What does this guide cover?
A listed company is one whose shares trade on a stock exchange, such as NSE or BSE. In return, it must publish a lot about itself, and that makes it possible to understand.
This guide turns that material into five plain questions. It explains how a business works; it does not say whether any share is worth owning.
Each step names a real company on Cityfort and the document where you can check the answer yourself.
Step 1: What does it sell, and who pays for it?
Start with the business in one sentence: what it sells, to whom, and how it charges. If you cannot say it simply yet, keep reading until you can.
The segment note in the annual report shows which businesses matter most. For Titan, the split is lopsided: Jewellery: 90.4% (1 of 4 segments) (FY26).
Then look at who pays. Infosys says its five biggest clients paid 12.2% of revenue in July to September 2026.[S2] That one figure tells you how much depends on a few customers.
Step 2: Where does the money go?
Revenue is the money that came in. Costs are what it took to earn it, and profit is what is left.
Cityfort pages show this as a receipt for every ₹100 that came in. The biggest line differs from one kind of business to another:
- Titan, a jeweller: Gold and other materials: ₹79.8 of every ₹100 (FY26).
- Infosys, an IT services firm: Employees: ₹52 of every ₹100 (FY26).
- HDFC Bank, a lender: Interest paid to depositors: ₹37.4 of every ₹100 (FY26).
The shape of the costs tells you what the business really is. A jeweller is mostly buying gold, an IT firm is mostly paying people, and a bank's biggest cost is the interest it pays depositors.
Step 3: What does it own, owe and turn into cash?
The balance sheet lists what a company owns and what it owes on one date. The cash flow statement shows the cash that actually came in and went out during the year.
Some companies hold more cash than debt. Cityfort shows this as net cash: for Infosys, Net cash ₹35,151 cr (31 Mar 2026).
Profit and cash can tell different stories. Titan reported a profit in FY25, yet its operations used ₹541 crore of cash, before turning positive in FY26.[S1]
Step 4: Who owns it, and who checks it?
SEBI's listing rules require a shareholding pattern every quarter, within 21 days of the quarter's end.[S3] It shows how much the promoter group, institutions and the public own.
The promoter is the founder, family or parent company in control. Here is the promoter holding for each company on Cityfort, listed A to Z:
See it in real companies
Promoter holding, from each company's shareholding pattern
17 companies on Cityfort, listed A–Z (not ranked).
- Asian Paints
- 52.65%Q2 FY27 · source S31
- Bharti Airtel
- 50.07%Q2 FY27 · source S26
- Hindustan Unilever
- 61.9%Q2 FY27 · source S54
- ICICI Bank
- No promoter groupQ2 FY27 · source S52
- Kalyani Steels
- 64.7%Q3 FY26 · source S28
- Kotak Mahindra Bank
- 25.87%Q2 FY27 · source S65
- Reliance Industries
- 50.44%Q2 FY27 · source S44
From each company's filings, as cited on its Cityfort stock page. These figures change when a stock page is updated.
Three outside checks are worth knowing. The statutory auditor checks the accounts, a rating agency may rate the debt, and the exchanges publish every announcement.
For example, Kalyani Steels' auditor is Kirtane & Pandit LLP (FY26). To see how an agency explains a rating, read how to read a credit rating report.
Step 5: What could change, and what has changed?
The annual report's Management Discussion and Analysis lists the risks management sees. Titan's 2025-26 report names data privacy, regulatory and geopolitical risks, among others.[S1]
The notes to the accounts add risks management does not stress. Contingent liabilities, for example, are possible payments if disputes go against the company.
Guidance is what management says it expects. Infosys, for example, gave a range for revenue growth in its October 2026 results.[S2] Treat guidance as a dated statement, then check it against what is later reported.
Where do you check all of this yourself?
Four documents answer most of these questions. They are the annual report, the quarterly results, the shareholding pattern and, where one exists, a credit rating report.
The first three follow SEBI's listing rules. For example, quarterly results are due within 45 days of each quarter's end, except the year's final quarter.[S3]
Each has its own guide here: quarterly results, the annual report, investor presentations and credit rating reports.
Cityfort stock pages answer all five questions in a fixed order, with every number sourced. See how to use a Cityfort stock page, and our methodology for how the numbers are checked.