03 / Methodology
How the numbers are built
Every figure starts in a company's own SEC filing. Here is how it gets from there to the page, and where the limits are.
Where the data comes from
Financial statements come from SEC EDGAR: the structured XBRL data companies file with their 10-K (annual) and 10-Q (quarterly) reports. We store the values exactly as reported, then map them into one consistent set of fields.
Prices are daily closes, splits and dividends, refreshed after each US market close. The interactive price chart is provided by TradingView.
From filings to figures
Companies label the same line item differently, and change labels over time. Each figure has a list of accepted tags, checked period by period, so a company’s history survives a change in reporting.
Trailing twelve months = last fiscal year + this year to date − the same period last year. Quarters use the 3-month figure when reported, else the difference between year-to-date figures (Q4 = full year − nine months).
Fiscal years follow each company’s own naming: NVIDIA’s year ending January 2026 is FY2026.
Calculated, not copied
Ratios are computed here from reported figures rather than taken from a data vendor, so they stay consistent and traceable.
- Market cap
- Price × shares outstanding
- P/E
- Market cap ÷ net income (TTM)
- Price / Sales
- Market cap ÷ revenue (TTM)
- Price / Book
- Market cap ÷ shareholders' equity
- EV / EBITDA
- (Market cap + total debt − cash) ÷ EBITDA (TTM)
- EBITDA
- Operating income + depreciation & amortization
- Gross / operating / net margin
- Gross profit, operating income or net income ÷ revenue
- Free cash flow
- Operating cash flow − capital expenditure
- FCF margin
- Free cash flow ÷ revenue
- Return on equity
- Net income (TTM) ÷ average shareholders' equity
- Net cash / net debt
- Cash and cash equivalents − total debt
- Revenue CAGR
- (Latest fiscal-year revenue ÷ revenue N years earlier)^(1/N) − 1
- Dividend yield
- Dividends paid over the last 12 months ÷ price
- Beta
- Covariance with the S&P 500 (SPY) ÷ its variance, 60 monthly returns
Share counts and splits
Share counts come from the cover page of each filing. Historical counts are restated for later stock splits, so charts compare like with like. Companies with several share classes (Berkshire, Visa) are converted into the listed class.
Historical market cap is the closing price on each period end × the restated share count.
Highlights
The highlights on each company page are written by fixed rules from the same figures: revenue growth, margin trend, cash versus debt, free cash flow, share count changes and dividends. They describe the numbers; they aren’t opinions or recommendations.
Known limits
- Banks and insurers don’t report gross profit, operating income or capex, so those show “—”.
- Some companies tag debt with their own custom labels; total debt then shows “—” rather than a guess.
- The SEC’s data feed occasionally lags a new filing. Each page names the filing it uses.
- Forward P/E needs analyst estimates, which aren’t included.
- Total debt excludes lease liabilities.
- Prices update once a day and may be delayed.