A low price-to-book ratio alone doesn’t tell you whether a stock is a genuine bargain or a “value trap” — the Piotroski F-Score screens for fundamental quality to help tell the two apart.
How it works
Nine binary yes/no tests, spanning profitability, leverage/liquidity, and operating efficiency, each award one point when passed — summing all nine gives a score from 0 (weak) to 9 (strong).
What this does not include
This does not include the actual financial statement data needed to answer each yes/no question — it takes those nine assessments as already-determined inputs rather than pulling and calculating them from raw financials.
How to use this calculator
- Answer each of the 9 yes/no fundamental quality questions.
Frequently asked questions
Who created the Piotroski F-Score and why?
Stanford accounting professor Joseph Piotroski developed it in a landmark 2000 paper specifically to help value investors separate genuinely improving low-price-to-book companies from deteriorating ones.
What’s considered a strong F-Score?
A score of 7-9 is generally considered strong fundamental quality; 0-3 signals potential financial distress and a heightened value-trap risk.
Does the F-Score replace other valuation metrics?
No — it’s designed as a quality *screen* to apply within an already-cheap universe of stocks (typically by price-to-book), not as a standalone valuation or buy signal on its own.
