Return on capital employed

What the company earned on every dollar it uses, borrowed or owned.

Formula	Operating income ÷ (equity + total debt)
Companies reporting it	444 of 573
Median	10.1%
Middle half	5.6% – 16.7%
Range	-178.3% – 142.7%

When it lies. Harder to flatter than return on equity, because borrowing to buy back stock raises one and not the other. Still distorted by acquisitions: goodwill enters the denominator at the price paid.

By sector

Sector	n	Median	25th	75th
Technology	37	19.2%	9.9%	28.1%
Consumer discretionary	39	16.7%	11.6%	33.6%
Industrials	68	14.4%	8.9%	22.9%
Financial services	23	13.2%	10.2%	18.2%
Health care	38	12.2%	5.8%	20.7%
Energy	35	9.7%	2.1%	13.6%
Consumer staples	38	9.1%	4.3%	17.4%
Materials	42	9.1%	-1.9%	12.8%
Utilities	57	6.7%	6.2%	8.6%
Real estate	37	6.6%	1.8%	9.6%
Communications	28	6.1%	-1.6%	10.6%
not classified	2	-9.5%	-9.5%	2.8%

Highest return on capital employed

#	Ticker	Company	Sector	Return on capital employed
1	MCK	Mckesson	Industrials	142.7%
2	OTIS	Otis Worldwide	Industrials	90.8%
3	AAPL	Apple	Technology	80.9%
4	NVDA	Nvidia	Technology	78.7%
5	MA	Mastercard	Financial services	70.7%
6	BKNG	Booking Holdings	Industrials	67.1%
7	APAM	Artisan Partners Asset Management	Financial services	63.6%
8	CAH	Cardinal Health	Industrials	63.4%
9	TPR	Tapestry	Consumer discretionary	62.0%
10	YUM	YUM Brands	Consumer discretionary	56.1%
11	TJX	TJX Companies	Consumer discretionary	55.9%
12	ADP	Automatic Data Processing	Technology	52.1%
13	FIX	Comfort Systems Usa	Industrials	50.7%
14	LRCX	Lam Research	Industrials	50.6%
15	KLAC	KLA	Industrials	45.8%
16	MO	Altria Group	Consumer staples	44.6%
17	NTAP	NetApp	Technology	43.6%
18	CAR	Avis Budget Group	Industrials	42.8%
19	PM	Philip Morris International	Consumer staples	42.4%
20	CL	Colgate Palmolive	Consumer staples	41.1%

Lowest

#	Ticker	Company	Sector	Return on capital employed
444	TDTH	Trident Digital Tech Holdings	Industrials	-178.3%
443	CMTL	Comtech Telecommunications	Technology	-128.2%
442	ASPI	ASP Isotopes	Materials	-52.4%
441	EVC	Entravision Communications	Communications	-37.5%
440	CODQL	Coronado Global Resources	Energy	-33.3%
439	EQH	Equitable Holdings	Financial services	-31.7%
438	FMC	FMC	Materials	-30.0%
437	WKC	World Kinect	Industrials	-28.5%
436	UAMY	United States Antimony	Materials	-27.7%
435	ESGH	ESG	Consumer staples	-22.3%

The other metrics

All metrics, and which ones to ignore