Peer Comparison: Method

Peer Comparison: Companies Side by Side

What it does

The page sets up to six U.S. listed companies beside each other for one fiscal year. For each it shows size, profitability, growth, financial strength and cash ratios, the median of the group, and, if you type share prices, four valuation multiples. Every figure comes from the annual report (Form 10-K) the company filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); the site keeps a copy of those figures for 500 large companies and reads nothing from outside when you press Submit. The page describes what the companies reported. It does not rank them, mark any as better, or say what a share is worth.

The method

The data. Companies file their statements in a tagged format (XBRL), and the site maps the tags to about 45 standard lines: revenue, operating income, total assets and so on. All figures are for one fiscal year of each company, named by the calendar year in which that year ends.

Profitability. With Rev revenue, GP gross profit (revenue less the direct cost of what was sold), OI operating income (after operating costs, before interest and tax) and NI net income:

gross margin = GP / Rev, operating margin = OI / Rev, net margin = NI / Rev
return on equity ROE = NI / average shareholders' equity
return on assets ROA = NI / average total assets
return on invested capital ROIC = OI (1 − t) / average invested capital

"Average" is the mean of the balance at the start and the end of the year, because income is earned through the year while a balance sheet is a single date; when the year before is not on file the year-end balance is used. ROIC has no single agreed definition. Here t = income tax / income before tax, held between 0 and 1, and invested capital = total debt + shareholders' equity − cash − short-term investments: the money lenders and shareholders have put in that is not sitting in cash.

Growth. The compound annual growth rate over n years is the one yearly rate that carries the starting figure to the ending one:

CAGR = (figure_Y / figure_{Y − n})^1/n − 1, for n = 3 and n = 5

It is computed for revenue and for diluted earnings per share (EPS: net income divided by the weighted number of shares, counting shares that options and convertible securities could add).

Financial strength. Total debt = short-term + long-term borrowings; net debt = total debt − cash − short-term investments; EBITDA = operating income + depreciation and amortization.

debt to equity = total debt / shareholders' equity
net debt to EBITDA = net debt / EBITDA (negative when cash exceeds debt)
interest cover = OI / interest expense
current ratio = current assets / current liabilities

Cash. Free cash flow FCF = cash from operations − capital expenditures.

free cash flow margin = FCF / Rev, capital spending to revenue = capital expenditures / Rev
dividend payout = dividends paid / NI, dividends and buybacks to net income = (dividends paid + share repurchases) / NI

Valuation, only with prices you type. With P the share price and S the shares outstanding at the fiscal year end: market value MC = P × S; price to earnings = P / diluted EPS; enterprise value EV = MC + net debt, and EV / EBITDA; price to book = MC / shareholders' equity; free cash flow yield = FCF / MC.

Median. The middle value of the companies that have one; with an even count, the mean of the two middle values. It is shown when at least two companies have a value.

Blank cells. A ratio that needs a line the company did not tag is left blank, never set to zero, and the last table of the results gives the reason for each blank. A ratio is also blank where it has no meaning: a growth rate from or to a figure that is not positive, a return on equity that is not positive, a payout ratio on a loss, interest cover without interest.

What it assumes

That the same standard line means the same thing at every company; that one fiscal year is representative; that fiscal years with the same label are comparable although they can end many months apart; that debt is what the company tags on two standard borrowing lines; and, for the valuation rows, that your price and the filed share count and EPS refer to the same shares.

When it misleads

Different year ends. A fiscal 2025 that ends in January 2025 and one that ends in December 2025 share a label and almost no months. Table 1 of the results shows each year end and how far apart they are.

Blank is not zero. A company with no dividends line may pay none, or may report dividends under a tag the standard lines do not include. The same holds for buybacks, interest and capital spending.

Debt can be incomplete. Companies spread borrowings over many tags (leases, commercial paper, a finance subsidiary, the current part of long-term debt). Total debt, net debt and every ratio built on them can be understated.

Banks and insurers are different businesses. Their revenue is a total of interest, premium and fee income, their borrowing is raw material, and they report no gross profit, operating income or current assets. Debt to equity, net debt to EBITDA, the current ratio and enterprise value to EBITDA are shown as n/m (not meaningful) for them, several other cells are blank, and what is shown is not comparable with an industrial company's. The page says so when a financial company is in the group, and also when the group mixes industry codes.

