Type a ticker or a company name to see that company’s financial ratios and its Altman, Piotroski and Beneish scores for each of its last five annual reports, worked out from the figures it filed with the SEC. Every year links to the report it came from, and the latest year is placed among US-listed companies in the same industry.
What the lookup shows
- Ratios for up to five years. Liquidity, profitability, leverage and efficiency ratios for each annual report, side by side, so you can see the trend as well as the latest figure. Each ratio uses the same formula as its calculator on this site, and its name links to the page that explains it.
- A comparison with the industry. The latest year’s median and position among companies in the same industry group, taken from the company’s SIC code. You can switch to another industry or to all US-listed companies. The groups and the method are the same as in the current ratio by industry guide and the other by-industry guides.
- The DuPont breakdown. Return on equity split into net profit margin, asset turnover and the equity multiplier for each year, with the part that changed most. The DuPont analysis page explains the three parts.
- Three scoring models. The Altman Z″-score, the Piotroski F-score and the Beneish M-score for each year, with the zone or group each result falls in under the model’s published cut-offs, and every part of each score. The lookup uses Altman’s Z″ version, for non-manufacturers, because it works from book equity and needs no share price.
- Points to look at. Short notes on what stands out: current liabilities above current assets, negative equity, interest not covered by operating income, losses, large moves over the years, and ratios outside the middle half of the industry. They describe the figures; they are not a verdict.
- The figures behind every ratio. Each figure the ratios use, year by year, with the XBRL concept it was read from and a link to each annual report on the SEC’s EDGAR system, so you can check any number in the filing itself.
Where the figures come from
- Tagged statements filed with the SEC. Companies file their financial statements with machine-readable XBRL tags. The lookup reads the SEC’s public XBRL data for each annual report: the 10-K, or the 20-F or 40-F of a foreign company that reports in US GAAP.
- Each year as first reported. A year’s figures come from that year’s own report. When a company later restates a year, for example after selling a business or changing an accounting policy, the earlier year is not changed, so a later report’s comparative column can show a different figure for the same year.
- Averages from the same report. Ratios that compare a year’s income with a balance, such as return on assets or inventory turnover, use the average of the opening and closing balances. Both come from the same report.
- The year before, for the scores. The Piotroski and Beneish scores compare each year with the year before. Those figures come from the comparative columns of the same annual report, and the total assets two years back, which the Piotroski score also needs, come from the report for the year before. The scores read a few lines the ratios do not, such as retained earnings, operating cash flow, long-term debt and selling, general and administrative expenses. Long-term debt, long-term investments and cash raised by issuing shares count as zero when the filing shows no such line.
- The same reading as the benchmarks. Each figure the ratios use is read from the same XBRL concepts, in the same order of preference, as the industry benchmarks it is compared with, so the comparison is like for like.
- Refreshed twice a day. Figures are fetched from the SEC when someone looks a company up and kept for up to 12 hours, so a report filed today can take up to half a day to appear.
Why a ratio or score can be missing
- The filing does not show the line. Not every company reports every line. Some show no gross profit or cost of goods sold, and some report no inventory. A ratio that needs a missing figure is left blank rather than estimated, and the reason is given beside it.
- Banks, insurers and brokers. Their balance sheets do not separate current from non-current items, so the liquidity ratios cannot be worked out, and most ratios are not compared with other industries because their revenue and borrowing work differently.
- Negative equity. When liabilities exceed assets, ratios that divide by equity are not shown, because a result on a negative base cannot be read the usual way.
- Other accounting standards. Companies that report under IFRS, as many foreign companies do, file figures the lookup does not read, so they are not covered.
- A short history. A company that listed recently has fewer annual reports, so fewer years are shown.
- A score needs every figure. A score is shown only when the filing reports every figure it needs, for both years where it compares two. A company with no cost of goods sold line gets no Piotroski or Beneish score, and a company’s first annual report has no earlier report to give the total assets the Piotroski score needs. Banks, insurers and brokers get no scores at all: the three models were built from the accounts of other businesses.
Reading the results
A ratio far from its industry median is a question to look into, not an answer. Compare the company with its own earlier years and with businesses that work the same way, and read the notes in the filing before drawing conclusions. Fiscal years end on different dates, so the industry comparison is approximate. Each score was built from the companies studied in the paper that introduced it, so a result in a model’s distress zone or above its cut-off is a reason to read the filing closely, not a prediction. The guide to analyzing financial ratios covers what to look for. The lookup is educational and is not investment advice.
For a private business, or to try your own figures, enter a balance sheet and income statement in the financial statement analyzer. It calculates the same ratios and comparisons from figures you type in.