Finbox is under active development, and we're continually pushing updates and improvements to the platform. Admittedly, we haven't done the best job of communicating new features as they're released. Going forward, we'll update this post as new features get added, and improvements are made to Finbox. Stay tuned!
In this article
- April 5, 2021 - New Fair Value Models
- April 3, 2021 - Financial Health
- February 22, 2021 - Custom Periods in Views
- February 3, 2021 - Chart Templates & Improvements to Charts
- October 30, 2020 - Common Size Analysis In The Financials Explorer
- September 24, 2020 - Performance Improvements & Additional Metrics
- July 21, 2020 - Benchmark Updates & More
- July 12, 2020 - Keyboard Shortcuts
- June 18, 2020 - New Blog Theme
- June 17, 2020 - Increased Mobile Support
- June 11, 2020 - Data Improvements
- May 22, 2020 — New Navigation, Views & More
- May 16, 2020 — Benchmarks & Currency Selector
April 5, 2021 - New Fair Value Models
Fair Value Methodology Update
With this update, we did a significant overhaul of our Fair Value estimates by introducing new valuation models and improving existing models by incorporating new statistical techniques.
New Valuation Models
The following models are now available for companies when appropriate:
- Added a new EV / EBIT multiples valuation model for companies where enterprise value is calculable and appropriate.
- Added new Price / Sales and Price / Book models for all companies
- Added new Price / FFO and Price / AFFO models for REITs
Updated WACC Methodology
Weighted Average Cost of Capital
We've updated our WACC model to take into account country-specific risk based on the published research and work by renowned NYU Professor Ashwath Damodaran. We encourage you to read more about his work on Country Risk Premium.
Improved Terminal Value & Selected Multiples
Multifactor Valuation Multiple Model
Previously, we used a simple average of historical trading multiples and peer group/sector averages to estimate the terminal value multiples in our DCF models. We also selected valuation ranges in our Comparable Company Analysis models like Revenue Multiples and EBITDA Multiples based on such averages. While this provided good results, it did not appropriately consider the specific characteristics of a company. This impact was especially pronounced when these characteristics deviated significantly from the company’s peer group, i.e., growth rates and profit margins well above or below comparables.
Our financial models are now powered by a sophisticated multivariate model that considers over 50 parameters as inputs to make the default predictions for exit multiples used in DCF models and multiples used in our comparable company analysis. The model ingests various facts (Xo...Xn) about a company and returns the desired ratio prediction:
Model( Sector, Revenue Growth, ROE, ...Xn ) ⇒ Predicted P/E Ratio
Fair Value Uncertainty
We previously based the Fair Value Uncertainty solely on the number of models used to triangulate our fair value estimates. With this update, the Fair Value Uncertainty now also considers several factors, including the underlying price volatility of the stock and the overall profit volatility.
In summary, with the updates mentioned above, our coverage of fair value estimates has increased significantly (2 - 3x). We would love to hear from you on additional suggestions and improvements! Email us anytime at [email protected].
April 3, 2021 - Financial Health
Financial Health
With mounds of data available to analyze, staying ahead of the market is no easy task. That's why we created Financial Health scorecards. Financial Health is an advanced ranking system that considers over 100 factors to help you understand any stock's strengths and weaknesses. Each stock is benchmarked relative to its sector and economic region on Valuation, Growth, Profitability, Cash Flow, and Price Momentum so that you can find healthy companies and avoid value traps.
As always, all of our calculations are transparently outlined for you to review. You can browse the various metrics used in each health scorecard. For example, to compute the Profit Health scorecard, we rank critical metrics like Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and more. Based on the sector ranking, we then assign a score between 0-5. For example, if a company ranks in the 90% percentile for ROA, we assign a score of 4.5.
February 22, 2021 - Custom Periods in Views
Specify Periods for View Columns
You can now specify the period for the data points shown in the columns of your table views.
Periods allow you to select the reporting interval and calendar date of data you'd like to see. You can search for the period types supported for a metric using the period types listed in Column F in the metrics listing spreadsheet. The column still defaults to the latest default period when no period is provided.
