How 360investing fetches, processes, and scores financial data — and where it falls short.
yfinance (Yahoo Finance)
All financial data — income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements, price data, company info, and peer data — is sourced from Yahoo Finance via the open-source yfinance Python library. Data is fetched in real time on each page load.
Data freshness
Annual financial statements reflect the most recently filed fiscal year. Quarterly data is not used. Price data (current price, daily change, 52-week range) is real-time or near-real-time from Yahoo Finance. There is no caching — every search fetches live data.
Known data quality issues
Yahoo Finance data can be inconsistent across industries and geographies. Non-US companies, ADRs, ETFs, and smaller-cap stocks may have missing or incorrectly labelled line items. When a required data point is unavailable, the relevant metric displays as "N/A" rather than showing a potentially incorrect value.
The scorecard grades a company across four dimensions. Each dimension produces a letter grade based on a weighted average of its factors. The overall grade averages across all four dimensions.
Profitability
Gross Profit Margin
Revenue minus cost of goods sold, as a percentage of revenue. Measures pricing power and production efficiency.
Target: ≥ 40% = A, ≥ 20% = C, below = F
Operating Margin
Operating income as a percentage of revenue. Measures how efficiently a company runs its core business before interest and taxes.
Target: ≥ 15% = A, ≥ 5% = C, below = F
Net Income Margin
Net income as a percentage of revenue. The bottom-line measure of profitability after all costs.
Target: ≥ 20% = A, ≥ 8% = C, below = F
Financial Health
Years to Pay Off Debt
Total debt divided by net income. Estimates how many years of current earnings it would take to eliminate all debt. Lower is better.
Target: ≤ 3 years = A, ≤ 6 years = C, above or negative = F
Working Capital vs Long-Term Debt
Working capital (current assets minus current liabilities) minus long-term debt. Positive means short-term liquidity exceeds long-term obligations. Note: companies with large buyback programs (e.g. Apple) often have negative working capital by design.
Target: Positive = pass
Working Capital
Current assets minus current liabilities. A measure of short-term financial health. Negative can be normal for highly profitable companies with strong pricing power.
Target: Positive = pass
Valuation
Margin of Safety
How far the current price is below the Graham Number. Graham required at least 33% margin of safety before buying.
Target: ≥ 33% = A, ≥ 10% = C, 0% = F
Price-to-Book
Current share price divided by book value per share. Graham preferred P/B below 1.5x for defensive investors.
Target: ≤ 1.5x = A, ≤ 3x = C, above = F
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow
Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. Buffett's most important single metric — measures actual cash generated after maintaining the business.
Target: Positive = pass
CapEx % of Net Income
Capital expenditures as a percentage of net income. Lower means the business requires less reinvestment to sustain earnings — a sign of a capital-light, high-quality business.
Target: < 25% = A, ≤ 45% = C, above = F
Owner Earnings
Buffett's preferred measure of true earning power: Net Income + Depreciation & Amortisation − Capital Expenditures. More reliable than reported EPS because it accounts for the capital cost of maintaining the business.
Target: Positive = pass
Grade scale
AScore ≥ 85 — Exceptional
BScore ≥ 70 — Good
CScore ≥ 55 — Adequate
DScore ≥ 40 — Weak
FScore < 40 — Poor
Defensive vs Enterprising
The Defensive grade weights Valuation heavily — it penalises companies trading above Graham's thresholds regardless of quality. The Enterprising grade focuses on Profitability and Cash Flow (60% combined) and Financial Health (40%), with no Valuation component — suitable for active investors who accept paying a premium for quality businesses.
Based on Benjamin Graham's checklist from The Intelligent Investor for the Defensive Investor. Each criterion is evaluated against the most recent fiscal year data.
1. Adequate Size
Annual revenue above $1.5B. Graham required companies to be large enough to withstand economic downturns. Original threshold (1970s) was $100M — adjusted for inflation.
2. Strong Financial Condition
Current ratio (current assets ÷ current liabilities) above 2.0x. Ensures the company can meet its short-term obligations.
3. Earnings Stability
No negative EPS years in the available data (typically 4 years from yfinance). Graham required 10 consecutive profitable years.
4. Dividend Record
Current dividend yield above zero. Graham required uninterrupted payments — we check for any current dividend.
5. Earnings Growth
EPS growth of at least 33% across the available data period. Graham required this over 10 years.
6. Moderate P/E
Trailing P/E ratio at or below 15x. Graham considered higher P/E ratios speculative.
7. Moderate Price-to-Book
P/B ratio at or below 1.5x, and P/E × P/B at or below 22.5. Graham's combined ratio test.
Graham Number
The maximum price a Defensive Investor should pay, per Graham. Combines earnings power and asset value.
√(22.5 × Diluted EPS × Book Value Per Share)
Margin of Safety
The discount between the Graham Number and current price. Graham required at least 33% to protect against errors in analysis and unforeseen events.
(Graham Number − Price) ÷ Graham Number × 100
Net Current Asset Value (NCAV)
Graham's most conservative valuation. If a stock trades below NCAV it may be a deep bargain — but this is extremely rare in modern markets and often indicates distress rather than value.
(Current Assets − Total Liabilities) ÷ Shares Outstanding
Earnings Power Value (EPV)
What the business is worth assuming zero future growth. A conservative floor — most growing businesses are worth significantly more.
Normalised Operating Income ÷ 9% cost of capital ÷ Shares Outstanding
Graham's framework was designed for a different era. The 7 Criteria were written in the 1970s. High-quality technology and platform businesses almost never meet the P/B or P/E thresholds — this doesn't mean they're bad investments.
Annual data only. We use annual financial statements. Quarterly developments, earnings revisions, guidance changes, and recent news are not captured.
4 years of history. yfinance typically returns 4 years of annual data. Criteria requiring 10 years of history (earnings stability, dividend record, growth) are evaluated on the available data and may not reflect longer-term performance.
Financial sector limitations. Banks, insurance companies, and REITs have fundamentally different financial structures. Standard margin and debt metrics don't apply in the same way. Interpret scores for these companies with caution.
Non-US companies. Data quality for non-US stocks varies significantly. Some line items may be missing or mapped incorrectly. Scores may be unreliable for foreign-listed companies.
No forward-looking data. All analysis is based on historical reported figures. Analyst estimates, guidance, and future prospects are not considered.
This is not investment advice. Scores and grades are algorithmic outputs based on historical data. They do not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security.