Good or high score = 7, 8, 9
Bad or low score = 0, 1, 2, 3
Stepan Co 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 Stepan Co's Piotroski F-Score or its related term are showing as below:
SCL'
s Piotroski F-Score Range Over the Past 10 Years
Min: 4 Med: 6 Max: 7
Current: 5
During the past 13 years, the highest Piotroski F-Score of Stepan Co was 7. The lowest was 4. And the median was 6.
Stepan Co Piotroski F-Score Historical Data
The historical data trend for Stepan 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 Stepan Co's Piotroski F-Score
For the Specialty Chemicals subindustry, Stepan 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.
Stepan Co's Piotroski F-Score Distribution in the Chemicals Industry
For the Chemicals industry and Basic Materials sector, Stepan Co's Piotroski F-Score distribution charts can be found below:
* The bar in red indicates where Stepan 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.
Stepan Co's current Net Income (TTM) was 40.
==> 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.
Stepan Co's return on assets of this year was 0.01652329. Stepan Co's return on assets of last year was 0.07123942.
==> Last year is higher ==> Score 0.
Question 4. Quality of Earnings (Accrual)
Compare Cash flow return on assets (2) to return on assets (1)
Stepan Co's gearing of this year was 0.19125563. Stepan Co's gearing of last year was 0.22180849.
==> 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
Stepan Co's current ratio of this year was 1.401423. Stepan Co's current ratio of last year was 1.5578969.
==> 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.
Stepan Co's number of shares in issue this year was 22.916. Stepan Co's number of shares in issue last year was 22.989.
==> 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.
Stepan Co's gross margin of this year was 0.11935756. Stepan Co's gross margin of last year was 0.15399474.
==> 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
Stepan Co's asset turnover of this year was 0.95585844. Stepan Co's asset turnover of last year was 1.34258999.
==> Last year's asset turnover is higher ==> Score 0.
Evaluation
Piotroski F-Score
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5
Good or high score = 7, 8, 9
Bad or low score = 0, 1, 2, 3
Stepan Co has an F-score of 5 indicating the company's financial situation is typical for a stable company.
Stepan Co (NYSE:SCL) 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.
Stepan Co Piotroski F-Score Related Terms
Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of Stepan Co's Piotroski F-Score provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.
Stepan Co manufactures and sells a variety of chemicals and chemical-based products. The company organizes itself into three segments based on product type. The surfactants segment, which generates the majority of revenue, sells cleaning agents used in detergents, shampoos, body wash, fabric softeners, toothpastes, and other personal-care products. Surfactants are chemical agents that affect the interaction between two surfaces. The polymers segment sells polyurethane used to manufacture rigid foam for thermal insulation, as well as phthalic anhydride used to make plastic components for the construction, automotive, and boating industries. The specialty products segment sells chemicals used in food and flavoring. Most of Stepan's revenue comes from the United States.
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