Maruti Suzuki reported its July–September 2026 quarter, and our site said its margin fell from 10.1% to 5.9%. The news said 5.5%, down from 8.4%. Another report said 8.9%. Nobody was wrong. They were measuring three different things.
The three margins
Start with sales (about ₹53,000 crore for the quarter) and subtract costs in layers:
| Margin | What is subtracted from sales | Maruti, this quarter |
|---|---|---|
| EBITDA margin | Running costs only (materials, staff, other expenses) | 8.9% |
| EBIT margin | Also depreciation of factories and machines | 5.5% |
| Pre-tax margin | Also interest paid, plus other income such as interest earned on cash | 5.9% |
Maruti holds a large pile of cash and investments, so its other income is big. That is why its pre-tax margin sits
above its EBIT margin, which surprises people who expect each layer to be smaller.
Why we use pre-tax margin for India
The quarterly results that Indian companies file with the NSE (XBRL) report revenue and profit before tax in a consistent way across all 50 Nifty companies. EBIT needs extra line items that are labelled differently from company to company. So the score uses profit before tax ÷ sales for every Indian stock, and the same measure a year earlier.
The bug was in the label, not the number
Our first "results explained" post called it "operating margin". For US filings that is roughly what we compute; for India it isn't. The fix was one word in three places, but it matters: a reader who checks the number against the news should find the same definition we used.
Lesson for anyone building a data pipeline: store the name of the measure with the number, and show it. Two correct figures with the same label look like an error.
From Quantooo Lab, the makers of quantooo.com, a free, open and educational quant lab: every formula, every test and every failure is public. See it here: https://quantooo.com/in/ticker/MARUTI
Educational, not investment advice.
