How to read a Quant500 company page

The first thing on the page is four items: the price, how far it has moved against the previous close, market capitalization and the company's rank today in the multi-factor ranking. For Apple, at the August 31, 2026 close: $316.85, −0.89% against the previous close, $4.62 trillion of market cap and rank 46 of 466.

That last figure is the easiest one to misread. It does not say "Apple is the 46th largest" nor "there are 466 companies in the S&P 500". It says that, in the order this site's model produces today, Apple lands at 46 out of the 466 companies that score on all four factors. The index holds 500 companies; those that do not score are missing some piece of data, and the page explains it cell by cell. How that index is built is in the guide to what the S&P 500 is.

Below that sits a row of tabs — Valuation, Chart, Quotes, Financials, EPS, Institutional, Options, SEC Filings and Profile — and a strip with the other companies in its sector, ordered by today's rank. That strip is the fastest way to jump from a company to its competitors.

This is the block that belongs to this site, and the one most often misread. Five markers: four factors and their average. For Apple, with August 31, 2026 data:

How to read them. The scale is anchored to the index, not to an ideal: 5 is the average of the companies scored that day. The Z-Score is the same information in its original unit — how many standard deviations from the mean the company sits — and the conversion is direct: each point on the 0-10 scale is three fifths of a standard deviation, and scores are capped at ±3 deviations. Apple's 7.4 in quality comes from a Z of 1.427; its 3.8 in value, from a Z of −0.720.

That a 10 means "capped at +3 deviations" matters: it means the top band of the index, not perfection. And because the average is recalculated every day with that day's universe, the same company with the same numbers can shift score because everyone else moved.

What each factor is made of (the full recipe, with thresholds, is in the methodology):

• Momentum. The twelve-month return skipping the most recent month, divided by volatility. It comes from prices, not accounts. Why the last month is skipped is in the momentum guide.
• Value. Three yields on price — earnings, book value and sales per share — with a minimum of two out of three. The context is in what value investing is.
• Quality. Five ratios: ROE, ROA, gross margin, operating margin and leverage (this last one inverted: more debt, worse). Minimum three out of five.
• Growth. Three year-on-year growth rates — revenue, EPS and operating cash flow — minimum two out of three, and only if the prior-year base was positive.
• Multi-factor. The average of the four, for companies that have all four.

The chart next to the markers shows the history of those scores, each point computed that day with the data available that day. Its vertical axis zooms to fit each company, so two charts are not comparable by eye: the shared reference is the line at 5.

The market-data table is the company's picture on the stock market: price, market cap, P/E, twelve-month revenue, price to book, 52-week range, dividend yield, beta, average volume, shares outstanding and short interest. For Apple, as of August 31, 2026: a range of $225.95 to $344.57, beta 1.09, a 0.34% dividend yield, 14,594 million shares and short interest at 0.80% of the float (figure as of August 14, 2026).

The P/E deserves its own paragraph. Apple's is 36.38, and the page says exactly how it was computed: the closing price over a twelve-month diluted EPS of $8.71, which is the four quarters ended June 27, 2026, from the accounts filed with the SEC on July 31, 2026.

That detail is not decoration. Since September 20, 2026 the EPS on the page comes from the accounts filed with the SEC and not from the market-data provider, which returned a slightly different figure on every download. The practical consequence: this site's P/E may not match other pages, and nobody is wrong — each one uses a different EPS. Here, at least, it is written down which quarters it comes from. What the P/E measures and what to compare it against is in the P/E guide.

One number alone says nothing. That is why the page puts the P/E next to two medians: its sector's and the index's. The 82 Technology companies with a P/E had a median of 33.1, and the whole S&P 500's was 24.4: Apple sat above both. The full breakdown by sector is on the sectors page.

Below the data sits a block with the latest filings the company has made with the SEC, the US securities regulator, linking straight to the document on sec.gov. For Apple: the annual report (10-K) filed on October 31, 2025 for the fiscal year ended September 27, 2025; the quarterly (10-Q) of July 31, 2026, for the quarter ended June 27; and the earnings release (8-K) of July 30, 2026, after the close. What each one contains is in the 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K guide.

These are filing dates on EDGAR, the SEC's public registry, not news dates. That is the difference between "the press said so" and "it is on the record".

