Central Depository Services (India) Ltd Q3 FY26 — ₹304 Cr Revenue, ₹133 Cr PAT, 52% OPM: India’s Boring Monopoly Quietly Minting Cash

1. At a Glance – The Quiet Cash Register of Dalal Street

Central Depository Services (India) Ltd (CDSL) is that rare Indian stock which looks boring, behaves boring, and then casually drops 52% operating margins like it’s no big deal. Q3 FY26 numbers show ₹304 crore revenue, ₹133 crore PAT, and an OPM of 52%, all while the stock is down ~17% over 3 months. Market cap sits at ₹27,592 crore, price at ₹1,320, P/E flirting with ~58x, and ROCE flexing at 42% like it goes to the gym every day.

Debt? Practically zero.
Dividend yield? ~1%.
Business risk? Linked to Indian capital markets breathing.

This is a company where every new demat account in India eventually pays rent. No drama, no viral products, no marketing billboards—just databases, regulations, and transaction fees doing their thing.

But here’s the fun question: Is the stock expensive because it’s good, or good because it’s expensive? Let’s open the vault.

2. Introduction – India Trades, CDSL Eats

CDSL is not trying to be cool. It is not launching AI apps for retail investors or selling dreams. It is the plumbing of Indian capital markets. And plumbing, my friend, makes money quietly—until it breaks, which it almost never does here.

Every equity trade, IPO allotment, corporate action, pledge, demat holding, e-voting resolution, or KYC record? Somewhere in that journey, CDSL collects its cut. Not a large cut. But a recurring, scalable, regulator-protected cut.

Over the last decade, CDSL’s revenues grew from ₹89 crore (FY14) to ₹1,107 crore (TTM). Profits grew from ₹50 crore to ₹476 crore. No leverage. No