The Piotroski F-Score is one of the most useful stock-screening tools for value investors, designed to help them separate fundamentally strong companies from weaker ones within a pool of statistically cheap stocks. Instead of focusing only on valuation, the Piotroski F-Score tells you if the business is actually improving.
Piotroski F-Score Calculator
Score a stock from 0 to 9 using profitability, balance sheet strength, and operating efficiency signals.
How This Calculator Works
In Simple mode, select Yes if the company passes each Piotroski test and No if it fails. Each passing test scores 1 point.
Profitability Tests
Leverage, Liquidity & Financing Tests
Operating Efficiency Tests
Results
| Test | Result |
|---|---|
| Positive ROA | Yes |
| Positive Operating Cash Flow | Yes |
| ROA Improved | Yes |
| CFO > Net Income | Yes |
| Lower Leverage | Yes |
| Higher Current Ratio | Yes |
| No New Shares Issued | Yes |
| Higher Gross Margin | Yes |
| Higher Asset Turnover | Yes |
Our advanced Piotroski F-Score calculator helps you quickly answer the nine tests directly. In Advanced mode, you can enter current-year and prior-year financial data and let the calculator determine the score automatically.
Full Tutorial: Value Investing: Piotroski F-Score Tutorial + Calculator
The score ranges from 0 to 9 and measures three things that matter to investors: profitability, financial strength, and operating efficiency. A higher score usually means the company is healthier and improving, while a lower score suggests weaker or deteriorating fundamentals.
How to Use the Calculator
The easiest way to start is with Simple mode.
In Simple mode, each of the nine Piotroski tests is presented as a Yes-or-No question. For each test, select Yes if the company passes and No if it fails. Every passing test earns 1 point, and the calculator adds them together to produce the final F-Score from 0 to 9.
If you want more precision, use Advanced mode. In that mode, enter the current-year and prior-year financial values needed to automatically evaluate the nine tests. These include:
- net income
- total assets
- operating cash flow
- long-term debt
- current assets
- current liabilities
- shares outstanding
- revenue
- gross profit
Once the values are entered, the calculator shows the total Piotroski F-Score, the section breakdown, and a simple interpretation of the company’s overall quality.
The score works best as a screening tool. It helps you decide whether a stock deserves deeper research, not whether it is automatically a buy.
Formula Explanation
The Piotroski F-Score is not a single mathematical formula like the Graham Number. Instead, it is a nine-point checklist.
A company gets 1 point for each test it passes and 0 points for each test it fails.
The 9 tests are grouped into 3 categories:
Profitability
- Positive return on assets
- Positive operating cash flow
- Higher return on assets than last year
- Operating cash flow is greater than net income
Leverage, Liquidity, and Financing
- Lower long-term leverage than last year
- Higher current ratio than last year
- No new shares issued
Operating Efficiency
- Higher gross margin than last year
- Higher asset turnover than last year
The final score is:
Piotroski F-Score = Sum of all 9 binary tests
That means:
- minimum score = 0
- maximum score = 9
The logic behind the model is simple: companies with improving profitability, stronger balance sheets, and better operating efficiency are often better candidates than cheap stocks with weak or deteriorating fundamentals.
Worked Example
Assume a company has the following characteristics this year compared with last year:
- Return on assets is positive
- Operating cash flow is positive
- Return on assets improved
- Operating cash flow is greater than net income
- leverage declined
- The current ratio improved
- No new shares were issued
- gross margin improved
- asset turnover declined
In this case, the company passes 8 of the 9 tests.
So the score would be:
Piotroski F-Score = 8
That is a strong result.
Now consider a weaker company:
- Return on assets is negative
- Operating cash flow is negative
- Return on assets declined
- Operating cash flow is less than net income
- leverage increased
- The current ratio weakened
- New shares were issued
- gross margin declined
- asset turnover declined
That company would score:
Piotroski F-Score = 0
This does not mean the company will definitely perform badly in the stock market, but it does suggest very weak fundamentals under the Piotroski framework.
Interpretation Guidance
In general, higher Piotroski scores are better.
A score of 8 or 9 is usually considered very strong. It suggests the company is profitable, financially stable, and improving operationally. These are often the most attractive results in a value-screening process.
A score of 6 or 7 is still good. It usually indicates that the company passes most quality tests and may deserve closer research.
A score of 4 or 5 is more mixed. The company may have some positive traits, but the quality profile is not especially strong. At that point, investors should look more carefully at what is improving and what is getting worse.
A score of 0 to 3 is weak. That often points to poor profitability, declining financial health, or deteriorating business efficiency. Stocks with very low F-Scores may still recover, but they usually carry more risk.
The most important thing to remember is that the Piotroski F-Score is a quality filter, not a valuation model. A company can have a high F-Score and still be overpriced. A company can also have a low F-Score and still rally for reasons unrelated to fundamentals.
That is why the best use of the Piotroski F-Score is alongside valuation tools such as the Graham Number, margin of safety analysis, or broader fundamental research, not whether it is automatically a buy.
Related Posts
Value Investing: Piotroski F-Score Tutorial + Calculator
Piotroski F-Score: A Value Investor’s Dream Ratio + Calculator
