Global ROIC Stars – 2026: GLOBAL | Quantitative Strategy

Research evidence excerpt

Global ROIC Stars – 2026: GLOBAL | Quantitative Strategy

GLOBAL | Quantitative Strategy EquityJuneResearch18, 2026

Global ROIC Stars — 2026

Global profitability has been rising, fueled by AI-related earnings, with EM Key report screens Pages

US portfolio 9

leading the way. Consensus estimates a broad-based boost to ROICs for EM portfolio 11

stars (moats)both the US and EM in 2026, while Europe and Japan lag. Given strong ROIC

Rising ROIC stars US: 76-80

markets and adverse factor exposure, quality struggles have continued in ROIC turnaround Europe:EM: 92-97107-111

2026. ROIC stars, i.e., high-ROIC stocks with incremental ROIC momentum, Peaking ROIC China: 121-124

Low and falling ROIC India: 134-135

have been doing well, capturing both the growth and momentum aspects, High-quality with momentum and AU: 141-142

while "peaking" ROIC has lagged. . revision

Global profitability has been stable

21.5

20.0Global profitability set to improve: Consensus expects MSCI AC World ROE (incl. fin) to be 2220

17.6% this year and 18.3% in 2027, from 15% in 2024. Median ROIC of 11% is also set to rise. 18 18.3

%) 16

14.1Semis (#1, +2 places) and discr'y retail (#2, +12) rank the highest on our composite profitability 14

12score, while pharma (-10) and healthcare (-8) have seen the biggest drop in ranking. (incl-fin, 10 12.3

ROE 8

Expending R&D distorts true ROIC: The rise of asset-lite companies has created significant 4

distortion in the ROIC framework, which mostly treats hard assets as invested capital. Our new 20

framework of adj ROIC provides a more meaningful comparison by treating soft assets-related ACWI97A98A99A00A01A02A03AUSA04A05A06A07A08A09A10ADM11A12AEurope13A14A15A16A17A18A19A20AJapan21A22A23A24A25A26F27F EM