Dollar Wave

The S&P 500 barely passes

All 500 companies in the index, put through Joseph Piotroski's 9-question exam (F-Score, 2000). Average score: 5.0 out of 9.

Bloomberg data · October 2026

Companies analysed: 500
Average score: 5.0out of 9 · median 5
Scores of 7-8: 7019.8% of the index by market cap
Scores of 2-3: 577.6% of the index by market cap

Score

FromTo

Size (market-cap quintiles)

Sector

Only 13 companies score 8 and none reaches 9

Number of companies per F-Score (0 to 9). Tap a bar to filter by that score.

None with 0 or 1

None with 9

Among the giants, only Apple and Eli Lilly score 8

The 12 largest by market cap and their score.

Average: 5.0

Less than one point separates the best and the worst sector

Average score by GICS sector, highest to lowest. Tap a sector to filter.

Financials and real estate have signals without data that Bloomberg counts as 0: their score is not comparable with the rest.

Almost all generate cash; almost none pass quality of earnings

% of companies passing each signal, among those with data.

Profitability

ROA +94.4%
CFO +98.4%
ROA ↑49.5%
Quality of earnings5.4%

Leverage, liquidity and source of funds

No more debt54.7%
Liquidity ↑50.5%
No new shares66.9%

Operating efficiency

Margin ↑51.5%
More sales52.1%

The cheapest 40% score worse: value traps are real

Price-to-book (P/B) quintiles, cheapest to most expensive, against their average score. Excluding financials and real estate.

4.8

5.4

5.3

5.4

0.3–2.1

2.1–3.5

3.5–6.4

6.4–12.0

12.0–1,250.7

← CheapestWeak (2-3)Most expensive →

29 non-financial companies without P/B are left out.

Marvell and Vertex jump from 2 to 8; NVIDIA drops from 8 to 4

Biggest score changes vs. the previous fiscal year.

Biggest rises

Biggest falls

195 up · 196 down · 109 unchanged

All 500, one by one

500 companies · Tap a row to open the company card.


Apple IncAAPL	8	+2	6	66.9	4,870	Information Technology	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Eli Lilly & CoLLY	8	+1	7	40.7	1,076	Health Care	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Lam Research CorpLRCX	8	+1	7	34.9	435	Information Technology	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
KLA CorpKLAC	8	0	8	42.6	270	Information Technology	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Marvell Technology IncMRVL	8	+6	2	16.1	239	Information Technology	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Vertex Pharmaceuticals IncVRTX	8	+6	2	6.9	128	Health Care	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Parker-Hannifin CorpPH	8	+1	7	8.0	123	Industrials	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Newmont CorpNEM	8	+1	7	3.7	122	Materials	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Trane Technologies PLCTT	8	+1	7	12.0	102	Industrials	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Illumina IncILMN	8	+3	5	15.3	41	Health Care	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Vulcan Materials CoVMC	8	+4	4	3.7	31	Materials	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
STERIS PLCSTE	8	+1	7	2.8	20	Health Care	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
PTC IncPTC	8	+2	6	4.5	16	Information Technology	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✓
Micron Technology IncMU	7	+1	6	8.8	1,214	Information Technology	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓
Mastercard IncMA	7	+2	5	63.8	484	Financials	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	—	✓
Palantir Technologies IncPLTR	7	+2	5	59.9	454	Information Technology	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓
Coca-Cola Co/TheKO	7	+3	4	11.5	369	Consumer Staples	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓	✗
Dell Technologies IncDELL	7	+1	6	—	358	Information Technology	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓
Philip Morris International InPM	7	+2	5	—	292	Consumer Staples	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓
Netflix IncNFLX	7	−1	8	10.6	279	Communication Services	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓
RTX CorpRTX	7	+1	6	3.8	249	Industrials	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓
Analog Devices IncADI	7	+4	3	6.0	202	Information Technology	✓	✓	✓	✗	✗	✓	✓	✓	✓
Seagate Technology Holdings PLSTX	7	0	7	88.9	192	Information Technology	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓	✗	✓	✓
Gilead Sciences IncGILD	7	0	7	7.9	179	Health Care	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓
Walt Disney Co/TheDIS	7	+1	6	1.7	176	Communication Services	✓	✓	✓	✗	✓	✗	✓	✓	✓

✓ pass · ✗ fail · — no data (counts as 0)

Page 1 of 20

The 9 questions of the exam

Each question adds 1 point if the answer is yes. The final score goes from 0 to 9.

Profitability

1.Does it make money?
Positive ROA
Formula
Net income ÷ total assets > 0
What it detects
Whether the company is profitable. Bloomberg uses positive net income.
2.Does its business generate cash?
Positive operating cash flow
Formula
Operating cash flow > 0
What it detects
Whether the business brings in real money, not just accounting profit.
3.Is it more profitable than last year?
Increasing ROA
Formula
This year's ROA > last year's ROA
What it detects
Whether profitability is improving.
4.Are its earnings backed by cash?
Quality of earnings
Formula
Operating cash flow > net income
What it detects
Whether profit rests on cash rather than on accounting adjustments (accruals).

Leverage, liquidity and source of funds

5.Has it cut its long-term debt?
No more debt
Formula
Long-term debt ÷ total assets: lower than last year
What it detects
Whether the company relies less on debt.
6.Has its short-term liquidity improved?
Increasing current ratio
Formula
Current assets ÷ current liabilities: higher than last year
What it detects
Whether it can meet its short-term payments more easily.
7.Has it avoided issuing new shares?
No new shares
Formula
Shares outstanding the same as or lower than last year
What it detects
Whether it didn't need to raise money by diluting shareholders.

Operating efficiency

8.Has its gross margin improved?
Increasing gross margin
Formula
This year's gross margin > last year's
What it detects
Whether it earns more on each sale (prices or costs).
9.Does it sell more per dollar of assets?
More sales
Formula
Sales ÷ total assets (asset turnover): higher than last year
What it detects
Whether it uses its assets more efficiently. In Bloomberg: “Increasing Asset Turnover”.

Methodology and caveats

Bloomberg data as delivered. “—” means no data and counts as 0 in the score.
Bloomberg's “Quality of earnings” signal is passed by only 27 companies, all loss-making; that is why no profitable company scores above 8.
Piotroski designed the model for the cheapest 20% of the market (mostly microcaps); among large companies it discriminates less.
It is a snapshot: subsequent returns have not been measured.
This is not investment advice.

Read the article on Dollar Wave ↗Piotroski's original paper (2000) ↗