The following table summarizes supported period formats:
For example, revenue is reported quarterly and annually, as determined by a company's fiscal calendar. The last ten years of annual revenue figures are represented by the periods FY-9 to FY. Similarly, the previous 8 quarters of reported quarterly revenue is represented by periods FQ-7 to FQ.
A metric like stock price (`asset_price_close_adj`) has data available with a daily frequency. To retrieve the stock price 30 days ago, you specify the period as "D-30". You can also use a specific date like "2020-03-31" for the period.
February 3, 2021 - Chart Templates & Improvements to Charts
Chart Templates
Using Finbox's chart engine has never been easier. You can now create chart templates and save them in the new Charts tab to quickly apply them to any company! Try it out now: https://finbox.com/NASDAQGS:AAPL/chart-templates
Chart Editor
Our Chart Editor got some more love with this update. It is now easier to visualize trends in metrics across companies. Previously, we assigned a unique color to each ticker and metric combination, which caused an explosion of colors when the chart used multiple companies and metrics.
With the updated chart legends, each company is assigned a shape and each metric a unique color. This approach makes it easier to compare the same metric across companies since they have the same color. In the illustrative example below, P/E ratios are colored blue, and EPS is colored purple. AAPL's time-series data is marked with a square (□) shape and MSFT with a circle (○). With this approach, you only need to remember two legends versus four different colors to interpret the chart.
Improvements To Data Explorer Widget Sparklines
Our Data Explorer widget is a powerful way to customize a company's Overview tab with the metrics that you care about the most. Based on user feedback, we've color coded the sparkline charts to better differentiate between positive and negative values.
October 30, 2020 - Common Size Analysis In The Financials Explorer
We've released a new feature in the financial explorer that allows you to quickly conduct growth rate and common size analyses of financial statements.
Common Size Financial Statements
A common size financial statement analysis consists of visualizing each line item as a percentage of one main figure. For example, a common size income statement usually expresses each item as a percentage of revenue.
Financial analysts and investors use common-size financial statements to perform time-series analyses and visualize trends in a company's financial statements. They are also useful to compare a company to its peers.
For instance, a common-size analysis of Apple's income statement allows us to observe how the cost of goods sold is rising in recent years, deteriorating its gross profit margin. Common-size income statements are handy in analyzing how the cost structure has evolved.
On the other hand, with a common-size balance sheet, analysts can observe how a company's capital structure evolved. For example, Apple's common-size balance sheet shows how total liabilities as a percentage of total assets increased over time, driven by an increase in total debt.
Growth Rate Analysis
As the name implies, growth rate analysis allows you to visualize how each line item has grown over the prior period. You can use the growth rate analysis to identify what key cost and profitability drivers. Below is an example of a growth rate analysis applied to Apple's income statement. Using this analysis, we can observe that Apple's Research & Development spend has consistently increased faster than Operating Expenses signaling a commitment to further innovation.
September 24, 2020 - Performance Improvements & Additional Metrics
We've made several improvements to improve the rendering time of the desktop and mobile web pages so that you can get more done, faster.
Additional Metrics
- We have an on going project to improve the coverage of our fair value estimates. To improve the free cash flow and cost of capital estimates, we've added three new metrics: Corporate Tax Rate, Equity Risk Premium, and Marginal Equity Risk Premium
- We've added two (2) and three (3) year forward CAGRs for forecast metrics like revenue, EBITDA, net income and EPS.
- Volatility is a key component in risk analysis. We've added support for a stock's 1 year, 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days Realized Volatility
- Are reported earnings of quality earnings? The FCF / Net Income ratio is a quick way to guage how Net Income relates to the Free Cash Flow
- Compound Annual Growth Rates (CAGR) is a common way to measure growth over time. While CAGRs are great. if starting period's value is negative, the CAGR may not have a real number solution. To address this issue, we've added simple average EPS Growth for the three, five, seven and ten year periods.
July 21, 2020 - Benchmark Updates & More
We've improved the factors considered to create the candidate list resulting in higher quality benchmarks used in our models.
