How Scoring Works
Every stock gets a 0-100 score from 22 measures across 5 pillars: Business Strength, Financial Safety, Cash & Dividends, Price Fairness, and Risk, the same rules shown below.
In short: every measure earns 0, 1 or 2 points. Those points are pooled, weighted by pillar, into one score out of 100. The full breakdown is below.
How a score is built
- Return on Equity (ROE)
- 4-Year Revenue Growth
- 4-Year Profit Growth
- Net Profit Margin
- Quarterly Momentum
- Debt-to-Equity
- Current Ratio
- Interest Coverage
- Dividend Quality
- Operating Cash Flow
- Free Cash Flow
- Cash & Cash Equivalents
- Dividend Payout Ratio
- P/E Ratio
- P/B Ratio
- PEG Ratio
- Earnings Consistency
- Debt Trend (4yr)
- Share Count Trend (4yr)
- Inventory vs Sales (4yr)
- Quarterly Consistency
- Asset Turnover Trend (4yr)
Weigh things differently? Make your own scoring rules →
How to interpret a score
The same three levels apply to each pillar and to the overall score.
Every measure inside a pillar lands in one of three bands: Strong, Okay, or Weak. No partial credit.
Strong = 2 points, Okay = 1, Weak = 0. A measure marked N/A is skipped and doesn't count either way.
A pillar, or the overall score, reads Strong at 80+, Okay 40-79, Weak below 40.
Every measure across all 5 pillars is pooled together into one overall score, out of 100, not a plain average of the 5 pillar scores. A measure that doesn't apply (a bank's current ratio, for example) is simply left out of the pool, not counted against the score. Too few usable measures overall → no number, just an "insufficient data" badge.
Under the default settings, each pillar still ends up worth about 20% of the total for a typical company: the same even split as before. That's by design: Financial Safety and Price Fairness measures are pooled at a higher weight (1.7) than Business Strength and Risk (1.0), with Cash & Dividends in between (1.3), because those pillars have fewer measures to begin with: the higher weight per measure balances out the smaller count, so no pillar quietly ends up mattering more just because it happens to have more (or fewer) things to check. Banks are the exception: their Financial Safety pillar uses 3 bank-only measures instead of the usual debt checks, so their split looks a little different.
Don't agree with that balance? Set your own weights in My Rules and see your own score, live.
Yes, on My Rules, free and with no account. Turn any measure up, down or off, add it back, give a measure a second rule, add consistency checks such as 'profit rose in 3 of the last 3 years', and decide how much an Okay is worth next to a Strong. Each measure can also be judged three ways. For P/E:
| Compare with | Example rule for P/E |
|---|---|
| A fixed number | Strong at 12× or below (the site's own rule) |
| Its own past | Strong at least 10% below its own average in earlier years |
| Its sector | Strong at least 10% below the middle stock of its sector |
The site's own score never changes: yours is a second score, saved only in your browser, which you can share as a link and apply to every stock. Build your own rules →
Skipped: the data wasn't available, or the measure doesn't apply to this company's sector (a bank's current ratio, for example). Not held against the company.
Calculated, and came out poorly, including a loss or negative equity, which scores an automatic Weak rather than N/A. A warning sign worth seeing, not a data gap to hide.
Fewer than 2 of this pillar's measures are available, so scoring it wouldn't be fair. The whole pillar is skipped; its measures are simply left out of the overall score.
Too much data is missing to give this stock a fair overall score: a number built on half the picture would mislead more than help.
Banks run on customer deposits, which count as "debt" in the usual formulas, so the usual debt and cash-flow measures would be misleading. Banks still get all 5 pillars: Financial Safety checks the 3 things that actually sink a bank, its bad loans, the money set aside for them, and its capital cushion:
Same 5 pillars; a bank's Financial Safety uses bank measures instead of debt and liquidity.
