Stocks With ROIC Above 30% — Compounding Machines

A high return on invested capital is one of the cleanest signals in investing. It tells you a business can deploy capital and generate real returns — not just accounting tricks or leverage games. We ran the filter on our screener and pulled every stock clearing the 30% ROIC threshold. What came back deserves both attention and skepticism.

A word of caution before diving in: extreme ROIC figures — think 1,000%+, or 10,000%+ — often signal near-zero invested capital on the balance sheet, not some magical business moat. Negative equity, minimal tangible assets, or accounting quirks can produce these numbers. We flag them, but we don't treat them as gospel. The quality score and valuation context matter just as much.

The Outliers: ROIC So High It Needs Explaining

TBC Bank Group leads the list with a jaw-dropping ROIC of 10,010.93%, but a Quality score of just 3/9 pumps the brakes hard. The P/FCF of 0.35 is either a screaming bargain or a sign something strange is happening with the capital base — likely the latter, given banking accounting. The 16.75% shareholder yield is real and worth noting.

Groupon posts an ROIC of 9,558.7% — and before you get excited, this is a company that has shrunk its asset base dramatically through years of losses and write-downs. The 5-year ROIC of 1,883.21% does suggest some consistency, and the 90.2% gross margin on a surviving business is genuinely high. Quality at 6/9 is better than expected, and P/FCF of 11.5x isn't egregious if the restructuring holds.

GeoPark shows an ROIC of 6,871.45% with a P/FCF of zero and gross margin reported at 0% — data flags that suggest incomplete financials rather than a miraculous business. We'd treat this one with extreme caution until cleaner numbers are available.

Smaller Names Worth a Closer Look

Acorn Energy is a micro-cap ($0.1B) with a 1,704.97% ROIC and a 76.8% gross margin — a combination that suggests a genuinely asset-light business model, not just accounting distortion. The 5-year ROIC of 361.84% shows this isn't a one-quarter blip. Quality at 5/9 is middling, but for a company this small, the economics look interesting.

Inhibrx Biosciences clears 1,263.3% ROIC, but with a Quality score of 2/9 and null gross margin and P/FCF data, this is a pre-revenue or early-revenue biotech where the ROIC figure almost certainly reflects minimal invested capital rather than durable returns. At $1.1B market cap, it's not tiny. Proceed carefully.

Tenax Therapeutics is a near-zero market cap healthcare name with a 737.93% ROIC and Quality of 2/9, and essentially no usable valuation data. Same story as Inhibrx — the number reflects capital structure, not a moat.

The Interesting Middle Ground

Essent Group stands out as one of the more credible names on this list. A 1,255.21% ROIC paired with a 5-year figure of 825.62% suggests structural consistency, not a data artifact. At $5.8B market cap, a P/FCF of 7.76x, and a 10.77% shareholder yield, the valuation looks genuinely attractive for a financial guaranty business with a track record. Quality at 6/9 is solid.

SEI Investments runs a capital-light wealth and asset management platform and has been compounding quietly for decades — exactly the kind of business Munger would describe as having a "moat around a moat." The 736.57% ROIC and 5-year figure of 321.15% are consistent with that model. At $10.1B and a P/FCF of 18.31x with a 7.06% shareholder yield, it's not cheap but it's not obviously expensive either.

New Peoples Bankshares is a tiny community bank ($0.1B) with a 1,335.6% ROIC and a 2.4% shareholder yield. Community banks often produce unusual ROIC figures due to leverage and thin capital structures — but the Quality score of 5/9 and P/FCF of 12.35x suggest a functional, if unremarkable, operation.

The Highest-Quality Names on the List

Qualys is the only stock in this batch with a perfect Quality score of 9/9 — and it earns it. An ROIC of 485.99% with a 5-year average of 399.33% reflects a genuinely durable SaaS security business with 82.85% gross margins and minimal capital needs. P/FCF at 16.56x is reasonable for the quality on offer, and the 3.64% shareholder yield adds a return-of-capital component most tech names skip. This is the cleanest compounder on the list.

Travelzoo scores 8/9 on Quality — second only to Qualys — and pairs that with an 87.52% gross margin and a 7.5% shareholder yield. The ROIC of 710.41% looks elevated, but this is a genuinely asset-light marketplace business. The 5-year ROIC of 149.11% is lower, suggesting recent performance may be running ahead of the longer-term trend, but the economics are real.

Pure Storage (PSTG) posts a 506% ROIC with a 5-year figure of 97.6% — notice the gap, which suggests more recent improvement. At $21.4B with a P/FCF of 34.29x, the valuation is the constraint here. Quality at 6/9 and a 69.84% gross margin are decent, but investors are paying for future execution.

Worth Watching

Full Truck Alliance is a Chinese digital freight platform with a 665.23% ROIC and a 54.62% gross margin — a real business model with network effects. At $8.6B and a P/FCF of 25.36x, the valuation bakes in meaningful growth. Quality at 5/9 and the inherent geopolitical discount on Chinese ADRs are the main friction points.

Tanger Inc. posts a 523.69% ROIC, but REITs are tricky — ROIC doesn't translate cleanly when the capital structure involves significant debt and depreciation accounting. The 3.35% shareholder yield and Quality of 4/9 tell a more modest story than the headline number.

Champions Oncology has a 487.21% ROIC and 50.15% gross margin at a $0.1B micro-cap. It lands in Healthcare and carries Quality of 6/9, which is better than most names this small. Thin data, small float, limited liquidity — interesting signal, but requires real diligence.

The takeaway here isn't to buy everything on this list — it's to understand why ROIC looks the way it does for each name. Qualys and SEI Investments reflect genuine capital-light compounders with years of evidence. Several others reflect accounting artifacts or near-zero capital bases. The filter is the starting gun, not the finish line. Run your own cuts on the screener and dig into the quality scores before anything else.