Piotroski F-Score calculator

The Piotroski F-Score is the sum of nine binary tests on the financial statements of a firm. Joseph D. Piotroski defined it in "Value Investing: The Use of Historical Financial Statement Information to Separate Winners from Losers" (University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, Selected Paper 84). Each test gives one point or zero, so the total is from 0 to 9. The paper says that the total "is designed to measure the overall quality, or strength, of the firm's financial position".

The calculator on this page runs the nine tests on the numbers that you type. One worked example from an annual report shows each step of the arithmetic.

The nine tests of the paper

The words in quotation marks come from sections 2.3.1 to 2.3.3 and from Table 1 of the paper. In these sections, return on assets, the cash flow ratio and asset turnover use total assets at the beginning of the year. The long-term debt ratio uses average total assets. For asset turnover, Table 1 gives a different denominator (rule 4 below).

Profitability (section 2.3.1)

Debt, liquidity and source of funds (section 2.3.2)

Operating efficiency (section 2.3.3)

Section 2.3.4 of the paper gives the total: "F_SCORE can range from a low of 0 to a high of 9, where a low (high) F_SCORE represents a firm with very few (mostly) good signals."

The paper applies the tests to firms with a high book-to-market ratio. Section 2.3 of the paper says that the nine signals "do not represent, nor purport to represent, the optimal set of performance measures for distinguishing good investments from bad investments". A total from this calculator describes the statement lines of one fiscal year against the year before. This page does not test the score against stock returns.

The rules of this calculator

The paper does not give a rule for each case, and it defines asset turnover in two ways. The four rules below are the rules of this calculator. They are not rules of the paper.

Rule 1 of this calculator. A ratio that does not change does not pass its test. For the long-term debt test the paper gives one point when the ratio fell and zero when it rose. The paper does not say what to do when the ratio is equal in the two years, for example when a firm has no long-term debt in both years. This calculator gives zero in that case. For tests 3, 6, 8 and 9 the paper says "zero otherwise", so an equal value gives zero there too.

Rule 2 of this calculator. The paper gives one point when the firm did not issue common equity in the year. Footnote 11 of the paper says: "Equity offerings were identified through the firm's statement of cash flows or statement of sources and uses of funds (through Compustat) for the year preceding portfolio formation." This calculator does not use a line of the statement of cash flows. It uses the count of shares outstanding at the two year ends and gives one point when the count did not go up. This count is a proxy. It also counts shares from stock awards to staff as an issue. It does not see an issue when a repurchase of shares of the same size or larger hides it.

Rule 3 of this calculator. Total assets at the beginning of each year, current liabilities and revenue are denominators. When one of them is zero or empty, a ratio is not defined. The page then shows a message and no score.

Rule 4 of this calculator. Asset turnover uses total assets at the beginning of the year, as section 2.3.3 of the paper says. Table 1 of the paper says something different: "The asset turnover ratio is defined as net sales scaled by average total assets for the year." The two definitions can give different results for test 9. The worked example below is such a case.

Table 1 of the paper also defines gross margin as net sales less the cost of goods sold. The paper uses the words "average total assets" and gives no formula for them. This calculator uses the mean of total assets at the beginning and at the end of the year. The paper says "net income before extraordinary items". Type the net income line that agrees with these words.

Run the score yourself

Type the statement lines of two fiscal years and total assets at the end of the year before them. Use one unit for all money lines, for example USD millions, and one unit for the two share counts. Net income and cash flow from operations can be negative. Write a loss as -206.4 or (206.4). The decimal mark is a point. A comma or a space is read as a thousands separator and must have three digits after it, as in 3,718.9. The calculator compares the exact decimal values that you type. It does not round a ratio before a comparison. Two ratios count as equal only when they are exactly equal. The ratios on the screen are rounded for display only. The fields start with the worked example below.

Current year

Net income Cash flow from operations Total assets, year end Long-term debt with its current part, year end Current assets, year end Current liabilities, year end Revenue Cost of revenue Shares outstanding, year end

Prior year

Net income Total assets, year end Long-term debt with its current part, year end Current assets, year end Current liabilities, year end Revenue Cost of revenue Shares outstanding, year end Total assets at the end of the year before the prior year

Load the worked example Clear all fields

1Return on assets is positive--

2Cash flow from operations is positive--

3Return on assets went up--

4Cash flow ratio is above return on assets--

5Long-term debt ratio fell--

6Current ratio improved--

7Share count did not go up (proxy for test 7)--

8Gross margin ratio went up--

9Asset turnover went up--

Total with the four rules of this calculator (0 to 9) -

The other reading of the paper for tests 9 and 7

9Asset turnover with average total assets (Table 1 of the paper)--

7Issue of common equity from the statement of cash flows (footnote 11 of the paper)Not runThis calculator does not read a statement of cash flows. Rule 2 uses the share count as a proxy. When the statement of cash flows shows no issue of common equity in the year, the definition of the paper gives one point for test 7.

Worked example from the fiscal year 2025 report of Playtika Holding Corp.

This worked example is arithmetic on a past annual report and is not an opinion on the stock. The numbers come from the XBRL company facts file of Playtika Holding Corp. at the SEC, CIK 0001828016. The fiscal year 2025 ended on 2025-12-31. The form 10-K for that year has the accession number 0001828016-26-000010 and was filed on 2026-02-26. In the SEC file, each input is a fact of that report, with one exception. The fiscal year 2024 values are the comparative values of that report. The exception is total assets at 2023-12-31. The file gives this fact from the form 10-K for fiscal year 2024, accession number 0001828016-25-000011, filed on 2025-02-27.

Money values are in USD millions. Share counts are in millions. The file gives whole numbers, for example 3718900000 for total assets at 2025-12-31.

Total assets at 2023-12-31 were 3,175.0. The prior-year ratios need this value. The calculator does not use the cash flow of fiscal year 2024.

Where the numbers come from

Each input of the worked example is one fact in the company facts file at data.sec.gov. The table gives the tag of each line. Each money fact covers the full fiscal year or is the value at the fiscal year end.

In this report the tag LongTermDebt is equal to the sum of two other tags. The tag LongTermDebtNoncurrent is 2,378.0 at the end of 2025 and 2,388.5 at the end of 2024. The tag LongTermDebtCurrent is 11.1 and 11.6. With the noncurrent part only, the ratios of test 5 are 0.6464 and 0.7010, and the result of test 5 is the same.

The paper uses net income before extraordinary items. The worked example uses the tag NetIncomeLoss. The SEC file has no tag with a name that begins with Extraordinary.

The F-Score numbers on the 1000x page of this site come from an outside data feed. This calculator does not make those numbers.