Next to it, two links answering the two questions people ask most about a specific company:

• When it reports. "12 of its last 12, after the close" sums up Apple's habit. The AAPL earnings page breaks it down quarter by quarter, taken from the 8-K each company files to announce its results.
• What its insiders are doing. SEC Form 4 requires directors, officers and large shareholders to declare their trades. For Apple, between August 2025 and August 31, 2026: 0 open-market purchases and 16 sales, the last one on August 25, 2026 for $447,000. Why a purchase says more than a sale is in the insider buying guide, and every one across the index is in insider buying.

• Valuation. Price and market, 52-week range, volume, multiples (P/E, forward P/E, PEG, price to book, price to sales, EV/EBITDA) and dividends.
• Chart. The price history.
• Quotes. The historical table of open, high, low, close and volume, filterable by month.
• Financials. The twelve-month income statement, the balance sheet and cash flows. For Apple: $466,823 million of revenue, $128,930 million of net income, a 148.75% ROE and debt to equity of 78.45%.
• EPS. Earnings per share in full detail, plus the history of surprises against what analysts expected.
• Institutional. Who holds the shares: large managers, funds, free float and short positions.
• Options. The options chain by expiry, with volume, open interest and implied volatility.
• SEC Filings. The list of filings linking to each original document.
• Profile. What the company does, where it is, how many people it employs and who runs it, with titles and declared pay.

And at the end, a block of frequently asked questions about that specific company, written with its own data: when it reports, what its P/E is against its sector, where it ranks, what its insiders have done, whether it pays a dividend and which sector it belongs to.

• The data's date is not today's date. The scores and market data carry the date of the close they were computed from — in the examples here, August 31, 2026 — and short interest or SEC filings carry their own, earlier date. Every figure on the page says when it is from.
• A high rank is not a forecast. The ranking orders companies on past data under a fixed recipe. It does not predict tomorrow's price.
• Empty cells are information. When a figure is missing or not credible, the page leaves it empty and says why, instead of estimating it. That is deliberate.
• The sector is not GICS. The classification is the market-data provider's, similar to but not identical to S&P's standard. That is why Alphabet and Meta appear under Communication Services and Amazon under Consumer Cyclical.

To practise: open Microsoft's page and compare it with Apple's block by block. It is the same page with different numbers, and reading two of them back to back is the fastest way to learn what each cell means.

What does 7.4 out of 10 in quality mean?

That the company sits well above the index average on that factor, not that it is good in absolute terms. The scale is anchored: 5 is the average of the companies scored that day and each point is worth three-fifths of a standard deviation, so a 10 is a score capped at +3 standard deviations. It is a relative measure and it changes every trading day, because the average it is compared against changes.

Where does the P/E on the page come from?

From the closing price divided by the diluted earnings per share for the last twelve months that the company itself filed with the SEC. For Apple, at the August 31, 2026 close: $316.85 over $8.71 of EPS, which are the four quarters ended June 27, 2026, from the accounts filed on July 31, 2026. Since September 20, 2026 that EPS comes from the SEC and not from the market-data provider, so this site's P/E may not match other pages: the company page always states which quarters it is using.

Why does Apple show as "46 of 466" rather than of 500?

Because each factor ranks only the companies that have the data needed to compute it that day, and the multi-factor score only those that have all four. On August 31, 2026 that was 466 of the index's 500. The per-factor totals do not match each other for the same reason: momentum ranked 497 and quality 473.

Why are some cells empty on certain pages?

Because a figure is missing or the one available is not credible, and on this site that is stated rather than filled in. Every component that fails to score writes down its reason at the moment it is discarded — no accounts for the prior year, a share count that is not credible, a negative base for a growth rate — and the reason is emitted by the calculation itself. An empty cell with its explanation is information; a cell filled with a guess is not.

Does the page say whether to buy or sell that stock?

No. The scores are the output of a quantitative model that ranks companies on public data, they are shown identically to every visitor, and they know nothing about anyone's situation, horizon or risk tolerance. The portfolios built from that ordering carry simulated returns. This is not financial advice or an investment recommendation.

Prices are market closes; fundamentals are the accounts each company files with the SEC, taken point-in-time, meaning only what was public on each date; insider trades are Form 4; and earnings dates come from the 8-K used to announce them. The full formulas are in the methodology and the terms in the glossary.

What the page does not do: it does not judge whether a company is expensive or cheap, it does not say what to buy or when, and it knows nothing about whoever is reading it. To test what a selection rule would have done in the past there is the simulator, with simulated results; to see today's full order, the ranking; and to work out what an amount invested in the index from a given date would have become, the calculator.

More guides: what the S&P 500 is, what the P/E ratio is, 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and what momentum is; all of them in the guides.