ISS EVA Research Roundup: June 5th, 2025

Weekly Research

Names in the News: NOK and DELL (report)

This week we cover a relatively cheap and a relatively expensive firm that both look attractive in the PRVit framework, NOK and DELL, rated Buy and Overweight respectively. NOK, as part of the new CEO’s strategy on increased AI and data center exposure, is leading a consortium, working on a European drone project. DELL has seen a sharp rise in share price of more than 50% since early April. The firm posted strong results last week reporting robust demand for its AI-optimized servers.

Global Sector Charts: Consensus Calls for Positive EVA Growth in 2025 (report)

Global aggregate EVA Momentum (growth) continues to turn less negative as the pace of value destruction slows. The EVA-adjusted consensus outlook for EVA growth has edged higher as the Q1 numbers flow through. The consensus now calls for EVA growth to turn positive in Q4, driven by Sales Growth and EBITDAR Margin expansion, with P&L profitability expected to continue to improve back to the 2021 all-time highs by the end of the year.

Global Autos: Discerning the Capex Cycle (report)

In this report we focus on net new investment through the EVA-Adjusted PP&E Expenditures and see which companies had been investing before the Tariff announcements and have a greater risk of a production mismatch than they did prior to the announcement on U.S. Tariffs. We combine this with looking at the financial health of the firms through our Vulnerability measure looking at cash flow and indebtedness.

Industry Snapshot: Global Building Products (report)

Aggregate economic profitability has contracted significantly since 2022 but remains above pre-COVID highs, driven by EBITDAR Margin expanding to record highs. Sales growth turned positive in January, but asset efficiency has continued to worsen, leading to a sustained pressure on EVA Momentum (growth). EVA Fundamentals are yet to see a meaningful improvement while market expectations have significantly increased since 2024, leaving us with a negative view at this stage.

Quant Reports

PRVit Factor Report – Global (report)

Quality had a positive spread for the month of May in both the Large Cap and Small Cap universes, driven by the strong performance of Profitability and its subfactors. Investors added to Risk positions as high-Risk names outperformed low Risk names. Our Value factor had been strong in early 2025 but faltered in April for the Large Cap universe and now in May for the Small Cap universe.

PRVit Factor Report – United States (report)

Quality generated a positive spread in the Large Cap universe in May, driven by Profitability. In Small Cap, Profitability Trend (P2) generated a 97bps spread for the month. For the 2nd month in a row, high-Risk stocks outperformed low-Risk stocks.

PRVit Factor Report – Europe and the U.K. (report)

In Europe, PRVit continued to trend up through May 2025. Quality has generally been trending up in 2025. Value was up for the month of May. In the U.K., PRVit trended up from February through April but was off in May. Quality saw some volatility in May and ended the month net down 7bps.

PRVit Factor Report – Asia and Japan (report)

In AxJ, PRVit had a positive spread of 142bps for May, driven by both Quality and Value. In Japan, Quality and Value were also positive, leading to a PRVit spread of 173bps for the month.

Table of the Week: PRVit Heat Map Zones

We commented in last month’s Global Sector Charts: Staples Looking Expensive report that “Quality at a reasonable price is our preferred strategy, using the ‘High Quality and Cheap’ part of the EVA screener”. The table from this week’s Global PRVit report shows that investors have favored ‘Best of the Best’, the high quality and cheap part of the market during May and has also seen the strongest performance over the past year. ‘Worst of the worst’, which is the lower left zone on the heat map, consisting of highly valued, low-quality stocks continues to be the area of the market to avoid.

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Originally Posted on June 5, 2025