For example, you'll find that Bank of America (BAC) is now compared to the following companies:
- Wells Fargo & Company (WFC)
- JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM)
- Citigroup Inc. (C)
- U.S. Bancorp (USB)
- Trustmark Corporation (TRMK)
Previously BAC was compared to the following:
- KeyCorp (KEY)
- Hancock Whitney Corporation (HWC)
- Atlantic Union Bankshares Corporation (AUB)
- Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB)
- Pinnacle Financial Partners, Inc. (PNFP)
The benchmarks for Delta Airlines (DAL) have now been updated to the following:
- American Airlines Group Inc. (AAL)
- Alaska Air Group, Inc. (ALK)
- Allegiant Travel Company (ALGT)
- JetBlue Airways Corporation (JBLU)
- United Airlines Holdings, Inc. (UAL)
- Spirit Airlines, Inc. (SAVE)
- Hawaiian Holdings, Inc. (HA)
- SkyWest, Inc. (SKYW)
- Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV)
Previously, they were:
- LATAM Airlines Group S.A. (SNSE:LTM)
- Copa Holdings, S.A. (NYSE:CPA)
- KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (OTCPK:KLMR)
- Singapore Airlines Limited (OTCPK:SING.F)
- ANA Holdings Inc. (OTCPK:ALNP.F)
A back of the envelope test to gauge improvement is the correlation of 1-year returns of benchmarks vs. the subject company. You can find an example of this analysis here. The top five (5) benchmarks have an average correlation of 0.35 (0.19 prior) with the subject, and the first benchmark had a correlation of 0.58 (0.17 prior).
We consider many more factors when selecting and ranking the candidate group, but the criteria above is a rough analysis of the improvement in one of the factors.
• Industry Group and Industry Level Benchmarks
You can now compare the percentile ranking of any numeric metric in the Data Explorer to the subject company's Industry Group and Industry.
July 12, 2020 - Keyboard Shortcuts For Easier Navigation
Our keyboard shortcuts are designed to help you navigate Finbox with minimal effort. For example, you can now bring up the search bar by pressing Ctrl + K on Windows devices or ⌘ + K on Mac.
You can find the list of shortcuts in the Account Settings menu of the dashboard (top right corner), or reference the table below:
| Action | Windows | Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Search bar | Ctrl + K | ⌘ + K |
| Go To Watchlists | Alt + W | Option + W |
| Go To Ideas | Alt + I | Option + I |
| Go To Data Explorer | Alt + D | Option + D |
| Go To Stock Screener | Alt + S | Option + S |
| Go To Templates | Alt + T | Option + T |
| Go To Charts Editor | Alt + C | Option + C |
| Switch Company Page Tab | Alt + 1-6 | Option + 1-6 |
Other Additions & Improvements
- Dividend yield data points are now available historically on a daily basis
- Support for Chowder Rule, and Chowder Rule (Fwd). You can read more about the Chowder Rule here
- Added a gross common dividends paid metric
- Added a last earnings date can be used to find historical earnings announcement dates for a company
- Added financial statement metrics for Right-of-Use Assets, Amortization of Intangible Assets, Other Adjustments to Net Income, and Total Long-Term Liabilities
- Added debt ratios Debt / Equity, Adjusted, and Total Debt / Levered FCF
- Added stock price total return for 2 weeks, 3 weeks, and 4 weeks.
- Added Volume Weighted Average Price (VWAP)
- Added valuation ratios P/E Ratio for the next twelve months (NTM) period, and Price / LTM FCF
- EPS Forecast CAGRs for five-years and ten-years
June 18, 2020 - Our Blog Get A Fresh New Look
Our blog just got a fresh new look! We've updated this blog to load faster and be more organized. You can now find articles categorized in one of these three categories:
We'll also be actively sharing a lot more educational content and insights from our research desk so stay tuned!
June 17, 2020 - Mobile Support for Company Dividends & Earnings Views
You can now access insights on dividends and upcoming earnings on the go! We're excited to release support for Dividend & Earnings tabs that were previously only available on desktop, so that they can be accessed on mobile devices.
June 11, 2020 - Data Improvements
We've made improvements to several data points and added support for new metrics based on user requests.
• Improved Alternatives for ETFs
With over 3,000 ETFs in the U.S. alone, it can be overwhelming to find the best fit based on performance, expense ratio, fund brand, etc. We wanted to help make things easier, so we've improved the methodology used to determine ETF alternatives based on Asset Class, Asset Focus, Fund Brand, Economic Focus, and Benchmark Index.