- Impaired Loans1%2%4%+
- Loan Loss Coverage20%70%100%180%+
- Capital Ratio (CET1)7%12%14%20%+
These measures are skipped for banks:
- Debt-to-Equity - Banks work differently: customer deposits count as 'debt', so this measure would be misleading. It's skipped for banks and doesn't affect the score.
- Current Ratio - Banks work differently: customer deposits count as 'debt', so this measure would be misleading. It's skipped for banks and doesn't affect the score.
- Interest Coverage - Banks work differently: customer deposits count as 'debt', so this measure would be misleading. It's skipped for banks and doesn't affect the score.
- Debt Trend (4yr) - Banks work differently: customer deposits count as 'debt', so this measure would be misleading. It's skipped for banks and doesn't affect the score.
- Operating Cash Flow - A bank's day-to-day business is money itself: new loans and customer deposits flow straight through its cash flow, so this number swings wildly for reasons that say nothing about health. It's skipped for banks and doesn't affect the score.
- Free Cash Flow - A bank's day-to-day business is money itself: new loans and customer deposits flow straight through its cash flow, so this number swings wildly for reasons that say nothing about health. It's skipped for banks and doesn't affect the score.
- Dividend Payout Ratio - Banks typically pay out 50-90% of profit: more than the universal 'ideal middle' band used here. Read a bank's Okay on this row with that in mind.
The 3 bank numbers come from each bank's own quarterly results and are counted the same way for every bank. If a bank's figures are more than 2 quarters old, they're left out (N/A), never marked Weak.
REITs (property trusts) must distribute most of their income, run thin cash balances, and borrow against property differently from ordinary companies, so these measures use REIT-specific thresholds:
Current Ratio - REITs collect steady rent and keep little spare cash while rolling over property loans, so a current ratio below 1 is normal for them. It's skipped for REITs and doesn't affect the score.
A one-off gain (a property sale, an insurance payout, a disposal) can make a single year's profit look spectacular without being repeatable. So these measures are capped at Okay, never Strong, when profit spikes or a loss year appears in the window:
- Return on Equity (ROE)
- Net Profit Margin
- P/E Ratio
- PEG Ratio
- 4-Year Profit Growth
The cap only pulls a Strong down to Okay: a genuinely Weak measure still stays Weak. This number looks Strong, but the latest profit jumped suddenly (or follows a loss year). Profits this good are often one-time events (a property sale, an insurance payout), not repeatable earnings, so the score is capped at Okay until a repeat year proves it.
Dividends get the same guard. When the last 12 months' dividend is at least 3 times the best earlier year in the 4-year window, Dividend Quality is capped at Okay: a special dividend, or cash handed back after selling a business, makes the yield look huge for one year only.
Earnings Consistency and Dividend Quality check reliability the same way, over the same 4-year window (below). A dividend that was stopped, or never paid at all, is also a hard Weak.
Red dot = a down-year.
Yearly reports can be up to a year old, so two measures use the freshest results instead: Quarterly Momentum (Business Strength) and Quarterly Consistency (Risk): the newest 8 quarters, shown below.
Deliberate: comparing four quarters against four means every season appears once on each side, so a seasonal business isn't judged on which part of the year it happens to fall in, unlike comparing one quarter to the one right before it.
Both need 8 quarters IN A ROW: a gap marks them N/A rather than measuring a window with a hole in it. About 1 stock in 5 today.
A stock's page may show Warnings: patterns worth a second look. They don't change the score or any pillar; just a nudge to read further.
Weak Spot: a pillar scores very low (under 25). Even if the overall score looks fine, this pillar needs a closer look.
Value Trap: This stock looks cheap on Price Fairness, but Business Strength is Weak: it may deserve to be cheap, not undervalued.
Low-Price Yield: The dividend yield looks attractive partly because the share price is near its 52-week low: check why before assuming the dividend is safe.
Profit Spike: One or more measures show a sudden profit jump (or follow a loss year) and were capped to avoid overstating the score. See the "?" notes on the affected rows.
