Smiths News (CHIX:SNWSL) Piotroski F-Score: 8 (As of Jun. 26, 2026) — 33% Above Median

Smiths News  (CHIX:SNWSl) Piotroski F-Score Explanation

The developer of the system is Joseph D. Piotroski is relatively unknown accounting professor who shuns publicity and rarely gives interviews.

He graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in accounting in 1989, received an M.B.A. from Indiana University in 1994. Five years later, in 1999, after earning a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of Michigan, he became an associate professor of accounting at the University of Chicago.

In 2000, he wrote a research paper called "Value Investing: The Use of Historical Financial Statement Information to Separate Winners from Losers" (pdf).

He wanted to see if he can develop a system (using a simple nine-point scoring system) that can increase the returns of a strategy of investing in low price to book (referred to in the paper as high book to market) value companies.

What he found was something that exceeded his most optimistic expectations.

Buying only those companies that scored highest (8 or 9) on his nine-point scale, or F-Score as he called it, over the 20 year period from 1976 to 1996 led to an average out-performance over the market of 13.4%.

Even more impressive were the results of a strategy of investing in the highest F-Score companies (8 or 9) and shorting companies with the lowest F-Score (0 or 1).

Over the same period from 1976 to 1996 (20 years) this strategy led to an average yearly return of 23%, substantially outperforming the average S&P 500 index return of 15.83% over the same period.

Smiths News Piotroski F-Score Related Terms

The historical data trend for Smiths News's Piotroski F-Score can be seen below:

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

Smiths News Piotroski F-Score Chart

Smiths News Annual Data
	Trend	Aug16	Aug17	Aug18	Aug19	Aug20	Aug21	Aug22	Aug23	Aug24	Aug25
Piotroski F-Score		Get a 7-Day Free Trial					6.00	9.00	7.00	3.00	8.00

Smiths News Semi-Annual Data
	Aug16	Feb17	Aug17	Feb18	Aug18	Feb19	Aug19	Feb20	Aug20	Feb21	Aug21	Feb22	Aug22	Feb23	Aug23	Feb24	Aug24	Feb25	Aug25	Feb26
Piotroski F-Score	Get a 7-Day Free Trial															0.00	3.00	0.00	8.00	0.00

CHIX:SNWSL vs NYT, WLY: Piotroski F-Score Comparison

For the Publishing subindustry, Smiths News's Piotroski F-Score, along with its competitors' market caps and Piotroski F-Score data, can be viewed below:

* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.

Smiths News Piotroski F-Score vs Media - Diversified Industry

For the Media - Diversified industry and Communication Services sector, Smiths News's Piotroski F-Score distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where Smiths News's Piotroski F-Score falls into.

How is the Piotroski F-Score calculated?

* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD.
* For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.

*Note: If the latest quarterly/semi-annual/annual total assets data is 0, then we will use previous quarterly/semi-annual/annual data for all the items in the balance sheet.

Profitability

Question 1. Return on Assets (ROA)

Net income before extraordinary items for the year divided by Total Assets at the beginning of the year.

Score 1 if positive, 0 if negative.

Smiths News's current Net Income (TTM) was 28. ==> Positive ==> Score 1.

Question 2. Cash Flow Return on Assets (CFROA)

Net cash flow from operating activities (operating cash flow) divided by Total Assets at the beginning of the year.

Score 1 if positive, 0 if negative.

Smiths News's current Cash Flow from Operations (TTM) was 49. ==> Positive ==> Score 1.

Question 3. Change in Return on Assets

Compare this year's return on assets (1) to last year's return on assets.

Score 1 if it's higher, 0 if it's lower.

Smiths News's return on assets of this year was 0.15757238. Smiths News's return on assets of last year was 0.13056836. ==> This year is higher. ==> Score 1.

Question 4. Quality of Earnings (Accrual)

Compare Cash flow return on assets (2) to return on assets (1)

Score 1 if CFROA > ROA, 0 if CFROA <= ROA.

Smiths News's current Net Income (TTM) was 28. Smiths News's current Cash Flow from Operations (TTM) was 49. ==> 49 > 28 ==> CFROA > ROA ==> Score 1.

Funding

Question 5. Change in Gearing or Leverage

Compare this year's gearing (long-term debt divided by average total assets) to last year's gearing.

Score 0 if this year's gearing is higher, 1 otherwise.

Smiths News's gearing of this year was 0.15045249. Smiths News's gearing of last year was 0.22939451. ==> This year is lower or equal to last year. ==> Score 1.

Question 6. Change in Working Capital (Liquidity)

Compare this year's current ratio (current assets divided by current liabilities) to last year's current ratio.

Score 1 if this year's current ratio is higher, 0 if it's lower

Smiths News's current ratio of this year was 0.93848462. Smiths News's current ratio of last year was 0.97634885. ==> Last year's current ratio is higher ==> Score 0.

Question 7. Change in Shares in Issue

Compare the number of shares in issue this year, to the number in issue last year.

Score 0 if there is larger number of shares in issue this year, 1 otherwise.

Smiths News's number of shares in issue this year was 250.2. Smiths News's number of shares in issue last year was 251.1. ==> There is smaller number of shares in issue this year, or the same. ==> Score 1.

Efficiency

Question 8. Change in Gross Margin

Compare this year's gross margin (Gross Profit divided by sales) to last year's.

Score 1 if this year's gross margin is higher, 0 if it's lower.

Smiths News's gross margin of this year was 0.07058271. Smiths News's gross margin of last year was 0.06632237. ==> This year's gross margin is higher. ==> Score 1.

Question 9. Change in asset turnover

Compare this year's asset turnover (total sales for the year divided by total assets at the beginning of the year) to last year's asset turnover ratio.

Score 1 if this year's asset turnover ratio is higher, 0 if it's lower

Smiths News's asset turnover of this year was 5.92427617. Smiths News's asset turnover of last year was 5.65130568. ==> This year's asset turnover is higher. ==> Score 1.

Evaluation

Good or high score = 7, 8, 9
Bad or low score = 0, 1, 2, 3

Smiths News has an F-score of 8. It is a good or high score, which usually indicates a very healthy situation.

Smiths News Business Description