Return on invested capital (ROIC) may be one of the best metrics to find which stocks will outperform the market. Measuring a company's profitability compared to its debt and equity, a consistently high ROIC indicates a wide moat surrounding a business's operations.

For example, the top 40% of ROICs in the Motley Fool's "investable universe" nearly doubled the returns of their lower-ranked peers since 2003 -- and did even better if their ROICs were rising over time.

Averaging ROICs of 19% and 23% since 2000, respectively, Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Mettler-Toledo International (NYSE: MTD) seem to prove this theory to be true. 

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Source Fool.com