Return on equity

What the company earned on the money its owners left in it.

Formula	Net income ÷ shareholders’ equity
Companies reporting it	537 of 573
Median	11.7%
Middle half	6.3% – 20.4%
Range	-231.8% – 287.0%

When it lies. Buybacks shrink equity, so the ratio rises while the business is unchanged. Taken far enough equity goes negative and the ratio stops existing — which is why it is blank for those companies here rather than enormous.

By sector

Sector	n	Median	25th	75th
Technology	41	21.7%	5.2%	31.8%
Consumer discretionary	41	20.8%	10.5%	33.1%
Financial services	28	20.1%	11.5%	30.6%
Investment company	4	15.3%	9.1%	15.3%
Industrials	74	14.8%	9.3%	28.7%
Health care	40	12.9%	7.9%	24.9%
Banks & insurers	48	11.9%	9.9%	15.7%
Utilities	58	10.3%	8.4%	14.0%
Materials	47	9.7%	-5.4%	15.2%
Consumer staples	38	9.5%	4.5%	20.9%
Energy	40	8.6%	1.8%	12.9%
Real estate	47	7.6%	2.7%	11.5%
Communications	29	0.5%	-3.9%	16.2%
not classified	2	-7.9%	-7.9%	2.8%

Highest return on equity

#	Ticker	Company	Sector	Return on equity
1	TNET	Trinet Group	Industrials	287.0%
2	CLX	Clorox	Consumer staples	252.3%
3	TPR	Tapestry	Consumer discretionary	220.7%
4	MA	Mastercard	Financial services	193.5%
5	AAPL	Apple	Technology	151.9%
6	KMB	Kimberly Clark	Consumer staples	134.6%
7	HD	Home Depot	Consumer discretionary	110.5%
8	COR	Cencora	Industrials	103.1%
9	SPG	Simon Property Group	Real estate	103.0%
10	LVS	Las Vegas Sands	Consumer discretionary	102.3%
11	EXPE	Expedia Group	Industrials	100.8%
12	ITW	Illinois Tool Works	Industrials	95.0%
13	NTAP	NetApp	Technology	94.4%
14	MSI	Motorola Solutions	Technology	89.4%
15	AMGN	Amgen	Health care	89.1%
16	ZTS	Zoetis	Health care	80.2%
17	LLY	Eli Lilly	Health care	77.8%
18	NVDA	Nvidia	Technology	76.3%
19	KLAC	KLA	Industrials	76.1%
20	LMT	Lockheed Martin	Industrials	74.6%

Lowest

#	Ticker	Company	Sector	Return on equity
537	XRX	Xerox Holdings	Technology	-231.8%
536	SIDU	Sidus Space	Communications	-200.9%
535	TDTH	Trident Digital Tech Holdings	Industrials	-196.3%
534	CMTL	Comtech Telecommunications	Technology	-148.7%
533	EVC	Entravision Communications	Communications	-142.8%
532	FMC	FMC	Materials	-108.1%
531	SSP	E.W. Scripps	Communications	-82.0%
530	ASPI	ASP Isotopes	Materials	-67.7%
529	CODQL	Coronado Global Resources	Energy	-66.5%
528	HAS	Hasbro	Consumer discretionary	-57.0%

The other metrics

All metrics, and which ones to ignore