Piotroski 8/9 Meets Low P/E in TCS, ITC, SBI

Eight NSE companies with Piotroski F-Scores of 8/9 now trade at P/E multiples below their five-year medians, according to a FairStock.ai screen run Monday. The names are [TCS](/stock/TCS) (NSE: TCS), [ITC](/stock/ITC) (NSE: ITC), [SBI](/stock/SBIN) (NSE: SBIN), [NTPC](/stock/NTPC) (NSE: NTPC), [HDFC Bank](/stock/HDFCBANK) (NSE: HDFCBANK), [Infosys](/stock/INFY) (NSE: INFY), [Kotak Mahindra Bank](/stock/KOTAKBANK) (NSE: KOTAKBANK), and [Axis Bank](/stock/AXISBANK) (NSE: AXISBANK). The quality-at-price screen pairs a Piotroski 8/9 score with a low P/E filter. TCS reports return on equity of 51.2% and return on assets of 29.8%, per company filings. ITC reports return on equity of 25.7% and operating margin of 36.1%, per exchange data. Those two metrics explain why TCS and ITC sit at the top of the return table. SBI and NTPC sit at the bottom of the valuation table. SBI trades at 11.42 times trailing earnings. NTPC trades at 10.39 times. The spread between high return on equity and low P/E is the core of the screen. Piotroski 8/9 Screen in India The F-Score checks nine accounting signals. Profitability, cash flow, asset turnover, margin direction, and borrowing trends all count. A company gets one point for each improving condition. Eight or nine points mean the company is generating cash and not inflating earnings through accruals. The FairStock screen started with Nifty 50 and Nifty Next 50 constituents. It filtered for F-Score of 8 or 9, then ranked the survivors by P/E relative to sector medians. Eight names passed. The screen does not say these stocks are cheap. It says the accounting trend is positive and the valuation is not stretched. That is a useful combination in a market where the Nifty 50 trades near 20 times forward earnings. Large caps with high F-Scores and low P/Es have been scarce since 2022, when rate hikes began to compress multiples. Low P/E Stocks: TCS, ITC, SBI, NTPC [TCS] and [ITC] show the strongest return metrics. TCS converts revenue i...