Methodology

How the figures are selected, calculated and marked.

Source

All figures come from XBRL facts in the company's own 10-K and 10-Q filings on SEC EDGAR. Every figure shows the filing (accession number), the period end, the filing date and the XBRL tag it is based on. Figures from proxy statements, press releases or other documents are not used. A company is published only after its figures have been checked against its own filings; the section below says which check stands behind each company.

Verification

The figures on this site are read from the structured XBRL data SEC EDGAR compiles from company filings. That compilation is one step away from the filing itself, so each company carries the check that stands behind it.

Cross-checked means every figure shown for the company — including later restated figures and comparative figures from later filings — has been found with the same value, in the same unit and for the same period, in the XBRL of the filing it comes from: the inline tags in the document, or the XBRL instance filed with it in the older years. Every filing the company's figures come from is checked, and no figure in any of them may differ. A company with a single shown figure that cannot be found in its filing is not published as cross-checked. Two independent paths from the company's own report to this page must agree, so neither SEC's compilation nor this site's parser can have altered a figure without it showing. The few company-specific tags SEC's compilation does not carry are read from the filing itself and read again by a separate parser. What the cross-check cannot say is whether the right line was picked for a calculation: it compares figures under the same tag, not the reading of the accounts. That reading is covered by a separate review, described under which line is used.

Human-verified means that, in addition, the figures were typed by hand from the filings into a reference file and every calculation on the site was matched against it, line by line, tag by tag and period by period. That is the check that also catches a figure that is correct in itself but wrong for the line it is used on. Companies move from cross-checked to human-verified over time, and the badge changes with them.

As filed

A fiscal year shows the figure from the first filing that reported it, normally that year's own 10-K. If a later 10-K reports a different figure for the same period under the same tag, the original is still shown and the figure is marked r; a restatement reported under a different tag is not detected. If SEC's structured data has no figure from the year's own 10-K and the figure comes from a later filing's comparative column, it is marked c. When two tags for the same line disagree and the disagreement has not been resolved, the figure is marked !. A calculated figure carries the marks of the facts it uses.

The fiscal year of a figure is determined by the end date of its period, not by the fiscal-year label in the filing.

Missing figures

A figure that cannot be established from the filings is shown as missing, with the reason. It is never shown as zero and never interpolated, and a ratio with a zero denominator has no value. The sections below say where a negative denominator also leaves a ratio without a value. A zero is shown only when the filing reports zero.

Which line is used

Each line shown has been read in the filing it comes from, to check that it is what its label says: gross rather than net, the whole company rather than a segment, the cash flow statement rather than a note, and the year's own figure rather than a later restatement. What that review found is applied in four ways.

Sum of two lines. When a company reports one use of cash on two lines of the same cash flow statement, for example borrowings and asset-backed borrowings, or its own capital expenditure and equipment leased to others, the figure is the sum of both lines from that filing, and the source box names both tags.

A note on the line. When a company's line is mainly what its label says but wider or narrower, for example dividends that include preferred shares or buybacks that include shares withheld for employee taxes, the figure is shown with a short note in the source box that says so. A note describes the line and never contains a figure.

A year left out. When a line is something else in a given year, for example acquisitions that are mostly purchases of spectrum licences, interest expense reported net of interest income, or a zero that only appears in a later filing's comparative column, that year is shown as missing with the reason rather than with the figure. Calculations that need the year leave it out in the same way.

A company-specific tag. When a company files the right line under its own XBRL tag, that tag is used for the years in which it carries the line, and the source box names it. Public float is always taken from the cover page of the fiscal year's own 10-K.

Where the cash went

Free cash flow is cash from operations minus capital expenditure, as reported in the cash flow statement. Buybacks, dividends, acquisitions, debt repayment and debt issued are the cash flow statement lines for each use. The share of free cash flow is the sum of a use divided by the sum of free cash flow, over the fiscal years in which free cash flow was positive and the use has a figure; the included years are listed with each share. In the chart, repayments of convertible debt are stacked with other debt repayment; in the table they have their own column.

Debt repayment is not shown as a share of free cash flow. The cash flow lines are gross: they include refinancing and, for companies with a finance arm, the finance arm's borrowing, so repayments can be several times free cash flow. Instead, the sum of debt repaid and the sum of debt issued are shown side by side, over the fiscal years in which both have a figure.

Missing, None reported and zero. A figure is missing when the XBRL data has no figure for the line in that year, or the figure is not used for the reason given with it. A cell reads None reported where the year's own 10-K has been checked and its cash flow statement has no line for the item, shows no amount for the year, or the 10-K states that nothing was paid; the source box names that 10-K. Cells not yet checked this way stay missing. A zero is shown only when the filing tags a zero. Neither missing nor none reported counts as zero: those years are left out of sums and shares, and the included years are listed.