Currencies. Each company's figures are in the currency it reports in, named under its ticker; nothing is converted. Ratios are pure numbers and compare across currencies, so their medians are kept. Amounts do not: when the group mixes currencies the money rows (revenue, net income, total assets, market value) are shown for each company in its own currency and have no median. A typed share price for a foreign company must be in its reporting currency and per ordinary share, not per American depositary share; the page cannot check that. The comparison uses fiscal years only, not the last twelve months.

Stock splits. Per-share figures and share counts are adjusted for stock splits detected from the companies' restated figures; as-filed values are in the filings. A later annual report restates its comparison years after a split; when the share count of the same year rises by a usual split ratio and its EPS falls by the same ratio, older years are put on today's share basis. EPS growth is left blank only where the restated figures did not decide the matter for one of the two years. A price typed today is on today's share basis, as the adjusted EPS and share counts are, unless the company has split its shares since its latest annual report.

Share classes. Companies with several classes of share often report no single shares-outstanding figure, so market value and the multiples built on it are blank or unreliable for them.

Small denominators. Returns on equity and on invested capital become very large when buybacks have shrunk the equity or when cash is large; net debt to EBITDA and interest cover swing widely when EBITDA or interest is small.

End-point growth. A compound growth rate uses only the first and last year. A weak first year raises it, a weak last year lowers it.

Restatements. When a later filing restates a year, the restated figure replaces the original line by line, so one year can mix restated and first-reported lines.

A median of six is not an industry average. It describes only the companies you typed.

Worked example

The default compares six semiconductor companies (SIC code 3674) for fiscal 2025, in alphabetical order of ticker: AMAT, ADI, AVGO, MU, NVDA, TXN. The formulas are written out for Applied Materials (AMAT), whose fiscal 2025 ended on 26 October 2025 (Form 10-K filed 12 December 2025). In millions of dollars: revenue 28,368, gross profit 13,808, operating income 8,289, net income 6,998.

Gross margin = 13,808 / 28,368 = 48.67 %; operating margin = 8,289 / 28,368 = 29.22 %; net margin = 6,998 / 28,368 = 24.67 %.

ROE = 6,998 / ((19,001 + 20,415) / 2) = 35.51 %. ROA = 6,998 / ((34,409 + 36,299) / 2) = 19.79 %.

ROIC: t = 2,273 / 9,271 = 0.2452; OI (1 − t) = 8,289 × 0.7548 = 6,256.76; invested capital 6,959 + 19,001 − 9,471 = 16,489 at the start and 6,555 + 20,415 − 8,573 = 18,397 at the end; ROIC = 6,256.76 / 17,443 = 35.87 %.

Revenue growth: (28,368 / 25,785)^1/3 − 1 = 3.23 % a year over three years and (28,368 / 17,202)^1/5 − 1 = 10.52 % over five. EPS growth: (8.66 / 7.44)^1/3 − 1 = 5.19 % and (8.66 / 3.92)^1/5 − 1 = 17.18 %.

Debt to equity = 6,555 / 20,415 = 0.32. Net debt = 6,555 − 8,573 = −2,018 (more cash than debt); EBITDA = 8,289 + 435 = 8,724; net debt to EBITDA = −0.23. Interest cover = 8,289 / 269 = 30.81. Current ratio = 20,881 / 7,999 = 2.61.

FCF = 7,958 − 2,260 = 5,698, a margin of 20.09 %; capital spending to revenue = 2,260 / 28,368 = 7.97 %; dividend payout = 1,384 / 6,998 = 19.78 %; dividends and buybacks = (1,384 + 4,895) / 6,998 = 89.73 %.

Group medians: revenue 32,873, operating margin 31.6 %, ROE 30.6 %, five-year revenue growth 13.1 %, free cash flow margin 29.5 %. The six fiscal years end between 26 January 2025 (NVDA) and 31 December 2025 (TXN), 339 days apart. No cell is blank. NVIDIA (4-for-1 in 2021, 10-for-1 in 2024) and Broadcom (10-for-1 in 2024) split their shares in these years; their EPS growth is computed on per-share figures adjusted to today's share basis.

A calculator for education and analysis, not investment advice.