Quality large caps
Query: US large-cap quality stocks with return on equity above 20%, net debt low, revenue growth above 8%, sorted by forward P/E · data as of 2026-10-23
Built a large-cap quality-growth screen (mkt cap >$10B, US-listed non-ADR: ROE >20%, revenue growth >8% TTM, net cash or net debt/EBITDA <1.0x) sorted ascending by forward P/E — 26 names pass, led by ADBE, APH, TPR, STRL, UBER, and CRM, with a rationale narrative and per-row commentary.
9 US-listed large caps (market cap above $10B) combining ROE above 20%, revenue growth above 8%, and a net-cash or sub-1x net-debt-to-EBITDA balance sheet — ranked from the lowest forward P/E upward.
Large-Cap Quality Growth — Cheapest on Forward Earnings (October 23, 2026)
| Symbol | Company | Sector | Industry | Market Cap ($B) | Forward P/E | P/E (TTM) | ROE | Net Debt ($B) | Net Debt / EBITDA | Leverage Bucket | Revenue Growth (YoY) | Revenue Growth (TTM) | Gross Margin | Operating Margin | Free Cash Flow ($B) | FCF / Market Cap | 1M Return | 6M Return | 1Y Return | % From 52W High | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ADBE | Adobe Inc. | Information Technology | Software - Application | 102.7 | 9.6 | 15.1 | 61.90% | 0.72 | 0.08 | Low leverage | 10.53% | 15.10% | 89.27% | 36.63% | 9.85 | 9.60% | 10.42% | 7.49% | -25.49% | -26.70% | The cheapest large-cap compounder on forward earnings — the market is pricing generative AI as an existential threat to seat-based creative software. Balance sheet is essentially debt-free, so the debate is purely about seat deflation vs. Firefly/Experience Cloud monetisation; any stabilisation in net-new ARR re-rates it violently. |
| APH | Amphenol Corporation | Information Technology | Electronic Components | 182.7 | 11.52 | 18.48 | 30.80% | 3.43 | 0.57 | Low leverage | 51.71% | 72.10% | 36.88% | 25.41% | 4.38 | 2.40% | -10.82% | -0.72% | 15.73% | -16.40% | Best pure-play AI hardware connector name in the screen — interconnect content per rack rises with every accelerator generation, and margins are expanding even as volumes scale. The risk is a hyperscaler capex digestion phase, which would hit order books a quarter or two before it hits peers. |
| TPR | Tapestry, Inc. | Consumer Discretionary | Luxury Goods | 21.9 | 12.44 | 15.18 | 220.73% | 1.42 | 0.82 | Low leverage | 14.17% | 6.10% | 77.82% | 23.92% | 1.81 | 8.30% | -1.56% | -23.84% | -3.07% | -33.02% | Coach and Kate Spade handbags: growth is coming from full-price selling and AUR (average unit retail) rather than store count, and the consumer has proven resilient in a market where discretionary is otherwise mixed. Cheap multiple reflects tariff/trade exposure on sourcing rather than anything structural in the brand. |
| STRL | Sterling Infrastructure, Inc. | Industrials | Engineering & Construction | 10.9 | 14.06 | 25.62 | 26.04% | -0.1 | -0.23 | Net cash | 17.69% | 17.60% | 22.98% | 16.30% | 0.36 | 3.30% | -30.84% | -28.54% | 6.78% | -64.25% | Data-center and e-infrastructure site work plus legacy transportation — a shovel-seller to the same AI buildout that is crushing semiconductor equipment. Backlog visibility is the story; watch for margin compression as lower-margin e-infrastructure mix grows. |
| UBER | Uber Technologies, Inc. | Information Technology | Software - Application | 136.2 | 15.2 | 14.63 | 40.78% | 3.49 | 0.61 | Low leverage | 18.28% | 23.10% | 40.75% | 10.70% | 9.76 | 7.20% | -3.64% | -10.64% | -27.67% | -33.11% | Now classified as software but the real engine is the mobility and delivery marketplace annuity. Its 'quality' score is flattered by leverage falling off a low base; the operative catalysts are autonomous-vehicle partnership economics and advertising take-rate. |
