Cheap companies that are actually healthy

What the two methods are

Two of the most-tested ideas in value investing, run over what companies actually filed with the SEC. Joel Greenblatt’s magic formula finds the ones earning the most relative to what they cost; Joseph Piotroski’s nine-point check says whether the business behind the price is getting better or quietly falling apart.

1,534 US companies ranked by Greenblatt’s magic formula, of which 152 also score 8 or better on Piotroski’s nine-point health check. Top of the list right now: RMNI, BRSL, IRWD, BCRX, HRB.

Computed from each company’s own SEC filings rather than a data vendor’s summary, over a 2,626-company universe. 1,092 companies are listed as unranked rather than scored on an invented figure, which is why banks and utilities are largely absent.

Updated 2026-09-10 · data through 2026-09-09

Every US company we hold filings for, ranked on what it earns against what it costs to buy and what it takes to run. Joel Greenblatt’s two ratios, added as ranks rather than scores so neither one can dominate. Alongside each name, Joseph Piotroski’s nine-point check on whether the business is getting healthier or just looks cheap.

1534Companies ranked

152Also scoring 8+ on quality

1092Left out, with a reason

Cheapest by the formula

priced 2026-09-09

#	Company	Earnings yield	Return on capital	Quality	Size	Year ended
1	RMNI Rimini Street, Inc.	15.9%	585%	7/9	$429M	2025-12-31	Backtest
2	BRSL Brightstar Lottery PLC	14.3%	762%	5/9	$2.1B	2025-12-31	Backtest
3	IRWD Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	15.0%	279%	7/9	$673M	2025-12-31	Backtest
4	BCRX BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	15.8%	157%	7/9	$2.3B	2025-12-31	Backtest
5	HRB H&R Block, Inc.	12.5%	279%	7/9	$5.6B	2026-06-30	Backtest
6	TNET TriNet Group, Inc.	12.8%	194%	5/9	$3.1B	2025-12-31	Backtest
7	DFIN Donnelley Financial Solutions, Inc.	10.5%	699%	—	$1.2B	2025-12-31	Backtest
8	SGU Star Group, L.P.	19.5%	89%	5/9	$424M	2025-09-30	Backtest
9	NVAX Novavax, Inc.	27.8%	80%	5/9	$1.6B	2025-12-31	Backtest
10	ADT ADT Inc.	10.2%	538%	—	$5.3B	2025-12-31	Backtest
11	WNC Wabash National Corporation	32.7%	74%	4/9	$529M	2025-12-31	Backtest
12	BRBR BellRing Brands, Inc.	16.9%	89%	4/9	$1.1B	2025-09-30	Backtest
13	OTEX Open Text Corporation	10.5%	207%	9/9	$5.5B	2026-06-30	Backtest
14	KBR KBR, Inc.	11.7%	131%	6/9	$4.6B	2026-01-02	Backtest
15	HLF Herbalife Ltd.	16.2%	83%	6/9	$1.3B	2025-12-31	Backtest
16	MMS Maximus, Inc.	13.0%	102%	7/9	$2.9B	2025-09-30	Backtest
17	CTGO Contango Silver & Gold Inc.	11.0%	133%	—	$661M	2025-12-31	Backtest
18	RIGL Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	13.6%	89%	7/9	$882M	2025-12-31	Backtest
19	BBWI Bath & Body Works, Inc.	17.3%	72%	6/9	$3.6B	2026-01-31	Backtest
20	COLL Collegium Pharmaceutical, Inc.	22.6%	68%	5/9	$760M	2025-12-31	Backtest
21	CCSI Consensus Cloud Solutions, Inc.	13.1%	89%	7/9	$667M	2025-12-31	Backtest
22	CI Cigna	9.5%	252%	7/9	$73.5B	2025-12-31	Backtest
23	SOLV Solventum	11.2%	106%	—	$15.3B	2025-12-31	Backtest
24	GTM ZoomInfo Technologies Inc.	10.1%	139%	—	$1.1B	2025-12-31	Backtest
25	DLX Deluxe Corporation	9.4%	188%	7/9	$1.1B	2025-12-31	Backtest

Ranks come from the last annual report each company filed, so a name can be several months into a very different year. Nothing here is a recommendation.

Why isn’t my company here? (1092 left out)

These are companies the ranking could not score, and they are listed rather than dropped. A figure we invented on their behalf wouldn’t rank as “unknown”: it would rank worst in the market, which reads as a verdict rather than a gap. A young company genuinely hasn’t filed three years yet, and a company that reports no debt line might have no debt or might have filed it somewhere we don’t read; those two look identical from here, so neither is guessed at.

Banks, insurers and utilities never reach this list. They are excluded a step earlier, by sector, as Greenblatt excludes them.

