Piotroski F-Score

Definition & the Nine Checks

The F-Score awards one point for each of nine binary tests against the prior fiscal year: positive return on assets, positive operating cash flow, improving ROA, cash flow exceeding net income, falling leverage, improving current ratio, no share issuance, improving gross margin, and improving asset turnover. Piotroski's 2000 study applied the checklist to cheap price-to-book stocks and found that high scorers dramatically outperformed low scorers — the insight being that within any value screen, most names are cheap for a reason, and simple fundamental momentum separates the recovering from the dying.

Reading the Score

Eight or nine points signal broad fundamental improvement; zero to two signal deterioration across the board. The mid-range carries little information on its own. Because every test is a year-over-year comparison from published statements, the score is fully reproducible — no estimates, no judgment calls — which is why it remains a standard screen input decades later.

How Closelook Uses It

The F-Score appears on the stock pages in the established-scores layer, reported as points achieved over checks evaluable from the data. Its cross-sectional rank feeds the Earnings-Quality module of the Closelook Company Score — the checklist itself stays Piotroski's.