Where Are the Highest-Quality Value Opportunities This Week?
Monday, October 5, 2026 · Johnny Hopkins
This week’s Acquirer’s Multiple® All Investable Stocks Screener highlights a broad range of potentially undervalued businesses beyond the largest and most closely followed companies.
The All Investable universe includes the Large Cap 1000 but extends further into the middle of the market-cap spectrum, where companies generally receive less analyst coverage and may be more likely to become mispriced.
This week’s screen contains 200 companies, with 79 trading below 10x Acquirer’s Multiple® and 112 trading below 12x. The median Acquirer’s Multiple across the screen is approximately 11.2x.
A low valuation alone does not necessarily indicate a high-quality opportunity. Some businesses are inexpensive because they face declining earnings, heavy debt, industry disruption or unusually favourable conditions that may not continue.
To identify companies offering a stronger combination of value and quality, we applied the following additional filters:
- Acquirer’s Multiple below 12x
- Five-year average return on assets above 15%
- Positive incremental growth
- Positive free-cash-flow yield
- Debt-to-equity below 50%
A total of 26 companies met all five requirements.
The qualifying group has a median Acquirer’s Multiple of approximately 8.0x, a median free-cash-flow yield of approximately 9.5%, and a median five-year average return on assets of 23.5%.
Where Quality Value Is Appearing
Energy remains well represented across integrated oil and gas, exploration and production, downstream energy, midstream operations and oilfield services. These businesses can generate substantial cash flow, although their earnings remain sensitive to commodity prices.
Materials and mining are also prominent. The qualifying group includes several metal ore miners alongside specialty and mixed chemicals companies.
Technology contributes candidates in semiconductor manufacturing and technology consulting, while healthcare is represented by biopharmaceutical and other healthcare businesses.
Other qualifying companies come from apparel, professional services, media, automotive parts, tobacco, machinery and leisure goods. The range of industries gives investors several different areas of the market to investigate further.
Bottom Line
This week’s All Investable screen contains 26 companies combining modest valuations, positive free cash flow, strong historical returns on assets and debt-to-equity below 50%.
The median five-year return on assets among the qualifying companies is a particularly strong 23.5%, while the median Acquirer’s Multiple is approximately 8.0x.
These measures provide a starting point for research rather than a conclusion about any company’s investment merits. The next step is to examine earnings durability, competitive advantages, capital allocation and the risks behind each valuation.
The complete ranked list, company names and underlying valuation and quality measures are available to subscribers through the Acquirer’s Multiple® All Investable Stocks Screener.
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