S&P 500 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
S&P 500 Aggregate Return on Invested Capital (TTM)
Live value temporarily unavailable.
Source: Company filings (aggregated)
Data updated daily
What it measures
The S&P 500 ROIC measures aggregate net operating profit after tax (NOPAT) as a percentage of aggregate average invested capital for index constituents on a trailing-twelve-month basis. Invested capital is total equity plus interest-bearing debt minus cash, representing the capital actually deployed in the operating business. An ROIC of 12% means the index earns $12 after tax for every $100 of operating capital deployed.
Why it matters
ROIC is widely considered the most rigorous measure of corporate value creation because it measures returns on the capital actually employed in the business, stripped of financing choices. When ROIC exceeds the weighted average cost of capital (WACC), every dollar reinvested creates value; when it falls below, growth destroys value. At the index level, the spread between ROIC and the cost of capital is the single most important determinant of whether the current valuation premium is justified or stretched. Sustained high ROIC also implies competitive advantages that protect pricing power and margins from mean-reversion.
How it is calculated
ROIC (TTM) = Σ NOPAT TTM ÷ Σ Average Invested Capital × 100
LENSE computes NOPAT per constituent as TTM EBIT multiplied by (1 − effective tax rate), using as-reported figures from quarterly income statements. Invested capital is computed as total equity plus total interest-bearing debt minus cash and equivalents at period-end balance sheets. Average invested capital is the mean of beginning- and end-of-period values. The ratio is aggregated as total NOPAT divided by total average invested capital — not a simple average of per-company ROICs. Constituents with zero or negative average invested capital are excluded. Index constituency is resolved point-in-time using point-in-time index constituency.
Recent (monthly)
Recent data unavailable.
Data source: Company filings (aggregated). Computed and published by LENSE Analytics.