TCS, Infosys Score Piotroski 8/9 at Undemanding PE

TCS and Infosys Flash Rare Quality-at-Price Signal The Piotroski F-Score is a nine-point checklist covering profitability, debt trends, and operating efficiency, where a score of 8 or 9 flags a company firing on almost every fundamental cylinder. [TCS](/stock/TCS) and [Infosys](/stock/INFY) both hit 8/9 right now. That alone would be noteworthy. What makes it genuinely interesting is the valuation context: NSE: TCS trades at a P/E of 17.15 and NSE: INFY at 15.13. For two companies generating the kind of returns these businesses produce, that's not expensive. TCS carries a return on equity of 47.7% and a return on capital employed of 64.6%. ROCE measures the yield the business earns on every rupee it puts to work. At 64.6%, that figure is exceptional by any standard, not just within Indian IT. Infosys posts ROE of 32% and ROCE of 37.5%, which are lower but still comfortably above what most large-caps in any sector deliver. Both numbers matter because high ROCE at a reasonable P/E is the core of quality-at-price investing: you're not overpaying for the earnings power. The FairStock Score for the Computers, Software & Consulting sector averages 62.1 across 15 companies. That's a sector-wide number, not a cherry-picked one. It tells you quality here isn't a two-stock story. The segment as a whole is passing more screens than it's failing. What the Sector Numbers Actually Say A Piotroski score of 8/9 means one of nine checks is failing. Neither TCS nor Infosys is perfect, but the score structure tells you where to look. The nine signals span three buckets: profitability (is the business making money and generating cash?), capital structure (is debt rising or falling?), and operating efficiency (are margins and asset turnover improving?). When a company hits 8, it's typically clean on profitability and capital structure, with one efficiency metric lagging. That's a much safer profile than a company posting good earnings while quietly loading up on debt. The banking ...