Piotroski 8/9 Screen: TCS, ITC Lead Quality Picks

Piotroski Screen Surfaces Eight Large-Caps Worth a Closer Look The Piotroski F-Score isn't glamorous. It's nine binary accounting checks, each scoring a one or zero, covering profitability, balance sheet strength, and operating efficiency. Hitting eight of nine is genuinely hard for a large-cap company to fake across multiple reporting periods. FairStock's latest screen found eight Indian large-caps that cleared that bar, and the valuation numbers sitting alongside those scores make the list worth taking seriously. [TCS](/stock/TCS) leads on fundamentals. A 47.7% ROE and 64.6% ROCE at a P/E of 17.15 is not a combination that appears often in a market where quality typically commands a 25–30x earnings multiple. FairStock's composite scoring model puts TCS at 85/100, the highest in this cohort. [ITC](/stock/ITC) follows at 81/100, posting a 49.8% ROE at a P/E of 17.57. Both numbers suggest the market hasn't fully priced in the capital efficiency these businesses are running at. The screen also surfaces NSE: SBIN at a P/E of 11.42 — the lowest earnings multiple in the group — with a FairStock Score of 70. That's a state-owned bank passing eight of nine Piotroski checks while trading at roughly half the multiple of private-sector peers. What the Numbers Actually Say About Each Name Start with TCS. A 64.6% ROCE tells you the business generates substantial operating profit relative to the capital it deploys. IT services is an asset-light model, yes, but that figure still stands well above the sector median. The 17.15x P/E looks like a discount when you set it against Infosys (NSE: INFY), which trades at a higher multiple while running lower capital returns. Both names cleared the Piotroski threshold, but TCS's margin of quality is wider. ITC's 49.8% ROE deserves scrutiny before celebration. A meaningful portion of that return has historically been inflated by the cigarettes business, which generates exceptional cash flows but faces a structural volume ceiling. The h...