Field Guide
Every number, explained
The metrics on each company page, in plain language, and why each one helps you judge a business as a long-term compounder. The growth read stays free of price; value is scored on its own track. Here is why.
Market cap
What it is. The total value of all a company's shares (share price times shares outstanding).
Why it matters. It sets the ceiling. A company worth $200B effectively cannot become a 100-bagger; the giant winners are found while they are still small. Size is physics.
Revenue
What it is. The top line: total sales over a period.
Why it matters. It is the clearest read on whether customers want what the company sells, and how fast that demand is growing. The trend matters more than any single quarter.
Revenue growth
What it is. The annualized rate at which revenue is compounding.
Why it matters. Pace of the top line. Always pair it with per-share growth: fast revenue growth funded by issuing stock is not the same as real compounding.
What if it shows “?”. Not enough reporting history is available to calculate a reliable multi-year growth rate. This almost always means a recently public company (a couple of fiscal years are needed to compute a rate). It is a sign of youth, not weakness.
Gross margin
What it is. The share of revenue left after the direct cost of making the product or service. Some businesses, especially financials and insurers, have no cost-of-revenue line, so a gross margin isn't defined; for those we show operating margin (or net margin), and the chart label changes to match.
Why it matters. High and rising margins are the fingerprint of pricing power and a moat. Thin or falling margins usually mean a commodity with little defensibility. Where we fall back to operating or net margin, the same idea applies one step lower down the income statement.
EPS
What it is. Reported diluted earnings per share each quarter, taken straight from the company's income statement, drawn as a bar (teal when positive, red for a loss). Where an analyst estimate exists for that quarter it's overlaid as a line, so you can see how the result landed against expectations. The actual comes from the financial statements (accurate and consistent across every name); the estimate is the analyst consensus, matched to each reported quarter.
Why it matters. The trend in EPS shows whether per-share earning power is actually compounding, which is what ultimately drives a multibagger. Rising EPS alongside rising revenue means growth is reaching shareholders; flat or falling EPS despite more sales is a flag that it isn't.
Profitable vs pre-profit
What it is. Whether the business currently earns a net profit, or is still spending ahead of revenue to fund growth.
Why it matters. A profitable compounder can fund its own growth and weather lean markets. A pre-profit one is betting that scale arrives before the cash, or the market's patience, runs out: a higher ceiling, but higher risk.
Return on equity (ROE)
What it is. Profit expressed as a percentage of shareholder equity.
Why it matters. How efficiently the business turns the capital it holds into profit. High, durable returns on capital are the engine that makes compounding possible.
Free cash flow
What it is. The cash left over after running the business and reinvesting to keep it going.
Why it matters. Real, spendable cash, as opposed to accounting profit. It funds growth, buybacks, and resilience without the company having to borrow or issue stock.
Net cash
What it is. Cash on the balance sheet minus total debt.
Why it matters. Survivability and optionality. A net-cash company can push through downturns and pounce on opportunity; a heavily indebted one is fragile when conditions turn.
Dilution and shares outstanding
What it is. How fast the share count is changing. Positive means the company is issuing stock; negative means it is buying back.
Why it matters. Every new share shrinks your slice. Headline growth bought with constant share issuance is not compounding. Shrinking share counts (buybacks) quietly grow your ownership.
Archetype: asset-light vs scale economics
What it is. The two kinds of business our research scores: capital-light compounders, and scale-economics engines.
Why it matters. They compound in completely different ways, so we judge each on its own terms.
The two engines, explained →Recent IPO
What it is. A company that went public very recently and has limited reporting history.
Why it matters. Per-share metrics and growth rates are distorted by the offering itself, so early numbers deserve extra caution until a few years of history accumulate.
Multibagger Growth Index (MGI)
What it is. Our headline score for a company's growth potential, from 0 to 100. A weighted synthesis of the full six-lens scorecard, calibrated across the entire universe so a score carries the same meaning from one company to the next, it captures how strongly a business fits the profile of the rare companies that compound for years. Higher means more of that winning profile.
Why it matters. It answers the core question: how much room and capacity does this business still have to compound. It measures growth potential, not quality, so a superb but already-enormous company can score low. A higher score means more of the historical multibagger profile, not a higher chance the stock will rise.
The six lenses behind it →Multibagger Threat Index (MTI)
What it is. A 0 to 100 read of the external pressures that could weigh on a company's long-term durability. It looks at factors outside the company's own results, such as the competitive landscape, the regulatory and policy backdrop, customer or supplier concentration, the pace of technological change, and exposure to broader market cycles. It considers only these outside conditions, setting aside valuation and the company's internal financials. Lower is better here, so the gauge runs green when these pressures look limited and amber to red as they look more elevated.