For instance, as the chart below shows, investors may be better off using the VOO ETF in their portfolio to get exposure to the S&P 500 index since it has a lower expense ratio, a similar beta, one year and five-year performance.
• New Metrics Highlights
Dividend Per Share With and Without Special Dividends
Some companies like CME Group pay special dividends regularly. Including these dividends in the dividend yield is a valid approach to calculating yield. We've introduced two new metrics, Dividend Per Share (Ex Special Dividends) and Dividend Yield (Ex Special Dividends) to allow you to see the yield with and without these special dividends.
Improvements in Metrics for REITs
We've improved our coverage of the following metrics important to REITs:
- FFO Payout Ratio
- AFFO Payout Ratio
- FFO Margin
- AFFO Margin
- Market Cap / LTM FFO
- Market Cap / Fwd FFO
- Market Cap / LTM AFFO
- Market Cap / Fwd AFFO
We plan to add REIT specific models to improve our coverage of REIT fair values in future updates.
Degree of Operating, Financial and Combined Leverage
Since the coronavirus pandemic is still top of mind for management teams worldwide, several users have asked us about adding metrics for evaluating the cost structures (variable vs. fixed) and financial leverage of businesses.
While most companies do not report metrics like Contribution Margin, Variable Costs, and Fixed Costs, there are methods to tease out this information. Metrics like Degree of Operating (DOL), Degree of Financial (DFL), and Degree of Combined Leverage (DCL) can be derived using publicly available information as outlined here.
DOL = % change in EBIT / % change in Sales
DFL = EBIT / (EBIT - Interest)
DCL = DOL x DFL
Sloan Ratio
Sloan Ratio is a formula developed by Richard Sloan in 1996 that measures the degree of accruals versus reported earnings. Professor Sloan concludes, "The persistence of earnings performance is shown to depend on the relative magnitudes of the cash and accrual components of earnings. However, stock prices act as if investors fail to identify correctly the different properties of these two components of earnings."
A backtest of the Sloan ratio also seemed to validate Professor Sloan's theory -- between 1962 and 2001, buying companies with the lowest accruals and shorting those with the highest accruals resulted in a CAGR of 18% while the S&P 500 returned 7.4% over the same period.
PEGY Ratios
Renowned value investor Peter Lynch created the PEGY Ratio. The PEGY Ratio adjusts the P/E Ratio to account for a company's future growth rate and dividend yield to identify companies trading at a discount.
Other Additions & Improvements
- Fix page crash when asset doesn't support a model template
- Fix Date Picker formatting on Safari browsers
- Fix excluded full ticker column from exports
- Add more intervals for price history chart on company page
- Improve start y-axis at zero calculations to handle negative values
- Fix page crash on new screener creation
May 22, 2020 — New Navigation, Company Overview & More
We're excited to roll out this update, which is one of the biggest since the launch of Finbox 3.0 last November. With this update, we introduce deep dives into a company's dividend history and earnings forecasts as well as improvements like full-screen mode for watchlist and screener tables, trend charts in the financial explorer, data exports from charts editor, and more! So let's get to it!
• Updated Navigation (New!)
The first order of business -- navigation updates. To make room for new tools that we're planning to introduce over the coming months and to ensure all existing tools are available with one click, we've added a new side-bar. On smaller screens, you may want to collapse the side-bar to increase screen space. The side-bar automatically expands when you hover over the icons.
We understand navigation changes can be annoying. I compare it to a stranger coming into my house and rearranging all my things, so rest assured we only do it when it's required.
• Dividend Explorer (New!)
The Dividends tab is the perfect place to start for all dividend hunters. You can now analyze everything about a company's dividend in one place (dividend yield, growth streak, expected payouts, and more.)
Compare Dividend Yields Over Time
You can view the daily dividend yield history for any company using this widget. It also allows you to compare dividend yield histories for various companies.
Annual Payout History
The Payout History widget gives you insight into the total dividends paid by a company during a calendar year.
Dividend Payment Dates
The Dividend History Details table lists details on the dividend payments made by a company.
• Earnings Explorer (New!)
