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Merit Group (FRA:HXP0) Piotroski F-Score : 5 (As of May. 27, 2024)


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What is Merit Group Piotroski F-Score?

The zones of discrimination were as such:

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

Merit Group has an F-score of 5 indicating the company's financial situation is typical for a stable company.

The historical rank and industry rank for Merit Group's Piotroski F-Score or its related term are showing as below:

FRA:HXP0' s Piotroski F-Score Range Over the Past 10 Years
Min: 3   Med: 5   Max: 9
Current: 5

During the past 13 years, the highest Piotroski F-Score of Merit Group was 9. The lowest was 3. And the median was 5.


Merit Group Piotroski F-Score Historical Data

The historical data trend for Merit Group'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.

* Premium members only.

Merit Group Piotroski F-Score Chart

Merit Group Annual Data
Trend Mar14 Mar15 Mar16 Mar17 Mar18 Mar19 Mar20 Mar21 Mar22 Mar23
Piotroski F-Score
Get a 7-Day Free Trial Premium Member Only Premium Member Only 4.00 4.00 4.00 5.00 5.00

Merit Group Semi-Annual Data
Mar14 Sep14 Mar15 Sep15 Mar16 Sep16 Mar17 Sep17 Mar18 Sep18 Mar19 Sep19 Mar20 Sep20 Mar21 Sep21 Mar22 Sep22 Mar23 Sep23
Piotroski F-Score Get a 7-Day Free Trial Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only Premium Member Only - 5.00 - 5.00 -

Competitive Comparison of Merit Group's Piotroski F-Score

For the Information Technology Services subindustry, Merit Group'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.


Merit Group's Piotroski F-Score Distribution in the Software Industry

For the Software industry and Technology sector, Merit Group's Piotroski F-Score distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where Merit Group'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.

This Year (Mar23) TTM:Last Year (Mar22) TTM:
Net Income was €-3.04 Mil.
Cash Flow from Operations was €1.02 Mil.
Revenue was €21.07 Mil.
Gross Profit was €9.69 Mil.
Average Total Assets from the begining of this year (Mar22)
to the end of this year (Mar23) was (66.401 + 51.372) / 2 = €58.8865 Mil.
Total Assets at the begining of this year (Mar22) was €66.40 Mil.
Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation was €2.88 Mil.
Total Current Assets was €8.67 Mil.
Total Current Liabilities was €12.21 Mil.
Net Income was €-1.88 Mil.

Revenue was €21.05 Mil.
Gross Profit was €10.61 Mil.
Average Total Assets from the begining of last year (Mar21)
to the end of last year (Mar22) was (70.711 + 66.401) / 2 = €68.556 Mil.
Total Assets at the begining of last year (Mar21) was €70.71 Mil.
Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation was €7.85 Mil.
Total Current Assets was €9.70 Mil.
Total Current Liabilities was €17.16 Mil.

*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.

Merit Group's current Net Income (TTM) was -3.04. ==> Negative ==> Score 0.

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.

Merit Group's current Cash Flow from Operations (TTM) was 1.02. ==> 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.

ROA (This Year)=Net Income/Total Assets (Mar22)
=-3.043/66.401
=-0.04582762

ROA (Last Year)=Net Income/Total Assets (Mar21)
=-1.881/70.711
=-0.02660124

Merit Group's return on assets of this year was -0.04582762. Merit Group's return on assets of last year was -0.02660124. ==> Last year is higher ==> Score 0.

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.

Merit Group's current Net Income (TTM) was -3.04. Merit Group's current Cash Flow from Operations (TTM) was 1.02. ==> 1.02 > -3.04 ==> 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.

Gearing (This Year: Mar23)=Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation/Average Total Assets from Mar22 to Mar23
=2.884/58.8865
=0.04897557

Gearing (Last Year: Mar22)=Long-Term Debt & Capital Lease Obligation/Average Total Assets from Mar21 to Mar22
=7.848/68.556
=0.11447576

Merit Group's gearing of this year was 0.04897557. Merit Group's gearing of last year was 0.11447576. ==> 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

Current Ratio (This Year: Mar23)=Total Current Assets/Total Current Liabilities
=8.667/12.213
=0.70965365

Current Ratio (Last Year: Mar22)=Total Current Assets/Total Current Liabilities
=9.701/17.157
=0.56542519

Merit Group's current ratio of this year was 0.70965365. Merit Group's current ratio of last year was 0.56542519. ==> This year's current ratio is higher. ==> Score 1.

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.

Merit Group's number of shares in issue this year was 23.956. Merit Group's number of shares in issue last year was 22.368. ==> There is larger number of shares in issue this year. ==> Score 0.

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.

Gross Margin (This Year: TTM)=Gross Profit/Revenue
=9.694/21.066
=0.46017279

Gross Margin (Last Year: TTM)=Gross Profit/Revenue
=10.606/21.053
=0.50377618

Merit Group's gross margin of this year was 0.46017279. Merit Group's gross margin of last year was 0.50377618. ==> Last year's gross margin is higher ==> Score 0.

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

Asset Turnover (This Year)=Revenue/Total Assets at the Beginning of This Year (Mar22)
=21.066/66.401
=0.31725426

Asset Turnover (Last Year)=Revenue/Total Assets at the Beginning of Last Year (Mar21)
=21.053/70.711
=0.29773303

Merit Group's asset turnover of this year was 0.31725426. Merit Group's asset turnover of last year was 0.29773303. ==> This year's asset turnover is higher. ==> Score 1.

Evaluation

Piotroski F-Score= Que. 1+ Que. 2+ Que. 3+Que. 4+Que. 5+Que. 6+Que. 7+Que. 8+Que. 9
=0+1+0+1+1+1+0+0+1
=5

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

Merit Group has an F-score of 5 indicating the company's financial situation is typical for a stable company.

Merit Group  (FRA:HXP0) 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.


Merit Group Piotroski F-Score Related Terms

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Merit Group (FRA:HXP0) Business Description

Traded in Other Exchanges
Address
32 London Bridge Street, 9th Floor, The Shard, London, GBR, SE1 9SG
Merit Group PLC provides data, business, and political intelligence. The group operates through two operating segments namely, Dods and Merit Data and Technology. Dods business segment concentrates on the provision of key information and insights into the political and public policy environments around the UK and the European Union. The Merit Data and Technology segment focuses on the fields of data engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The company generates the majority of its revenue from Merit Data & Technology segment.

Merit Group (FRA:HXP0) Headlines

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