1. At a Glance – The Dinosaur That Refuses to Die (And Pays You While Doing It)
Hero MotoCorp is that uncle at every family wedding who’s been around forever, still controls the conversation, and casually slips cash into your hand before leaving.
At a market cap of ₹1.15 lakh crore, Hero trades at ₹5,754, up 26% in six months, 34.6% YoY, and throws a 2.87% dividend yield just to remind you who runs the household.
Q3 FY26 numbers?
Revenue at ₹12,487 crore (+21.7% YoY), PAT at ₹1,357 crore (+22.5% YoY), and EPS of ₹63.35 for the quarter. No debt drama, Debt/Equity at 0.03, ROCE at 30.3%, and interest coverage at a ridiculous 96x.
Hero isn’t chasing hype. It’s printing cash, expanding premiums, flirting with EVs, and rewarding shareholders like a guilt-ridden overachiever.
Question is — can this old king reinvent itself fast enough while rivals run on Red Bull?
2. Introduction – From Hero Honda to Hero Alone (And Still Standing)
Hero MotoCorp began life in 1984 as Hero Honda, a JV that basically taught India how to ride a motorcycle. When Honda exited in 2011, markets panicked. Analysts predicted doom. Twitter experts wrote obituaries.
Fourteen years later, Hero is still India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, holding 48% motorcycle market share and 34% overall two-wheeler share. Turns out, distribution beats foreign partners.
What Hero lost in Japanese tech swagger, it compensated with ruthless scale, cost control, and rural dominance. Splendor alone could fund a small country.
But FY20–FY22 exposed cracks: premium weakness, EV lag, slower growth versus peers. Since then, Hero has clearly shifted gears — premium push, EV partnerships,
international expansion, and balance-sheet discipline.
This is no longer a sleepy dividend stock. It’s an incumbent trying very hard not to become Nokia.
Will it succeed? Let’s open the bonnet.
3. Business Model – WTF Do They Even Do?
Hero sells two-wheelers, finances them, services them, exports them, and now wants to electrify them.
Core Segments
- Entry & Deluxe Motorcycles: Splendor, Passion, Glamour
→ High volumes, fat margins, zero glamour, infinite cash. - Premium Motorcycles: Karizma XMR, Xpulse, Xtreme, Harley X440
→ Low share (3.7% FY22), but 25% revenue mix in Q3 FY24. - Scooters: Pleasure, Maestro
→ Modest market share, mostly urban. - EVs: VIDA + Ather association
→ Learning phase, heavy investment, no profits yet. - Financing: Hero FinCorp
→ Finances 41% of Hero vehicles, acts as silent sales engine.
Hero’s real moat isn’t bikes. It’s 39,000+ touchpoints, rural penetration, and the ability to launch a product and shove it into every corner of India before rivals finish the PowerPoint.
Simple question — how many competitors can sell motorcycles and lend you money to buy them?
4. Financials Overview –
