Piotroski F-Score Calculator
Score a company against nine Piotroski F-Score signals across profitability, leverage, and efficiency.
Example: A company that is profitable, generates positive operating cash flow, has falling debt levels, improving liquidity, no new share issuance, and rising gross margin and asset turnover, but shows flat return on assets year-over-year, scores 7 out of 9 (78%) — a strong reading typically associated with improving fundamentals.
Developed by Joseph Piotroski (2000), published in the Journal of Accounting Research; scores 9 binary tests across profitability, leverage/liquidity, and operating efficiency.
How the Piotroski F-Score is calculated
Unlike ratio-based models that produce a continuous score, the F-Score is a simple checklist: each of nine fundamental signals either passes (1 point) or fails (0 points), and the points are summed to a score out of 9. Developed by accounting professor Joseph Piotroski, it was designed to separate genuinely improving companies from deteriorating ones within a universe of statistically cheap (low price-to-book) stocks — a group where traditional valuation metrics alone often can't distinguish future winners from value traps.
A score of 0–2 is considered weak, 3–6 average, and 7–9 strong, with Piotroski's original research finding that high scorers meaningfully outperformed low scorers. The F-Score is a fundamentals screen rather than a distress-prediction model — for bankruptcy risk specifically, see the Altman Z-Score calculator. For a deeper look at what's driving the ROA figures behind two of the nine signals, see the DuPont Analysis calculator.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the Piotroski F-Score?
- A 9-point checklist across profitability, leverage/liquidity, and operating efficiency, designed by accounting professor Joseph Piotroski to separate improving value stocks from deteriorating ones.
- What score is considered good?
- 0–2 is weak, 3–6 is average, and 7–9 is strong — Piotroski's original research found high scorers (8-9) meaningfully outperformed low scorers (0-1) among low price-to-book stocks.
- Where do these year-over-year deltas come from?
- Compute each ratio for the current and prior fiscal year from the company's financial statements, then enter the difference (current minus prior) — this tool doesn't fetch financials for you.
- What are the nine signals the F-Score measures?
- Four profitability signals (positive ROA, positive operating cash flow, improving ROA, cash flow exceeding net income), three leverage/liquidity signals (decreasing long-term debt, improving current ratio, no dilutive share issuance), and two operating efficiency signals (improving gross margin, improving asset turnover) — one point each, for a maximum score of 9.
- What are the limitations of the F-Score?
- It was designed and validated specifically for low price-to-book (value) stocks, so its predictive power is less established outside that context. It also treats each of the nine signals as equally weighted and purely binary, which can obscure the actual magnitude of improvement or deterioration in any one signal.
- How is the Piotroski F-Score used by investors?
- Value investors commonly use it as a screen to filter cheap (low price-to-book) stocks into likely improving businesses versus likely deteriorating ones, based on Piotroski's original research showing high scorers meaningfully outperformed low scorers within that value universe.
- What is the difference between the Piotroski F-Score and the Altman Z-Score?
- The Piotroski F-Score ranks a company's financial health improvement across profitability, leverage, and operating efficiency — it's used to screen for improving companies within a value universe. The Altman Z-Score predicts bankruptcy risk using a weighted combination of five ratios. They measure different things: F-Score signals improving quality; Z-Score signals distress risk. Use both together for a fuller picture — see the Altman Z-Score calculator.