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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →There is no single winner for every portfolio. On the companies’ reported FY26 operating results, Persistent Systems is the strongest growth candidate, Tata Elxsi is the margin and design-led quality choice, and KPIT Technologies is the most focused way to own automotive and mobility software. The final decision still depends on the price you pay: a high-growth company can be a poor investment at an excessive valuation, while a slower business can work if expectations are already modest.
The comparison below uses FY26 results and the available Q1 FY27 update. It separates revenue momentum, profitability, business concentration and valuation so that you can match each stock with a portfolio role rather than choosing on one headline number.
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The short answer: match the stock to the portfolio role
| Investor priority | Closest fit | Why it fits | Main condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fastest reported growth and a digital-engineering or AI tilt | Persistent Systems | FY26 revenue rose 17.4% year over year, and the company reported 24 consecutive quarters of growth. | Confirm that growth converts into durable margins and that the valuation does not assume an unrealistically long growth runway. |
| Higher disclosed profitability and differentiated engineering work | Tata Elxsi | Q4 FY26 PBT margin was 25.6% and EBITDA margin was 24.6%, the highest disclosed quarterly profitability measure among these companies. | Accept exposure to automotive and Media & Communications demand, including concentration risk. |
| A concentrated automotive-software and mobility theme | KPIT Technologies | Its business is centered on automotive software, with growth led by Connected Vehicle, After Sales, Virtual Engineering and Propulsion. | Tolerate OEM-cycle volatility and require evidence that the FY26 slowdown and Q1 FY27 margin pressure are reversing. |
These are portfolio-fit descriptions, not personal recommendations. Before buying any of the three, refresh the share price, forward earnings, free-cash-flow estimates and balance-sheet data. A consistently dated valuation set is not established by the operating figures discussed here, so a P/E or price-target ranking would be false precision.
What the FY26 numbers actually say
The companies report in different currencies and disclose different profit measures. Tata Elxsi’s figures below are in Indian rupees and focus on Q4 FY26; Persistent reports both dollars and rupees; KPIT highlights dollar growth and an EBITDA margin for FY26, then an EBIT margin for Q1 FY27. Do not place the percentages in one league table without labeling the metric.
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| Company | Revenue evidence | Growth evidence | Profitability evidence | Other disclosed item |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tata Elxsi | FY26 operating revenue: ₹3,757.4 crore. Q4 FY26 revenue: ₹993.8 crore. | Media & Communications was 32.7% of Q4 revenue and grew 5.6% quarter over quarter in constant-currency terms. | Q4 EBITDA: ₹244.6 crore, or 24.6%; PBT: ₹267.8 crore, or 25.6%; PAT: ₹220.4 crore, or 21.1%. | Announced a multi-year large deal with a global device OEM. |
| Persistent Systems | FY26 revenue: $1,654.4 million; FY26 INR revenue: ₹147,484.5 million (₹14,748.45 crore). | FY26 revenue grew 17.4% year over year. Q4 revenue was $436.0 million, up 16.2% year over year, the 24th sequential quarter of growth. | FY26 EBIT: ₹23,034.7 million, or 15.6%; PBT: ₹24,112.1 million, or 16.3%; PAT: ₹18,651.2 million, or 12.6%. | Full-year dividend declared: ₹40 per share. |
| KPIT Technologies | FY26 revenue: $724.8 million. | Dollar revenue growth was 4.8%; constant-currency growth was 1.3%. OEM revenue grew 9%. | FY26 EBITDA margin: 20.8%. Q1 FY27 EBIT margin: 12.3%. | Q4 engagements were $349 million; management said FY27 had better revenue-growth visibility and market opportunities. |
Persistent has the fastest explicitly reported FY26 revenue growth in this group. Tata Elxsi has the highest explicitly disclosed Q4 margin, but its headline figure is PBT, not EBIT or EBITDA. KPIT’s FY26 EBITDA margin cannot be compared directly with Tata’s PBT margin or Persistent’s EBIT margin. Those distinctions matter more than a superficially precise ranking.
Revenue and earnings momentum
Persistent Systems: the clearest growth profile
Persistent’s FY26 revenue of $1,654.4 million increased 17.4% year over year. Its Q4 revenue of $436.0 million increased 16.2% year over year, and the company described the quarter as its 24th consecutive quarter of sequential growth. That combination gives Persistent the strongest reported momentum in this comparison.
