Piotroski 8/9 Screen Flags TCS, SBI, HDFC Bank

The Piotroski 8/9 screen flags quality at moderate valuations in TCS, SBI and HDFC Bank. Eight Nifty names now score 8 out of 9 on the F-Score, the accounting health checklist created by Joseph Piotroski in 2000. The screen was built for value investors: it asks whether a cheap stock's financials are improving. [TCS](/stock/TCS) (NSE: TCS) leads with a 47.7% return on equity and 64.6% return on capital employed, while trading at 17.15 times earnings. [SBI](/stock/SBIN) (NSE: SBIN) and [HDFC Bank](/stock/HDFCBANK) (NSE: HDFCBANK) carry the same fundamental health score. An 8/9 reading in a large-cap is rare. The score checks nine signals across profitability and operating efficiency. For non-bank companies, the inputs include return on assets, operating cash flow, change in gross margin, asset turnover, and current ratio. A liquid large-cap at 8/9 usually means the market is underrating the balance sheet or the earnings quality. That is the central takeaway. Why TCS stands out in the Piotroski 8/9 screen TCS doesn't need a valuation rescue story. Yet the stock now trades at 17.15 times earnings. That's below the premium the market assigned to [Infosys](/stock/INFY) (NSE: INFY) for much of the last decade. Return on equity of 47.7% and return on capital employed of 64.6% put TCS in a different profitability class. The F-score confirms the cash conversion is real. For IT services, the screen misses one thing: order backlog and client budgets. Investors should not confuse accounting quality with demand visibility. The multiple is moderate, but the next rerating depends on U.S. bank and retail clients restarting discretionary projects. FairStock Scores for TCS, SBI and HDFC Bank all sit above 70, which adds a price momentum check to the fundamental view. Banking stocks: the F-score needs a different lens Piotroski's original model was designed for industrial companies. Applying it to banks means ignoring some inputs. Capital structure signals are less meaningful for...