Return on capital

After-tax operating income is operating income multiplied by one minus the effective tax rate, where the effective tax rate is income tax divided by pre-tax income. It is not calculated when pre-tax income or operating income is zero or negative, or when the tax rate is outside zero to one hundred percent.

Invested capital is shareholders' equity plus interest-bearing debt (long-term debt and the current debt lines) minus cash and cash equivalents, at the balance sheet date. Where the company tags only a broader line, that line is used and named in the source: equity including non-controlling interests, or cash including restricted cash, discontinued operations or short-term investments. Invested capital is undefined when equity is zero or negative.

Return on invested capital (ROIC) is after-tax operating income divided by the average of opening and closing invested capital. The median is taken over the fiscal years in which ROIC is shown (see the minimum for invested capital below), and the lowest of those years is shown with it. Return on incremental invested capital (ROIIC) is the change in after-tax operating income divided by the change in invested capital over five and three years; it is undefined when invested capital did not grow. The five-year figure is shown with the figure for the five years before it and whether the latest is higher or lower.

Owner earnings are shown as three estimates, because no single definition is agreed. A: net income plus depreciation and amortization minus capital expenditure. B: cash from operations minus capital expenditure. C: net income plus depreciation and amortization minus maintenance capital expenditure, estimated as capital expenditure minus the five-year average ratio of gross property, plant and equipment to revenue times the change in revenue; C is not shown when that estimate falls outside zero to total capital expenditure, or when the five years are incomplete. Per-share figures use diluted weighted average shares. Growth per share compares the first and the last fiscal year and is shown only for estimates that are positive in both years; share counts are not compared across a stock split.

Management record

The lines appear in a fixed order.

Average price paid per repurchased share: cash spent on buybacks divided by the number of shares repurchased that the company reports for its repurchase programme, for the latest fiscal year. It is not calculated without a reported share count, or when the cash amount and the share count are not on the same basis. Price-to-earnings paid is that price divided by diluted earnings per share for the same year; it is not calculated when earnings per share is zero or negative, or rounded in the filing by more than two percent of itself. A comparison with the current price-to-earnings needs a licensed share price and is not shown yet.

Net debt divided by operating income (interest-bearing debt minus the cash line used for invested capital, which normally excludes short-term investments; a broader line is named in the source) and operating income divided by interest expense: the latest fiscal year with a figure, with the lowest and highest years. Net debt divided by operating income has no figure in years with operating income at or below zero. Interest coverage has no figure in years with interest expense at or below zero; with an operating loss it is negative. When cash exceeds interest-bearing debt, the year is shown as net cash and is not ranked as the lowest.

Ratios with a very small denominator are calculated correctly but say little about the business, so they are not shown: net debt divided by operating income when operating income is below 2% of revenue, interest coverage when interest expense is below 0.1% of revenue, and return on invested capital when average invested capital is below 5% of revenue. Those years read Not shown, with the reason; the debt lines also name them.

Gross margin: the average of the yearly gross margins in fiscal 2021 and 2022 minus the average in fiscal 2018 to 2020, in percentage points. It is not shown when an input was later restated.

Share issuance: the change in shares outstanding from the end of the first fiscal year in which shares outstanding are tagged to the end of the last fiscal year (the years are named with the figure) plus the shares repurchased in between, as a percentage of opening shares outstanding. Shares withheld for employee taxes are not counted as repurchased when the company reports them separately, so issuance is net of them. Without a reported repurchase count in every year, only the net change in shares outstanding is shown and named as such. Across a stock split it is not calculated. The share count has to be tagged in the XBRL data at both ends of the period: several companies tag only a weighted average for the year, and the line then has no figure at all.

Share count change (weighted average basic shares): the change in the weighted average number of basic shares from the first fiscal year with a figure to the latest, as a percentage of the first. As-filed share counts before and after a stock split are not comparable, so after a split the period starts in the first fiscal year that began after it; the years are named with the figure. It is a separate line on a different basis from share issuance above, and the two are never combined.

Stock-based compensation as a share of free cash flow in the latest fiscal year; not calculated when free cash flow is zero or negative.

Net income minus dividends: the sum over the last ten fiscal years, shown with the change in public float over the same years. Public float is the market value of shares held by non-affiliates at the end of each year's second quarter, as reported on the cover of the 10-K; it is not the full market value.

A line without a figure for a company is listed separately below the record, with the reason, rather than in the record itself.

How they make money

The short description of each business is written from Item 1 (Business) of the company's 10-K and checked against it; the 10-K it was checked against is linked below the text. It describes the company as of that filing, not over the seventeen years.

What is not here

No ratings, scores, forecasts, price targets or recommendations. No price chart.