The company describes its strategy as AI-first and centered on digital engineering. For a growth investor, that positioning can support a larger addressable market than a narrowly defined vertical, provided customers continue funding modernization, cloud, data and AI work. The important evidence is not the label alone; it is whether bookings, delivery capacity and pricing sustain revenue growth without a disproportionate increase in hiring or subcontracting costs.
Persistent’s reported FY26 profitability was 15.6% EBIT, 16.3% PBT and 12.6% PAT. Those margins are lower than Tata Elxsi’s disclosed Q4 percentages, but the comparison is not like for like because the periods and metrics differ. A growth thesis should therefore track the direction of EBIT margin, operating cash flow and per-share earnings alongside revenue.
Tata Elxsi: strong quarterly execution, with less growth evidence in the available figures
Tata Elxsi reported FY26 operating revenue of ₹3,757.4 crore and Q4 revenue of ₹993.8 crore. Q4 EBITDA was ₹244.6 crore, a 24.6% margin; PBT was ₹267.8 crore, a 25.6% margin; and PAT was ₹220.4 crore, a 21.1% margin. Manoj Raghavan, chief executive and managing director, summarized the quarter as operating revenue of ₹993.8 crore and a PBT margin of 25.6%.
The available figures establish a high-profitability quarter, but they do not provide a directly comparable full-year revenue-growth percentage for Tata Elxsi. That means investors should not infer that its growth is faster or slower than Persistent’s solely from these figures. Instead, examine the next reported quarters for organic constant-currency growth, utilization, client additions and the contribution of large deals.
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Media & Communications represented 32.7% of Q4 revenue and grew 5.6% quarter over quarter in constant-currency terms. Tata Elxsi also announced a multi-year large deal with a global device original-equipment manufacturer. The deal can improve visibility, but an announcement alone does not establish its annual revenue contribution, margin or ramp schedule; those details should be verified in subsequent filings.
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KPIT Technologies: a slower FY26 with a potentially important recovery test
KPIT generated FY26 revenue of $724.8 million. Dollar revenue growth was 4.8%, while constant-currency growth was 1.3%. OEM revenue grew 9%, and management identified Connected Vehicle, After Sales, Virtual Engineering and Propulsion as growth areas. These figures describe a business with a clear industry position but materially slower FY26 reported growth than Persistent.
KPIT reported $349 million of Q4 engagements and said FY27 offered better revenue-growth visibility and market opportunities. Engagements are an indicator of commercial activity, not the same thing as recognized revenue, so the next checkpoints are conversion timing, project starts and delivery capacity.
The margin trend raises a separate question. KPIT’s FY26 EBITDA margin was 20.8%, while its investor overview later reported a Q1 FY27 EBIT margin of 12.3%. The company attributed the pressure to revenue reduction and expected sequential improvement from mix, growth and AI-led productivity gains. Until that improvement appears in reported results, investors should treat margin recovery as a thesis to test rather than an established outcome.
Profitability and cash-generation quality
Why the margin comparison needs careful labeling
Tata Elxsi’s 25.6% Q4 PBT margin, Persistent’s 15.6% FY26 EBIT margin and KPIT’s 20.8% FY26 EBITDA margin measure different layers of the income statement and cover different periods. PBT is after operating costs, depreciation and finance items; EBIT excludes finance costs and tax; EBITDA excludes depreciation and amortization as well as finance costs and tax. A higher percentage in one column does not automatically mean a higher-quality business.
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A more useful follow-up analysis uses each company’s own time series: revenue growth, EBIT or operating margin, PAT margin, operating cash flow, capital expenditure and free-cash-flow conversion. Compare the same metric across several periods, then investigate changes in working capital, employee costs, subcontracting, exceptional items and foreign-exchange movements.
Tata Elxsi’s quality signal
The Q4 FY26 figures show a wide spread between revenue and profit: ₹993.8 crore of revenue, ₹244.6 crore of EBITDA, ₹267.8 crore of PBT and ₹220.4 crore of PAT. The disclosed margins make Tata Elxsi the quality-and-margin candidate in this trio. The investment question is whether that profitability remains resilient when automotive or Media & Communications spending weakens, rather than whether one quarter’s percentage is the highest.
Persistent’s scale-and-conversion question
Persistent reported ₹23,034.7 million of EBIT and ₹18,651.2 million of PAT on FY26 INR revenue of ₹147,484.5 million. It also declared a full-year dividend of ₹40 per share. The dividend is relevant to total-return analysis, but it does not replace a review of free cash flow, payout sustainability and reinvestment needs. The central quality test is whether rapid expansion can coexist with stable or improving EBIT and cash conversion.