| CRM | Salesforce, Inc. | Information Technology | Software - Application | 204.6 | 16.02 | 28.8 | 21.78% | 7.17 | 0.81 | Low leverage | 9.58% | 13.20% | 77.68% | 20.06% | 14.4 | 7.00% | 4.34% | 40.13% | -2.32% | -6.63% | The most scrutinised turnaround in enterprise software: Agentforce adoption needs to convert to durable subscription growth before the discount closes. Buybacks are aggressive, which means free cash flow is the anchor — margins rather than growth are what the multiple is now paying for. |
| CPRT | Copart, Inc. | Industrials | Specialty Business Services | 26.9 | 17.23 | 18.01 | 25.93% | 0 | 0 | Low leverage | 9.68% | 6.00% | 94.50% | 36.51% | 1.23 | 4.60% | 3.42% | -12.31% | -35.46% | -35.08% | A toll road on used-car total losses: volume grows with miles driven and vehicle complexity, while land ownership keeps the model capital-light and net-cash. Pricing power is intact, but insurance-carrier consolidation is a slow-growing customer base to watch. |
| QCOM | QUALCOMM Incorporated | Information Technology | Semiconductors | 187.8 | 17.24 | 20.1 | 112.87% | 9.29 | 0.8 | Low leverage | 13.66% | 9.40% | 55.43% | 27.90% | — | — | -9.45% | 19.26% | 6.09% | -29.92% | Handset royalty business is the ballast; the optionality is automotive and edge-AI licensing plus a possible PC modem breakthrough. Diversification away from Apple is the single biggest swing factor, and litigation/licensing headlines remain the main idiosyncratic risk. |
| EME | EMCOR Group, Inc. | Industrials | Engineering & Construction | 28.6 | 17.63 | 20.14 | 32.92% | -0.79 | -0.51 | Net cash | 16.62% | 22.10% | 19.33% | 10.09% | — | — | -13.82% | -25.47% | -2.09% | -31.37% | Electrical and mechanical contracting levered to data-center electrical fit-outs and grid work — a bottleneck-solutions name capitalising on power constraints rather than compute itself. Strong backlog and net cash give pricing flexibility; margins are at cycle highs, so execution, not demand, is the risk. |
How this screen was built
How this screen was built
Quality: trailing ROE above 20%.
Balance sheet: net cash, or net debt under 1.0x trailing EBITDA. Net debt is total debt less cash from the latest reported annual balance sheet (quarterly where no annual filing exists); EBITDA is approximated by trailing twelve-month operating income, so the ratio is slightly conservative for D&A-heavy businesses.
Growth: trailing four-quarter revenue growth above 8% versus the prior four quarters. The prior fiscal-year growth figure is shown alongside for reference.
Universe: US-listed common stock above $10B market cap; foreign-domiciled and ADR names, ETFs and leveraged/inverse products are excluded. Banks, brokers and asset managers are dropped because net debt is an operating input rather than leverage for those models, and names with only a partial multi-year operating-income history are excluded because a TTM leverage ratio cannot be computed reliably.
What the output says
This is the intersection that is hardest to find in the current tape: high returns on capital and high growth and an unlevered balance sheet — the definition of a quality compounder that can hold earnings power through a capex-driven rate backdrop. Investors have been paying up for the balance-sheet story in a market where AI capex is being funded with debt and hyperscaler free cash flow is being consumed by construction.
What sits at the cheap end of the list is instructive: enterprise software and semis whose growth is being doubted, plus construction and infrastructure names tied to physical bottlenecks rather than to compute supply. The expensive end belongs to the consumer staple-like cash machines and the AI-hardware winners whose multiples already capitalise the buildout.
The screen is a starting point, not a conclusion: a sub-15x forward multiple on a 20%-plus ROE business is usually the market pricing a specific decay thesis (seat-based software, handset chips, cyclical contracting margins). The work is judging whether that decay is real.
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Educational research tool — not investment advice. A screen is a starting point, not a recommendation.