Here's how Bloomberg describes the formula: Deluard divided the S&P 500 into deciles based on a measure he calls "market value of intangible assets per employee" — the price of a company's intellectual property and brand recognition compared with the number of people employed. The cluster with small numbers of employees relative to company value has returned 18% this year. The group with the highest labor intensiveness has seen a 19% loss. To illustrate this correlation, Eric compares Netflix and Comcast in his update: Take Netflix Inc. (NFLX) as an example. The company employs just 8,600 people, and it's up nearly 60% year-to-date. Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), which owns Netflix competitor NBCUniversal, has nearly 190,000 employees. It's down 0.75% over the same stretch. (Companies like Netflix) are generating bigger returns with fewer employees, and that means more profits … Netflix ranks No. 2 on Deluard's list. Not surprisingly, "a mix of financial, retail, and energy firms" come in last.