2026 Damodaran EBIT margin medians
Aswath Damodaran (NYU Stern) publishes a free annual dataset of operating margin medians by industry. The January 2026 update covers 94 US industry buckets. Definition: operating income divided by revenue, computed company-by-company and then median-aggregated within sector[Damodaran].
How to cite the dataset
Damodaran, A. (2026). Margins by Sector (US): January 2026 update. NYU Stern School of Business. Retrieved fromstern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/datafile/margin.html.
Full table (selection)
| Sector | EBIT margin (median) |
|---|---|
| Software (System) | 23.4% |
| Software (Application) | 15.6% |
| Internet Software | 11.3% |
| Semiconductor | 21.6% |
| Pharma (Drugs) | 13.9% |
| Healthcare Equipment | 12.7% |
| Telecom Services | 13.7% |
| Banking (Regional) | 31.2% |
| REIT (Equity) | 31.8% |
| Utility (General) | 19.4% |
| Hotel/Gaming | 11.8% |
| Restaurant/Dining | 10.7% |
| Machinery | 11.6% |
| Auto & Truck | 5.1% |
| Retail (General) | 4.8% |
| Apparel | 6.2% |
| Food Wholesalers | 2.5% |
| Beverage (Soft) | 21.5% |
| Household Products | 13.2% |
| Aerospace/Defense | 9.6% |
| Oil/Gas (Integrated) | 11.4% |
| Drugs (Biotech) | -12.3% |
What changed from Jan-2025
- Semiconductor margins lifted 2-3 percentage points on AI-driver capacity.
- Retail margins compressed roughly 70-90 bps on continued shrink and freight.
- Pharma steady at low-teens; biotech still negative aggregate due to large cohort of pre-revenue names.