One-off Dividend: The last 12 months' dividend is at least 3 times the best earlier year, so the yield shown is likely a one-off (a special dividend, or cash returned after selling a business). Don't expect the same yield next year.
Recent Loss: This company lost money in at least one recent year: several measures reflect that. Read the Business and Price sections carefully.
Is this a good business that earns well and keeps growing?
- Return on Equity (ROE)8%15%30%+
- 4-Year Revenue Growth-20%0%8%30%+Zero or negative revenue at either end of the window → N/A.Weakbelow 0%/yrOkay0 to +8%/yrStrong+8%/yr or more
- 4-Year Profit Growth-20%0%8%30%+Weakbelow 0%/yr, or any loss yearOkay0 to +8%/yrStrong+8%/yr or more
- Net Profit Margin5%15%30%+
- Quarterly MomentumThen, profit over the same 4 quarters: fell more than 5% → drops one level; rose more than 5% AND revenue wasn't shrinking by more than 2% → lifts one level; those 4 quarters lost money overall → Weak regardless of revenue. Fewer than 8 quarters in a row → N/A.-20%0%10%30%+
Hover or tap a measure's name for what it means and how it's worked out.
If tough times come, can the company survive? Debt and liquidity live here.
- Debt-to-Equity0.5×1×2×+
- Current Ratio1×1.5×3×+
- Interest Coverage2×5×10×+
Hover or tap a measure's name for what it means and how it's worked out.
Does real cash come in, and does some of it reach shareholders?
- Dividend Quality3%6%10%+Reliability check, applied on top of the yield ruler above.Weak3 or more down-years, stopped, or never paidOkay2 down-yearsStrong0-1 down-years
- Operating Cash FlowWeaklatest year negative, or negative in 2 or more yearsOkaypositive, but not clearly growingStrongpositive every year, and the latest is at least 110% of the first
- Free Cash FlowWeaklatest year negativeOkayotherwise positiveStrongpositive in 3 of the last 4 years, latest positive
- Cash & Cash EquivalentsWeakneitherOkaycash grew, or it covers short-term debtStrongcash grew and it covers short-term debt
- Dividend Payout Ratio10%30%70%90%100%+
Hover or tap a measure's name for what it means and how it's worked out.
A great company can still be a bad deal if the price is too high.
- P/E Ratio12×20×40×+
- P/B Ratio1×2×5×+
- PEG Ratio123+
Hover or tap a measure's name for what it means and how it's worked out.
How steady is the story? Bumpy profits and rising debt make a stock riskier.
- Earnings ConsistencyWeak3 or more down-years, or any loss yearOkay2 down-yearsStrong0-1 down-years
- Debt Trend (4yr)Weakrose more than 10%Okaywithin ±10%Strongfell more than 10%
- Share Count Trend (4yr)Weakabove +8%/yrOkay+2 to +8%/yrStrongbelow +2%/yr
- Inventory vs Sales (4yr)-20pp0pp10pp40pp+No inventory → N/A.Weakabove +10pp/yrOkay0 to +10pp/yrStrong0pp/yr or below
- Quarterly ConsistencyEach quarter is compared with the same quarter a year earlier. Losses are looked for across all 8 quarters. Fewer than 8 quarters in a row → N/A.Weak3 or 4 quarters down, or any loss quarterOkay2 quarters downStrong0-1 quarters down
- Asset Turnover Trend (4yr)-60%-10%10%100%+
Hover or tap a measure's name for what it means and how it's worked out.
What this score is, and isn't
This score evaluates financial performance, not brand strength, management quality, or competitive advantage.
Data is refreshed periodically, not live. Each stock page shows when its market snapshot (price, 52-week range, market cap) was captured, and the score itself uses the most recent annual filings available at that time. This is an educational tool, not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do your own research, or speak to a licensed financial adviser, before investing.
Did last year's scores see this year's problems coming? We tested it: Does the Score Work? A One-Year Test
Methodology version 2 (per-metric weighted scoring, 14 Sep 2026) · Page last reviewed 16 Sep 2026.