High Piotroski scores meet low valuations in TCS, SBI, HDFC Bank

High Piotroski scores meet undemanding valuations across India's large-cap universe this week, and the overlap is unusual enough to pull money toward quality-at-a-price names. TCS carries a Piotroski F-Score of 8/9 with a P/E of 17.15 and ROE of 47.7%. State Bank of India also clears 8/9 with a P/E of 11.42 and ROE of 15.2%. HDFC Bank, Infosys, ITC, NTPC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Axis Bank round out eight Nifty names that pass most fundamental health checks. That combination matters because it comes against a global backdrop that has punished valuation expansion. US rate expectations remain sticky. The rupee has been under pressure. Foreign portfolio flows into Indian equities have been selective rather than broad. Trade friction in global supply chains has also kept IT clients cautious on discretionary budgets. In that environment, a screen that rewards balance-sheet quality and still finds moderate earnings multiples does something rare: it offers a conditional margin of safety. The F-Score screen: cheap quality in Indian large caps A Piotroski F-Score of 8 out of 9 is a hard test. It looks at nine accounting signals: return on assets, operating cash flow, change in gross margin, asset turnover, debt levels, and changes in shares outstanding, among others. Passing eight of those signals means the company is not merely profitable; its profitability is backed by cash and not hidden by rising debt or accounting adjustments. [TCS](/stock/TCS) (NSE: TCS) is the standout. A P/E of 17.15 for a business with ROE of 47.7% is not expensive by historical IT services standards, even if growth has cooled. The market is paying less for quality than it did in the 2021-22 rush, which is the whole point of this screen. [State Bank of India](/stock/SBIN) (NSE: SBIN) offers an even lower P/E of 11.42, with ROE of 15.2%. Banks are cyclical, so the F-Score here depends on asset quality and provisioning. SBI's score of 8/9 implies its earnings are not being inflated by under-provis...