I wanted to try to do some backtesting and therefore needed to see if I could recreate RS and EPS ratiing for prior time periods. I was pretty successful get creating an RS formula as this was not difficult (since it is based on stock price changes vs market changes).
I then downloaded data for the past 7 years and past 8 quarters of EPS figures for all stocks into a spreadsheet and have been totally baffled.
It is clear to me how some stocks make good grades but others have baffled me and was wondering, in some regards, two things:
1. How are sites like StockTables and IBD calculating EPS rating and
2. Since some are cleary really wierd - do they really have value.
Let me give you a few examples:
Investor Bus Daily (IBD) gives TWGP a 99 EPS rating. I looked at the data and it is a dog (I think). Stocktables give is a 21 rating. Completely different.
IBD gives BZH a 98 or 99 rating, which doesn't make sense to me looking at the data, and Stocktables gives it a 68, which makes more sense.
On the other hand, Stocktables gives CMVT a 99 rating, IBD gives it only a 77 and if you look at the data there is nothing to suggest (I think) that it is better than 99% of the other stocks out there in terms of earnings.
You can go on and on and see large differences between STocktables EPS rating, IBD's EPS rating - and for that matter what the data seems to be saying.
Therefore, to kind of repeat my questions....
1. Am I looking at the data or comparisions wrong?
2. If my observations are correct, is the EPS "rating" really that meaningful? Obviously you don't want a stock that has horrible earnings growth (or negative growth) but to me there seems to be a liklihood that stocktables could give something an EPS of 95 that to me looks worse (in terms of earnings) then something that it ranks at 70, which wouldn't be on our list.
Any thoughts would be helpful as I am currently quite frustrated trying to recreate some way to see which stocks would have had a good EPS ratiing, say, 6 months ago or 18 months ago so I can back test some strategies on good stocks.
Mike