Why it matters. Growth potential is only part of the picture; the conditions a company operates in shape how durable that growth is likely to be. Rolling these outside factors into a single read gives a fuller, more balanced view than the growth score on its own.
Multibagger Value Index (MVI)
What it is. Our read, from 0 to 100, of how attractively a company is priced against a separate, independent estimate of what the business is actually worth. Around the middle of the scale is roughly fairly priced; higher leans cheap, lower leans expensive. The estimate anchors on a company's forward earning power rather than trailing multiples, and is formed independently of analyst price targets, which tend to cluster around the current quote and follow the stock rather than lead it. The point is to judge what the business is worth on its own merits, not to echo where the consensus already sits.
Why it matters. Growth potential and price are different questions. A wonderful business can be a poor entry at the wrong price; the value index shows how much of the story is already in the quote. It is information only, never a price target.
Valuation flags
What it is. Short tags that summarize how a company is priced against our fair-value estimate. “Deep value” and “reasonably valued” lean cheap or fair; “premium justified by quality” means it trades rich but the business quality (margins, returns, durability) helps carry it; “expensive but growing” and “priced for perfection” mean much of the future growth is already in the quote; “value trap risk” flags a cheap-looking name where the low price may reflect a deteriorating business rather than an opportunity; “hard to value” means the cash flows are too early or too cyclical to anchor confidently. Click any flag to see every company carrying it, ranked by Opportunity.
Why it matters. They turn the value read into plain language and let you jump from a company to its valuation peers. Information only, never a price target or a recommendation.
Multibagger Opportunity Index (MOI)
What it is. Our most complete single read, from 0 to 100. It weighs a company's growth potential against how it is priced and how much room it still has to grow into, so early, underappreciated names with real runway rise to the top while expensive or near-saturated ones fall away. The company page marks it with an award star: gold, silver, or bronze when it clears the bar, greyed out when it does not.
Why it matters. It pulls the other reads together into the one number to look at first. Like the others, it is a research signal, not advice or a forecast.
The Scorecard
What it is. Six lenses (Moat, Runway, Growth Engine, Financials, Management, Risks), each scored 0 to 100 and tagged Strong / Moderate / Weak, with one flagged as the swing factor. Together they break a business into the parts that have historically mattered most for multibaggers.
Why it matters. Each lens isolates one driver of long-run compounding, so you can see exactly where a company is strong or fragile instead of trusting a single number. The six roll up into the overall growth score, MGI (defined above).
What each lens means →Swing factor
What it is. The single dimension flagged as most likely to make or break the thesis from here: the biggest live uncertainty or load-bearing assumption.
Why it matters. Every thesis rests on one thing more than the others. The swing factor names it, so you know exactly what to watch and what would change the conclusion. It is not the highest or lowest score, it is the most decisive open question.
Moat (dimension)
What it is. The durability of the company's competitive advantage, and whether it is widening or eroding.
Why it matters. A moat is what lets high returns persist instead of being competed away. Without one, even a great year is temporary.
Runway (dimension)
What it is. Room to grow: both the size of the opportunity (the addressable market) and the room for the share price from today's market cap.
Why it matters. The size of the dream caps the outcome. A company that has already won its market cannot multibag, however good the business is.
Growth Engine (dimension)
What it is. How fast, how durably, and how profitably the business scales: growth rate, returns on capital, and the ability to reinvest at those returns.
Why it matters. High returns on capital with a long reinvestment runway is the literal engine of compounding. Growth that earns poor returns, or is bought with stock, does not compound.
Financials (dimension)
What it is. Balance-sheet strength, earnings quality, and downside: margins, cash generation, leverage, and dilution.
Why it matters. Protects against permanent loss. A strong, self-funding balance sheet lets a company survive the lean years that kill weaker compounders.
Management (dimension)
What it is. Capital allocation, alignment, and integrity: how owner-operators reinvest, and whether they create value per share or destroy it through issuance.
Why it matters. Over a decade, who is steering and how they allocate capital is often the whole difference between a good business and a great return.
Risks (dimension)
What it is. The honest bear case, scored as resilience: cyclicality, concentration, regulation, disruption, obsolescence.
Why it matters. Names what could break the thesis. A high score here means the business is resilient to its own risks, not that it has none.
Business profile tags
What it is. Quick descriptors of how a company operates: its business and revenue model, customer type, stage, geographic reach, and the direction of its industry.
Why it matters. They place a company in its category at a glance, so you can compare like with like and spot the patterns that recur among compounders.
Themes
What it is. The structural trends a company rides: secular tailwinds like AI, electrification, digital payments, or aging demographics that its growth is levered to.
Why it matters. A durable tailwind enlarges the runway and can carry revenue for years; naming the theme makes the long-term bet explicit.
Educational content, not investment advice. Research, not recommendations.