KPIT’s recovery-and-mix question
KPIT’s 20.8% FY26 EBITDA margin indicates meaningful operating profitability, but the later 12.3% Q1 FY27 EBIT margin signals that the current period deserves scrutiny. Because EBITDA and EBIT are different measures, the percentages should not be subtracted to calculate a margin collapse. Instead, track the company’s reported EBIT, EBITDA, utilization and project mix on a consistent basis in the next quarters.
End-market concentration and business durability
Tata Elxsi: differentiated engineering with two important exposures
Tata Elxsi’s design-led engineering positioning can create specialized relationships and support premium work. Its Media & Communications business made up 32.7% of Q4 revenue, while automotive is also a material exposure. Those markets can provide secular technology demand, but they are not identical: media and device spending can be project- and cycle-sensitive, while automotive programs often have long development timelines but depend on OEM platforms and production schedules.
For a portfolio, Tata Elxsi may offer differentiation from a broad IT-services holding. The trade-off is concentration. Review the share of revenue from the largest clients, the duration and renewal terms of major programs, and whether new device-OEM work diversifies or increases dependence on a small set of customers.
Persistent Systems: broader digital engineering, with execution complexity
Persistent’s AI-first and digital-engineering strategy gives it a broader technology canvas than a pure automotive specialist. That breadth can reduce dependence on a single end market, but it also creates execution demands across skills, platforms, geographies and acquisitions or integrations if the company uses them to expand.
The durability question is whether its 24-quarter growth streak reflects repeatable customer demand rather than a temporary mix of large projects. Monitor client concentration, the proportion of recurring work, bookings-to-revenue conversion, employee retention and the cost of adding capacity. A broad market opportunity is valuable only when delivery quality and returns on growth remain intact.
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KPIT is the most concentrated automotive and mobility-software option among the three. Connected Vehicle, After Sales, Virtual Engineering and Propulsion expose it to software content growth in vehicles and to manufacturers’ digital-transformation budgets. Its OEM revenue grew 9% in FY26, an important data point for the thematic case.
Concentration also magnifies risk. Automakers can delay programs, change platforms, renegotiate scope or reduce spending during an industry downturn. KPIT investors should track OEM customer concentration, program starts, cancellations, engineering utilization and regional auto production trends. The stock is a better fit for someone deliberately seeking this theme than for an investor who wants a diversified technology-services exposure.
Valuation: the missing variable that can change the answer
Operating performance alone cannot determine which stock will deliver the best return. The available company figures do not establish one consistently dated valuation dataset, so do not rank these shares by P/E, EV/EBITDA or price targets without refreshing market data on the same date.
Build a comparable valuation snapshot
- Record the closing share price and diluted share count on one specified date.
- Use the latest reported trailing twelve-month and forward earnings estimates, identifying whether estimates come from company guidance or analyst consensus.
- Calculate market capitalization, enterprise value, P/E and EV/EBITDA using the same currency and accounting basis.
- Add free-cash-flow yield and the ratio of operating cash flow to PAT. Flag periods distorted by working-capital movements.
- Compare the valuation with a realistic three-year revenue, EBIT-margin and earnings scenario rather than with a single optimistic target.
- Run a downside case in which growth slows, utilization falls or margins remain at the latest reported level.
What each valuation has to justify
| Stock | Growth assumption a premium price would need to support | Evidence to verify | Valuation risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persistent Systems | Sustained high-teens growth or a credible path close to it, with margins and cash flow holding up. | Repeat bookings, customer expansion, hiring efficiency, EBIT trend and free-cash-flow conversion. | Paying for a long growth runway before execution and cash conversion are proven. |
| Tata Elxsi | Durable premium margins and a return to healthy growth after the measured period. | Constant-currency growth, automotive and Media & Communications demand, client concentration and large-deal ramp. | A high-quality multiple can leave little room for a cyclical or concentrated-demand setback. |
| KPIT Technologies | A credible recovery from FY26’s 1.3% constant-currency growth and Q1 FY27 EBIT pressure. | Revenue conversion from engagements, EBIT recovery, OEM program wins and margin impact of AI productivity. | Assigning a thematic premium before the recovery is visible in reported numbers. |
Without this dated exercise, a conclusion such as “cheapest,” “most expensive” or “best value” is not supported. The same company can move from attractive to unattractive when its share price changes while the operating results remain unchanged.
