Less than a year ago, Peyush Bansal’s eyewear company was preparing to go public at a valuation that left investors scratching their heads. At 230x P/E and 10.5x sales, the question was not whether Lenskart had built a successful business, but whether there was anything left on the table for investors after paying such a steep price.
The numbers made the valuation look even harder to digest. Even if Lenskart tripled its profits from that level over the next few years, the valuation would still work out to around 70x.
Retail investors did not hold back. The Rs 70,000-crore valuation quickly became fodder for social media. One X user calculated that with around 2,600 stores in India, each store was effectively being valued at around Rs 27 crore. The punchline: “Are they selling spectacles or diamond lenses?”
Another found the irony impossible to miss: “If Peyush Bansal pitched Lenskart’s valuation to Shark Tank’s Peyush Bansal, then he would have got rejected.”
Another drew comparisons with a familiar list of expensive IPOs: “To all the people who missed the lessons from Mamaearth, Paytm & Nykaa, don’t worry, here’s your latest chance.”
And yet, the market delivered an answer of its own
Fast-forward to 2026. Lenskart shares are up 50% so far this year. The company now commands a market capitalisation of Rs 1.15 lakh crore. The same stock that was mocked for being too expensive has continued to attract investors.
The reason, according to analysts, is increasingly less about the IPO valuation and more about what Lenskart is becoming.
Domestic brokerage Elara Capital believes Lenskart has built one of India’s most differentiated retail models by creating a full-stack eyewear ecosystem spanning the entire value chain. The brokerage draws a parallel with Titan Company Limited’s jewellery business, arguing that Lenskart could steadily compound market share gains and emerge as the category-defining leader in eyewear, much as Tanishq did in jewellery.
And Lenskart’s own numbers suggest that the company is not simply trying to sell more spectacles. It is building an eyewear business that spans everything from a Rs 500 pair of glasses to Rs 30,000 progressive lenses.
In its shareholders’ letter, the company said it had reached its largest-ever number of customers in “Real Bharat” with Rs 500 glasses, including lenses and warranty, sold profitably through Hustlr Club. At the other end of the spectrum, glasses with high-end Rodenstock and Tokai lenses, including progressive lenses priced at Rs 30,000, generated around Rs 250 crore in annual sales.
Then there is Owndays. Lenskart said glasses with premium Owndays lenses generated more than Rs 1,500 crore in annual sales, despite the business not having a presence in India two years ago.
The international story is also beginning to look different. Lenskart said its international business grew 38%, with an EBITDA margin before Ind AS 116 crossing 10%. The company believes the question is no longer whether the international business can work, but how far it can scale.
With Owndays, Lenskart now has one of Asia’s most respected brands. Meller, meanwhile, was a $35 million brand and is on track to become a $70 million brand.
What’s working for Lenskart?
At the heart of the Lenskart thesis is a model designed to reinforce itself as it grows. Elara points to revenue productivity of nearly Rs 25,000-30,000 per square foot, high gross margins driven by the company’s private-label-led model and an industry-leading store payback period of around 10-12 months.
But perhaps more important is whether Lenskart can keep bringing customers through the door. It can. The company is reporting same-store sales growth (SSSG) of 20%, which Elara sees as a key differentiator. Revenues across Tier I and Tier II markets are also nearly equal, suggesting that Lenskart’s growth is not dependent solely on India’s largest cities.
2) Full-stack retail infrastructure
According to Elara, Lenskart's advantage extends beyond its stores. The company has built a customer acquisition funnel around free eye testing while continuing to invest in technology to improve the customer experience. Its technology-enabled remote testing capabilities allow it to conduct nearly 600 eye tests per store every month.
The ambition is significantly larger. Lenskart is targeting 100 million eye tests over time, compared to the 23.7 million eye tests conducted in FY26.
Its backward integration has also moved beyond simply cutting costs. Elara Capital sees it as a strategic competitive advantage that gives Lenskart greater control over products, faster inventory turnover and next-day delivery across 78 cities.
That combination matters because it links the company’s stores, manufacturing and technology into one system, strengthening both customer experience and margin resilience.
That combination matters because it links the company's stores, manufacturing and technology into one system, strengthening both customer experience and margin resilience.
Buy, sell or hold Lenskart shares?
Jefferies has maintained its Buy rating on Lenskart and raised its target price to Rs 680. The brokerage said Q1FY27 further strengthens the company’s growth and margin expansion story. Market creation remains a key priority, with supply rather than demand emerging as a constraint in India, reflected in around 70,000 daily eye tests.
Lenskart has also strengthened its presence at the lower end with a fully loaded Rs 500 product, while premiumisation is emerging as another growth driver. Jefferies believes improving margins in the international business should address a key investor concern and sees potential for Meller to become the “Ray-Ban of the future.”
Morgan Stanley has an Overweight rating and a target price of Rs 666. The brokerage said Lenskart delivered another quarter of strong performance in Q1, with the beat driven largely by the international business. Strong performance, optimistic management commentary, and higher earnings estimates support its expectation of continued stock outperformance.
Goldman Sachs has an Accumulate rating and raised its target price to Rs 715. The brokerage said the growth and margin flywheel continues to deliver, pointing to significant margin expansion in the international business while SSSG remains elevated.
In India, Goldman Sachs sees volume-led revenue growth and operating leverage-driven margin expansion. It also identifies premiumisation as a new growth vector for the company.
Macquarie has an Outperform rating and raised its target price to Rs 675. The brokerage said India’s Q1 performance was in line with expectations, while the international business beat estimates on stronger margin expansion.
Macquarie remains positive on strong volume growth, continued premiumisation across lenses and frames, the attractive Rs 500 entry-level offering, and the potential for more than 10,000 stores in India. Stronger international margins have led to a 4% upgrade to its EPS estimates and an 8% increase in the target price.
For Lenskart, the market’s biggest shift may not be in its valuation, but in what investors are willing to believe about its future. The company has moved beyond being just an organised eyewear retailer, with a model that now spans value eyewear, premiumisation, eye testing, backward integration, and an expanding international business.
