HQL (abrdn Life Sciences Investors) Piotroski F-Score: 4 (As of Aug. 20, 2026) — Near Median

abrdn Life Sciences Investors  (NYSE:HQL) 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.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors Piotroski F-Score Related Terms

The historical data trend for abrdn Life Sciences Investors'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.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors Piotroski F-Score Chart

abrdn Life Sciences Investors Annual Data
	Trend	Sep17	Sep18	Sep19	Sep20	Sep21	Sep22	Sep23	Sep24	Sep25
Piotroski F-Score		Get a 7-Day Free Trial				2.00	3.00	5.00	6.00	4.00

abrdn Life Sciences Investors Semi-Annual Data
	Sep17	Mar18	Sep18	Mar19	Sep19	Mar20	Sep20	Mar21	Sep21	Mar22	Sep22	Mar23	Sep23	Mar24	Sep24	Mar25	Sep25	Mar26
Piotroski F-Score	Get a 7-Day Free Trial													0.00	6.00	0.00	4.00	0.00

HQL vs IIM, NOAH, FAX: Piotroski F-Score Comparison

For the Asset Management subindustry, abrdn Life Sciences Investors'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.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors Piotroski F-Score vs Asset Management Industry

For the Asset Management industry and Financial Services sector, abrdn Life Sciences Investors's Piotroski F-Score distribution charts can be found below:

* The bar in red indicates where abrdn Life Sciences Investors'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.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors's current Net Income (TTM) was 85.6. ==> 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.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors's current Cash Flow from Operations (TTM) was 31.7. ==> 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.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors's return on assets of this year was 0.18583838. abrdn Life Sciences Investors's return on assets of last year was 0.21186289. ==> 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.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors's current Net Income (TTM) was 85.6. abrdn Life Sciences Investors's current Cash Flow from Operations (TTM) was 31.7. ==> 31.7 <= 85.6 ==> CFROA <= ROA ==> Score 0.

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.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors's gearing of this year was 0. abrdn Life Sciences Investors's gearing of last year was 0. ==> 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

* Note that for banks and insurance companies, there's no Total Current Assets and Total Current Liabilities reported. Thus, we use Total Assets and Total Liabilities to calculate current ratio for banks and insurance companies.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors's current ratio of this year was 298.599073. abrdn Life Sciences Investors's current ratio of last year was 518.09111361. ==> 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.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors's number of shares in issue this year was 30.679. abrdn Life Sciences Investors's number of shares in issue last year was 28.058. ==> 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.

* Note that for banks and insurance companies, there's no Gross Profit reported. Thus, we use net income instead of gross profit and calculate Net Margin for this score.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors's net margin of this year was 0.99083185. abrdn Life Sciences Investors's net margin of last year was 0.98397647. ==> This year's net 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

abrdn Life Sciences Investors's asset turnover of this year was 0.18755794. abrdn Life Sciences Investors's asset turnover of last year was 0.21531297. ==> Last year's asset turnover is higher ==> Score 0.

Evaluation

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

abrdn Life Sciences Investors has an F-score of 4 indicating the company's financial situation is typical for a stable company.

abrdn Life Sciences Investors Business Description