Love them or hate them, earnings reports can cause big swings in a company's stock price and sometimes even the entire market. To give you better insight into how management has performed during prior earnings reports and prepare you for what's ahead, we've introduced several new widgets on this page. Key highlights below:
Upcoming Quarter's Earnings
We source forecast data from Standard & Poors. S&P aggregates forecasts from various brokers and equity research institutions. This widget allows you to better understand the market expectation for the upcoming quarter and how expectations have been revised over the last year:
Stock Price Reactions
Does management have a track record of exceeding analyst expectations? Does the market even care about a company's earnings report? You can glean this information from the Stock Price Reactions widget where quantify the impact of past earnings reports by comparing the stock price the day before earnings and the day after earnings once the market has processed the new information provided by management:
• Trend Charts in Financials Explorer (New!)
You can now instantly visualize the trends in financial statements using the charting tool in the Financials Explorer.
• Full Screen Mode For Tables (New!)
We heard you, data fiends - you want to data as quickly as possible. We've added a Full-Screen mode to the tables in Watchlist and Screener help:
• Table View And Data Export In Charts Editor (New!)
You can now view and export data from the Charts Editor:
May 16, 2020 — Edit Model Benchmarks & A New Currency Selector
• Model Benchmarks Editor (New!)
Finbox's benchmark selection algorithm considers various factors, including mentions in earnings calls, filings, business geography, industry, sector, as well as fundamentals factors like market capitalization, enterprise value, and valuation multiples to determine the appropriate set of benchmarks for any company. We make the ranked list available in the Data Explorer: Similar Companies.
These benchmarks are used in the financial models available for each company. If you're unhappy with the default benchmarks or just want to use a few different ones, you can now do so using the benchmarks editor. You can find the new tab labeled "Benchmarks Editor" in the model viewer. The benchmarks editor is enabled for any model where the benchmarks used have a material impact on the conclusion, including Revenue Multiples, EBITDA Multiples, P/E Multiples, Weighted Average Cost of Capital, and DuPont ROE Analysis:
• Watchlist Currency Selector (New!)
You can now view your Watchlist in any currency of your choice. By default, the Watchlist normalizes all data in the stock's trading currency so that the price matches what you see on the respective stock exchanges. It can be helpful when comparing groups of companies to view all data in the same currency.
Bug fixes & improvements
- Improved performance in the bulk ticker uploader in the Watchlist
May 7, 2020 — Y-Axis Scaling in Charts Editor
• Y-Axis Scaling In Charts Editor (New!)
When metrics are in different units of scale, it can be difficult to compare trends and performance. Common cases where since can be an issue are:
a) Comparing stock price performance of two or more companies
b) Analyzing a company's growth in earnings relative to the stock price
c) Benchmarking growth in balance sheet metrics like cash balance, total assets and total debt of two or more companies
d) Benchmarking the historical performance of income statement metrics like revenue, gross profit, margins and earnings per share (EPS)
e) Benchmarking forecasts for revenue, capital expenditures, and EPS
Stock price charts end up looking something like this:
Source: Apple, Google, Microsoft Stock Price Chart
Fundamental charts with valuation ratios like P/E Ratio and per-share metrics like EPS end up plotted on two different Y-Axes:
Source: Apple's Stock Price, P/E Ratio and EPS Chart
To make it easier to interpret the underlying trends you can now click the Start Y-Axis at 0 button in the options bar:
The stock price chart becomes a lot easier to interpret:
After scaling the stock price, P/E Ratio, and EPS chart, it becomes much easier to deconstruct the increase is Apple's stock price. Over the last five years, Apple's stock price has increased by 151.9%. About 47.2% percent of the rise in stock price can be attributed to Apple management's ability to grow earnings over that period.
Using the chart, we can also note that investors today are willing to pay 58.8% more for each dollar of Apple's earnings than they were five years ago since the P/E ratio has increased by that amount (aka multiple expansion).
Source: Apple P/E Multiple Expansion
Bug fixes & improvements
- Added support for Start Y-Axis At 0 button in the chart editor
- Fixed a bug in the screener related to sorting by 3-month total return
- Improved formatting of the selected page in table pagination controls
