Overview
The marketbrief Score is a single number (1.0–5.0) that summarizes a stock's valuation, growth, profitability, and price momentum relative to its sector peers. It is calculated automatically from data provided by Yahoo Finance, and is meant purely as a quick reference — it is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security, and it is a different metric from Seeking Alpha's "Quant Rating" or any other third-party rating system.
The 4 Factors
Each factor is the average of 1–2 sub-metrics, each converted to a sector percentile first:
| Factor | Sub-metrics | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Valuation | P/E ratio, Price/Book ratio | Lower is better |
| Growth | Revenue growth, Earnings growth (YoY) | Higher is better |
| Profitability | Operating margin, Return on equity | Higher is better |
| Momentum | 3-month return, 12-month return | Higher is better |
Sector-Relative Percentile
Every sub-metric is compared only against other stocks in the same GICS sector within the marketbrief universe — not the entire market. This avoids, for example, penalizing every bank for having a lower P/E than every software company, since valuation norms differ widely by industry. If a sector has fewer than 5 stocks in the universe (too small for a meaningful percentile), that factor falls back to using the full universe as the peer group instead.
Score & Grade Formula
Each sub-metric's percentile (0–1) is averaged within its factor, then the 4 factors are averaged with equal weight (25% each) into one overall percentile:
The resulting score is then mapped to a letter grade by percentile threshold:
| Grade | Percentile threshold |
|---|---|
| A+ | ≥ 95% |
| A / A- | ≥ 75% |
| B+ / B / B- | ≥ 45% |
| C+ / C / C- | ≥ 15% |
| D | ≥ 5% |
| F | < 5% |
Handling Missing Data
Yahoo Finance does not always report every metric for every stock (e.g. a newly-IPO'd company may have no 12-month return, or a loss-making company may have no meaningful P/E). When a sub-metric is missing, it is simply excluded from that factor's average — the factor is still computed from whichever sub-metric(s) are available. If every sub-metric in a factor is missing, that factor defaults to a neutral 50th-percentile score rather than being treated as a penalty.
Update Cadence
Scores and underlying data are refreshed manually after each US market close and are not real-time. The reference USD/KRW exchange rate shown alongside prices is taken from marketbrief's daily brief for the most recent trading day.
✅ Key takeaways
- 4 equally-weighted factors: Valuation, Growth, Profitability, Momentum.
- Every comparison is sector-relative, not market-wide, to keep industries comparable.
- Score = 1 + 4 × overall percentile, mapped to an A+–F letter grade.
- It is a reference indicator only — always do your own research before investing.
Limitations & Disclaimer
The marketbrief Score is a quantitative snapshot based on a limited set of fundamental and price metrics. It does not account for qualitative factors — management quality, competitive moat, litigation risk, macro conditions, or breaking news. A high score does not guarantee future returns, and a low score does not mean a company is a bad business. It should be used only as one of many inputs to your own research, never as a substitute for it.
※ marketbrief provides this methodology and score for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, and marketbrief is not a licensed financial advisor.