AAno operating-profit lineAALno cash lineAAPGus gaap filingsAAUCus gaap filingsABCLno fixed-assets lineABEVus gaap filingsABGno cash lineABVXus gaap filingsACADno debt line filedACCOno cash lineACHVno operating-profit lineACLSno debt line filedACRSno debt line filedACVAno debt line filedADMno operating-profit lineADNTno operating-profit lineADPno operating-profit lineADSEus gaap filingsADURus gaap filingsADUSno cash lineAEHRno debt line filedAENTno cash lineAERno current-assets lineAEROus gaap filingsAESIno cash line

What the two numbers mean

Earnings yield is operating profit divided by what it would cost to buy the whole company outright: its market value plus its debts, less its cash. It is a price tag that doesn’t care how the business is financed, which is why it beats a P/E for comparing a debt-laden company with a debt-free one.

Return on capital is that same operating profit divided by the money the business actually needs tied up to produce it. High numbers usually mean a business that can grow without swallowing cash. A company funded by its suppliers (most retailers, and Apple) reads very high here, because on that measure it barely ties up any capital at all.

The quality score counts how many of nine things improved since last year: profits, cash generation, debt, liquidity, share count, margins and how hard the assets are working. It is what separates a cheap company that is healing from one that is dying. Hover any score to see which tests it passed.

• Ranks, not recommendations. A cheap company is often cheap for a reason the filings don't contain.• US filers only. SEC XBRL starts in 2009, so there is no dot-com or 2008 data, and nothing Baltic or European appears at all.• Financials and utilities are excluded, as Greenblatt excludes them: the capital-employed denominator means nothing for a bank. REITs are excluded too, because depreciating a building that is actually appreciating makes reported earnings the wrong number to rank on. Real-estate brokers, property managers and property-data companies are not REITs and are ranked normally.• Annual figures only. A company can be four quarters into a collapse and still screen well on its last 10-K.• A few US-listed companies file their annual report in Canadian dollars, Enbridge and TC Energy among them. Their figures are converted to US dollars at the exchange rate on their fiscal year end, and those rows are marked CAD so you can see which ones they are. We hold exchange rates from 2021 onward, so these companies are left out of any run dated before that rather than converted at a guessed rate.• A company is left out, never estimated, when a figure it needs is missing. That silently excludes whole industries rather than mis-ranking them. The one figure read from an absence is debt: a filer that has never reported a borrowing of any kind is treated as debt-free, which is what it is.• Enterprise value omits minority interest and preferred stock, which we don't store, and nets only cash and equivalents, not short-term investments. Apple screens cheaper than this says on the first count and dearer on the second.• Past results are not a forecast, and neither screen has been backtested here.

What a magic formula screener is

Joel Greenblatt’s magic formula, from The Little Book That Beats the Market, is deliberately the simplest useful stock screen anyone has published. It ranks companies on two numbers and nothing else: earnings yield: what the business earns against what you pay for it, and return on capital, what it earns against the money tied up running it. Add the two ranks together and the top of the list is where good businesses and cheap prices overlap. A company placed 20th on both beats one placed 1st and 200th, which is exactly the point: the cheapest company on any screen is usually cheap for a reason.

A magic formula screener is simply that ranking, run over a universe of companies. This one runs it over US filers, rebuilt nightly from their own annual reports rather than from a data vendor’s summary.

What the Piotroski F-score adds

Joseph Piotroski’s F-score is a nine-point health check, and it exists because cheap and good are not the same thing. It asks nine yes/no questions about the last year. Is the company profitable, is cash actually coming in, is debt falling, are margins widening, is it issuing shares, and scores one point for each yes. Nine is pristine; anything at or below three is a company getting worse while you are being told it is cheap.

Screening on either measure alone gets you the classic failure. Magic formula alone finds value traps; F-score alone finds healthy companies at any price. The table above shows both, so the interesting square, cheap and improving. Is the one you can actually find.

Where these numbers come from

Not from a data vendor’s summary, but from the filings themselves. Every figure is an as-reported line out of a company’s own annual report, stored with the date it was published. That matters more than it sounds: most financial databases overwrite a number when a company restates it, so looking back at 2015 shows you figures nobody had in 2015. Here, a filing is invisible until the day it was filed.

What this can’t tell you

US companies only, and only back to 2009 when electronic filing became mandatory, so nothing European, and no dot-com or 2008 history. Banks, insurers and utilities are excluded: a bank’s balance sheet is its product, so “capital tied up in the business” means nothing, and a regulator sets a utility’s returns. And every ranking rests on the last annual report, so a company can be three quarters into a very bad year and still screen beautifully.

None of this has been backtested here, and none of it is advice. It is a starting list, not a buy list.

Want to test a rule on one specific stock instead? That’s the backtester. Prefer momentum to value? That’s the momentum screener. Want to track what you actually own? That’s what Pulse is for.