Good or high score = 7, 8, 9
Bad or low score = 0, 1, 2, 3
L.B. Foster Co has an F-score of 6 indicating the company's financial situation is typical for a stable company.
The historical rank and industry rank for L.B. Foster Co's Piotroski F-Score or its related term are showing as below:
FSTR'
s Piotroski F-Score Range Over the Past 10 Years
Min: 2 Med: 5 Max: 7
Current: 6
During the past 13 years, the highest Piotroski F-Score of L.B. Foster Co was 7. The lowest was 2. And the median was 5.
L.B. Foster Co Piotroski F-Score Historical Data
The historical data trend for L.B. Foster Co'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.
Competitive Comparison of L.B. Foster Co's Piotroski F-Score
For the Railroads subindustry, L.B. Foster Co'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.
L.B. Foster Co's Piotroski F-Score Distribution in the Transportation Industry
For the Transportation industry and Industrials sector, L.B. Foster Co's Piotroski F-Score distribution charts can be found below:
* The bar in red indicates where L.B. Foster Co'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.
L.B. Foster Co's current Net Income (TTM) was 42.8.
==> 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.
L.B. Foster Co's return on assets of this year was 0.12779184. L.B. Foster Co's return on assets of last year was -0.10173721.
==> This year is higher. ==> Score 1.
Question 4. Quality of Earnings (Accrual)
Compare Cash flow return on assets (2) to return on assets (1)
L.B. Foster Co's gearing of this year was 0.23710058. L.B. Foster Co's gearing of last year was 0.23293221.
==> Last year is lower than this year ==> Score 0.
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
L.B. Foster Co's current ratio of this year was 2.27066724. L.B. Foster Co's current ratio of last year was 1.97675896.
==> 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.
L.B. Foster Co's number of shares in issue this year was 10.992. L.B. Foster Co's number of shares in issue last year was 10.973.
==> 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.
L.B. Foster Co's gross margin of this year was 0.21984189. L.B. Foster Co's gross margin of last year was 0.20165006.
==> 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
L.B. Foster Co's asset turnover of this year was 1.60631637. L.B. Foster Co's asset turnover of last year was 1.32151639.
==> This year's asset turnover is higher. ==> Score 1.
Evaluation
Piotroski F-Score
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1
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6
Good or high score = 7, 8, 9
Bad or low score = 0, 1, 2, 3
L.B. Foster Co has an F-score of 6 indicating the company's financial situation is typical for a stable company.
L.B. Foster Co (NAS:FSTR) 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.
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.
L.B. Foster Co Piotroski F-Score Related Terms
Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of L.B. Foster Co's Piotroski F-Score provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.
L.B. Foster Co is a us-based firm engaged in the manufacturing, fabrication, and distribution of products and services, especially for the rail, construction, energy, and utility industries. The company operates its business through three segments: Rail Technologies and Services; Precast Concrete Products and Steel Products and Measurement. Its principal business activity involves providing new and used rail, trackwork, and accessories, producing concrete railroad ties, insulated rail joints, power rail, track fasteners, cover boards, and sales of sells and rents steel sheet piling, H-bearing pile, and other piling products for foundation and earth retention requirements. It generates the majority of its revenues from the Rail Technologies and Services segment.
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