We are pleased to announce we have added new All-in-One Screener filters under the Growth tab.
You can now screen for changes in long-term debt and market cap for the following time periods: one year, three years and five years. You can also screen for the one-year Piotroski F-Score change. These filters are located under the Screener’s Growth tab on the right, as Figure 1 illustrates.
Figure 1
Background
A Forum post discussed that while “little or no long-term debt often means a good long-term bet,” long-term debt can be OK in the short term to help companies raise capital to establish revenue and earnings growth. For companies that have poor financial strength, however, increasing long-term debt can worsen a company’s financial position.
One key GuruFocus feature is “warning signs,” red flags that caution investors when they analyze a stock. Sears Holding Corp. (SHLD, Financial), a major Bruce Berkowitz (Trades, Portfolio) holding, has several red flags:
- Piotroski F-Score: Low.
- Revenue per Share: Declined.
- Gross Margin %: Declined.
- Operating Margin %: Declined.
- Long-term debt: Keep issuing new debt.
Sears’ market cap has declined approximately 62.91% in the past 12 months, according to the Screener’s “one-year market cap change” filter. Additionally, the company’s Piotroski F-score declined from 3 to 2 over the past year. Figures 2 through 4 illustrate the company’s poor profitability.
Figure 2: Predictability chart (revenue per share / EBITDA per share) for Sears
Figure 3: Sears’ operating and gross margin trends for the past 10 years
Figure 4: Sears’ market cap and long-term debt trends for the past 10 years
A recap of our All-in-One Screener
One of our most popular value screeners, the All-in-One Screener allows you to create your own value screen. GuruFocus also provides several predefined filters, including the “high quality” and “good companies” screens.
The Screener also includes a backtesting option that allows you to compare the performance of a model portfolio to the three major U.S. indexes: the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index. Premium members can backtest up to three years while Premium Plus members can backtest up to 2006.
Disclosure: No positions.
