PAYX Paychex, Inc.

Adjusts the numerator for debt and cash so heavily-levered or cash-rich companies are comparable. Particularly useful for cross-industry valuation work.

Capital-structure-agnostic earnings yield. Pairs with Greenblatt ROC to compute the Magic Formula rank (the universe-rank of EY plus universe-rank of ROC). Pre-tax operating earnings divided by the full claim on the firm.

How many dollars of book equity each share represents. Useful for asset-heavy businesses (banks, industrials) where book value approximates liquidation floor; less informative for asset-light franchises whose value is in intangibles.

Useful when earnings are negative or noisy (early-stage companies, restructurings). Works best within an industry because gross margin profiles vary wildly.

Adds dividend yield to the growth denominator so mature dividend payers don't get unfairly punished by a low-growth PEG. Sweet spot ~1.0; below 0.5 is often a broken growth assumption, above 2 is over-paying.

Productivity of the asset base. Combined with net margin, this is the DuPont decomposition of ROA: ROA = net_margin * asset_turnover.

Sanity-check on earnings quality. Persistently below 1 means working capital or capex is consuming earnings; persistently above 1 is unusual and may flag accounting conservatism or non-cash drags.

Pre-capex version of cash conversion. Numbers persistently below 1 suggest accruals are doing the work; numbers persistently above 1 are a (mild) positive sign.

Capital-efficiency measure that ignores how the assets are financed. Useful for comparing within a sector but biased low for asset-heavy businesses (banks, utilities) and high for asset-light ones.

Bottom-line growth on a per-share basis, capturing both operating progress and any net buyback effect. The denominator uses absolute prior EPS so a turnaround from negative to positive earnings reads with the conventional sign.

Top-line growth - the cleanest way to see whether the franchise is expanding. Best read alongside margin trend; revenue rising while margin compresses is often discount-driven volume rather than real growth.

Strips out receivables and inventory, leaving only cash and equivalents over current liabilities. Stress-tests whether the business can meet obligations even if collections seize up.

Whether the company can cover near-term obligations from near-term assets. Below 1.0 doesn't mean insolvent (cash flow can cover the gap) but is worth a closer look.

Strips out short-term operating debt and revolver use to focus on permanent capital structure. Useful when comparing companies that fund working capital differently.

Lets you compare equity earning power directly to bond yields. A 6% earnings yield is the equity-side analog to a 6% coupon, with the difference being earnings can grow (or contract).

Sustainability check on the dividend yield. Below 30% means the dividend has room to grow; 30-60% is the conventional sweet spot; above 85% is stretched and frequently precedes a cut. REITs and utilities run higher than the broad market by design.

Beneish (1999) calibrates eight financial-statement indices against a sample of known manipulators. M < -2.22 reads as unlikely manipulator; M >= -1.78 as likely manipulator; the gap is grey. Companion to Altman Z but for fraud risk rather than bankruptcy.

Buys oversold pullbacks within an established uptrend (price above the 200-day SMA). Holds while RSI(2) is below an exit threshold; exits when RSI(2) crosses above 60.

+1 when price is above regime_ma and RSI(2) drops below oversold; held while inside the trade; back to 0 when RSI(2) crosses above exit.

+1 = pullback-buy state active, 0 = flat. Bear-side variant uses the symmetric short rule.

Compares price pivots against the MACD histogram (MACD line minus signal line) at those same bars. Bullish divergence: price lower-low, histogram higher-low. Bearish divergence: price higher-high, histogram lower-high.

+1 at right-hand pivot of bullish divergence; -1 at right-hand pivot of bearish divergence; 0 otherwise.

+1 = bullish divergence, -1 = bearish divergence.

Reports whether the close sits within the configured proximity (default 2%) of the rolling 252-bar high or low. New-highs and new-lows are universally used screening filters; momentum and breakout strategies start from here.

+1 while close is within proximity of the 252-bar high; -1 while close is within proximity of the 252-bar low; 0 mid-range.

+1 = near 52-week high, -1 = near 52-week low, 0 = mid-range.