ISS EVA Research Roundup: July 17th, 2025

Weekly Research

Names in the News: COST and FAST (report)

This week, we cover two large cap U.S. names with very strong Risk-Adjusted Profitability, COST and FAST. COST is an ‘Expensive but Worth It’ firm that was upgraded to ‘Overweight’ earlier this week. The company recently announced June sales results, seeing steady comparable sales growth, driven by International Markets and E-Commerce. FAST saw its share price move 4% higher on Monday to a new all-time high after the company’s Q2 numbers reflected a positive inflection in EVA Momentum (growth).

EBITDAR Margin Highs & the Inventory Restocking Cycle (report)

Global aggregate EBITDAR Margin for our 29k stock coverage is back around all-time highs that were last seen between June 2021 and January 2022. One risk to P&L profitability expanding further, as is forecast by consensus, is the inventory restocking cycle. Prior to confirmation of the tariffs, corporates acted on building additional inventory, knowing that prices were likely to increase but not knowing at the time to what level.

Financials: Mid-Year Review (report)

The Financials sector looks attractive in the PRVit framework. Banks look the most attractive but not in the U.S. universe. Global Large Cap Banks score as the most attractive. Financial Services also score as attractive, especially in the Small Cap universes (U.S. and ex U.S.).

Materials: Mid-Year Review (report)

Although the worst performing sector in 2024, global Materials has been one of the better performing sectors in 2025 so far, with a return of 12.8% on a YTD basis compared to the global sales-weighted average return of 10.9%. EVA Momentum (growth) has seen 20 months of improvement, moving closer to positive territory. EVA Margin (profitability) is negative but has shown signs of bottoming, stabilizing through H1 2025 at 8-year lows. We started 2025 with a neutral view for the sector, being slightly cautious of the very elevated investor expectations, while we suggested EVA Profitability looked closer to bottoming.

Industry Snapshot: Global Food Retail (report)

The industry looks unattractive in the PRVit framework with relatively strong levels of Risk adjusted Profitability being offset by a moderate Valuation. EVA Drivers are yet to improve, but consensus suggests a recovery in Sales Growth and Capital efficiency while EBITDAR Margin is expected to contract.

Quant Reports

Quant Corner: July 17, 2025 (report)

PRVit spreads were positive in Europe, the U.K., AxJ, the Emerging Markets, and the Global universe through the second week of July. Quality only worked in Europe and the U.K. Cheap Value outperformed expensive Value in all regions except the U.K.

Better World: Cheap Value for a Better World Russell 1000 (report)

We identify attractive names in the Russell 1000 Index with cheap Value scores (V), attractive PRVit, and strong ESG Performance Scores (see details below). The PRVit framework compares a firm’s operational Quality to the Value paid in the market: the greater the disconnect between Quality and Value, the more favorable the stock.

Chart of the Week

With equity markets pushing higher we check in on current Valuation levels. Our Chart of the Week shows the current and historical ranges of the Future Growth Reliance (FGR) metric by sector. FGR measures the % of market value dependent on future growth in EVA and can be described as our equivalent to a P/E ratio. The higher the green dot, the higher investors’ expectations are for future value creation. IT, Communication Services, and Health Care have the highest expectations relative to their historical average expectations level. Energy is the only sector with FGR below its historical average.

—

Originally Posted on July 17, 2025