High ROE stocks in India: return on equity 20% or more

Every company with an ROE of 20% or more is listed, highest first, with profit taken from the latest four quarters of profit, or the latest two half years for a company that reports half-yearly. Net worth is the owners' capital in the business: share capital plus reserves. The list can be narrowed by sector and size, or searched by name.

ROE is profit divided by net worth, times 100. An ROE of 20% means each ₹100 of owners' capital produced ₹20 of profit over the period.

Both the profit and the net worth are the parts that belong to the company's own shareholders, after the stakes of other owners in its subsidiaries.

ROCE is return on capital employed: operating profit after depreciation, leaving out other income and one-off items, divided by capital employed. Capital employed is the whole group's net worth, other owners of its subsidiaries included, plus borrowings.

ROE 5Y is the average of the last five years' ROE. Op margin is operating profit before depreciation divided by revenue. Net margin is net profit divided by revenue.

Borrowing can raise ROE. When a business earns more on borrowed money than the interest it pays, the extra profit is spread over the same net worth, so its ROE rises while its ROCE does not. Comparing ROE with ROCE on the page shows how much of the return rests on borrowing.

A small or negative net worth, often after years of losses or large buybacks, can push ROE very high or make it meaningless. One unusually profitable twelve months can also lift the figure, which is why the page shows the five-year average beside it. Banks and finance companies run on borrowed money by design, so their ROE sits on a different footing.