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Choose Persistent when growth is the primary objective
Persistent is the logical starting point for an investor seeking the strongest reported revenue momentum and an AI or digital-engineering tilt. The 17.4% FY26 growth rate and 24-quarter sequential-growth record provide the clearest evidence in the group. The position should be sized with the risks of execution, hiring costs, integration and valuation in mind. If the price already assumes several years of high growth, even good results may not produce a good return.
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Choose Tata Elxsi when margin quality and differentiated work matter most
Tata Elxsi fits a quality-oriented portfolio that values specialized engineering and high disclosed profitability. Its Q4 FY26 PBT margin of 25.6% and EBITDA margin of 24.6% are compelling operating signals. The decision is less suitable for someone unwilling to accept automotive and Media & Communications concentration or who needs a clearly established high-growth trajectory from the available data.
Choose KPIT when automotive software is a deliberate allocation
KPIT is the most direct expression of the automotive-software and mobility theme. It can fit an investor who understands OEM-cycle risk and is prepared to wait for evidence that growth and margins are recovering. FY26 constant-currency growth of 1.3% and the Q1 FY27 EBIT margin of 12.3% mean the burden of proof is higher than for a simple secular-growth story.
Use a basket only when the roles are intentional
Owning two or all three does not automatically diversify the risk. All are technology-services businesses and can be affected by enterprise spending, currency, talent costs and market-wide valuation changes. A combination can make sense if each holding has a defined role—for example, Persistent for growth, Tata Elxsi for margins and KPIT for automotive exposure—but review overlap in customers, end markets and factor exposure before treating it as diversification.
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- Write the portfolio job. State whether the position is intended to add growth, quality, income or automotive-theme exposure. If you cannot name the job, the comparison is not finished.
- Normalize the period. Use FY26 annual figures for the first comparison, then separately record Q4 FY26 and Q1 FY27 indicators. Do not combine an annual EBITDA margin with a quarterly PBT margin as if they were identical.
- Check the latest trend. For Persistent, verify that sequential growth continues. For Tata Elxsi, verify constant-currency growth and the ramp of large deals. For KPIT, verify conversion of engagements and improvement in EBIT.
- Test cash quality. Reconcile PAT with operating cash flow, working-capital changes and capital expenditure. The figures above do not provide enough cash-flow information to complete this test by themselves.
- Refresh valuation on one date. Calculate comparable multiples and a bear case before deciding that operating quality is priced attractively.
- Set an invalidation rule. Examples include a sustained margin decline, loss of sequential growth, delayed program starts or a valuation that requires assumptions you would not accept in a downside case.
- Size for concentration. A focused automotive allocation should generally be treated differently from a broader digital-engineering holding because the business risks are not the same.
Key risks to monitor after purchase
- Revenue concentration: Watch major-client dependence, especially where a device OEM, automotive OEM or a small number of large programs influence results.
- Growth quality: Separate organic growth from acquisitions, currency effects and one-off project ramps.
- Margin pressure: Track utilization, employee costs, subcontracting, pricing and mix rather than relying on a single quarter’s percentage.
- Bookings versus revenue: Persistent’s growth streak and KPIT’s $349 million of Q4 engagements need conversion into recognized revenue and cash.
- Automotive cycle: For Tata Elxsi and especially KPIT, monitor OEM budgets, vehicle production, platform decisions and program delays.
- AI economics: AI can improve productivity, but investors should verify whether gains appear as higher margins, better delivery capacity or merely lower prices to customers.
- Currency: Persistent and KPIT disclose dollar figures, while Tata Elxsi’s cited figures are in rupees. Exchange-rate movements can change reported growth even when constant-currency demand is stable.
- Capital allocation: For Persistent, assess whether the ₹40 per-share full-year dividend is consistent with reinvestment and cash generation; for all three, review buybacks, acquisitions, debt and dilution when updated filings are available.
Bottom line
Persistent Systems is the best fit for a growth-and-digital-engineering mandate based on FY26’s 17.4% revenue growth and 24-quarter growth streak. Tata Elxsi is the stronger fit for a margin-and-quality mandate, supported by its 25.6% Q4 FY26 PBT margin and 24.6% EBITDA margin. KPIT Technologies is the clearest automotive-software thematic choice, but its 1.3% FY26 constant-currency growth and 12.3% Q1 FY27 EBIT margin make recovery evidence essential.
Those operating roles do not settle the investment decision. Refresh valuation and cash-flow data on the same date, then buy only the stock whose required growth, margin and concentration assumptions you can defend in both a base case and a downside case.
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