

SEBI fixes the layout: the statement follows the Schedule III profit and loss format, with set columns, so every company's results look alike. A fourth-quarter filing usually has five:

1. 3 months ended 31.03.2026: this quarter, Q4.
2. Preceding 3 months ended 31.12.2025: the quarter before, Q3.
3. Corresponding 3 months ended 31.03.2025: the same quarter a year ago.
4. Year ended 31.03.2026: the full year just gone.
5. Year ended 31.03.2025: the full year before that.

In the middle of the year there's an extra column, because "year to date" (six or nine months so far) and "last full year" are no longer the same thing.

Here are three of our standalone columns:

What did each share earn?

Near the foot of the statement sits earnings per share. For the year: ₹9 crore over 5 crore shares, ₹1.80. For Q4 alone: ₹2.6 crore over 5 crore shares, ₹0.52.

Companies usually mark quarterly EPS as "not annualised". It's three months of profit, not a yearly rate. Keep that in mind for the traps.

Where's EBITDA?

Not in the statement. SEBI's format follows the Schedule III profit and loss layout, which runs from income through expenses, exceptional items and tax down to profit. It has no EBITDA line. Companies usually give EBITDA in the press release, the investor presentation or the management discussion. Ours for the year was ₹18 crore, a 15% margin on ₹120 crore of revenue.

Because no accounting standard defines EBITDA, check how each company works it out before you compare two of them.

Which part of the business did the work?

Below the main statement comes the segment table. SEBI asks for four things for each segment: revenue, results, assets and liabilities. Ours for the year:

• Stalls: ₹100 crore of revenue, ₹12 crore of operating profit (EBIT).
• Office and café supply: ₹20 crore of revenue, ₹2 crore of EBIT.

They add up to ₹14 crore, which is our whole operating profit, because we don't hold back any head-office costs as "unallocated". Many companies do, so their segment results add up to more than the company's profit.

Who checked these numbers?

Two kinds of check appear on results day, and the filing tells you which one you're reading.

A limited review must come with any quarterly results that aren't audited. The statutory auditor asks questions and runs analysis but doesn't test the books in depth. The conclusion is worded in the negative: in effect, nothing has come to the auditor's attention that suggests the numbers are wrong. A company may choose a full audit of a quarter instead.

A full audit covers the year. The auditor gives an opinion, and the company files it with the results. With a clean (unmodified) opinion, like ours, the company adds a declaration saying so. With a modified opinion, it must file a statement on the impact of the audit qualifications. That statement is worth reading slowly.

Two more safeguards sit behind both: the CEO and CFO certify to the board that the results aren't misleading, and the auditor signing the report must hold a valid peer review certificate from ICAI.

Five traps on results day

1. Comparing the wrong columns. Q4 against the full year, or nine months against twelve. Or mixing sets: put our consolidated revenue of ₹128 crore with our standalone profit of ₹9 crore and you get a margin of about 7.0% that belongs to nobody. The real ones are 7.5% standalone (9 ÷ 120) and about 7.4% consolidated (9.5 ÷ 128).

2. The seasonal quarter. Is Q4 better than Q3 because the business grew, or because more chai sells in some months than others? Two quarters next to each other can't tell you. The "same quarter last year" column can, because it compares like season with like. Retailers with a festive quarter and air-conditioner makers with a summer quarter live by this column.

3. One-offs. Look for a line called "exceptional items" and check "other income". Selling a property or winning a tax refund can lift one quarter's profit without saying anything about the business. Sameer Chai has no other income at all, so its profit is all from chai.

4. Multiplying a quarter by four. Our Q4 EPS of ₹0.52 times four is ₹2.08. The real year was ₹1.80, because Q4 was our biggest quarter. Annualising your best quarter flatters you. Annualising your worst does the opposite.

5. Last year's corrections hiding in Q4. Because Q4 is the balancing figure, any adjustment the auditors find at the year end lands in it. SEBI makes companies disclose, in a note to the fourth-quarter results, the total effect of material adjustments that belong to earlier periods. If that note is there, read it before you celebrate a strong Q4.