Knowledge Base

Financial terms, in plain English

Every metric, ratio, and filing that shows up on Quintarthai — defined clearly, with the formula and a link to see it on a real company. Built for cross-border (Canada + US) investors.

194 terms · 22 categories · 11 guided courses

Courses

guided learning paths · start anywhere
Valuation 101
How the market prices a stock — every multiple, what it means, and when to use it.
14 lessons →
Intrinsic Value & DCF
Value a business from first principles — cash flows, discount rates, and a margin of safety.
20 lessons →
Reading Financial Statements
Read an income statement, balance sheet, and cash-flow statement with confidence.
39 lessons →
Profitability & Quality
Separate great businesses from average ones — margins, returns on capital, and moats.
21 lessons →
Financial Health & Risk
Spot leverage, liquidity stress, and accounting red flags before they bite.
20 lessons →
Growth & Capital Returns
Measure growth and how a company returns cash — dividends, buybacks, and per-share math.
26 lessons →
Growth & SaaS Metrics
The recurring-revenue metrics that drive modern software and subscription businesses.
8 lessons →
Cross-Border Investing (CA + US)
The Canada–US edge: dual listings, arbitrage, filings, and tax-smart account placement.
27 lessons →
Filings, Ownership & Smart Money
Read the filings and follow the smart money — 10-Ks, insiders, and institutions.
11 lessons →
Market & Trading Basics
The market-data basics every investor should know — beta, ranges, volume, momentum.
5 lessons →
Sharia / Halal Investing
Faith-based screening, AAOIFI standards, and how compliant investing works on Quintarthai.
2 lessons →
Valuation & multiplesProfitability & returnsGrowthFinancial health & leverageCash flowPer-share & capital returnsMarket & tradingIncome statementBalance sheetOwnership & smart moneyFilings & disclosureDividends & corporate actionsCross-border & specialtyRisk & quality scoresIntrinsic value & DCFQuality & efficiencyGrowth & SaaS metricsIncome statement (deeper)Balance sheet (deeper)Dividend investingCross-border (deeper)Guides & how-tos

Full glossary

every term, A–Z by category

Valuation & multiples

11
Dividend Yield
The annual dividend paid per share as a percentage of the current share price.
EV / EBITDA EV/EBITDA
A company's total value compared to its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
EV / Sales EV/Sales
A company's total value, including debt, compared to its annual revenue.
Earnings Yield
A company's earnings per share as a percentage of its share price, the inverse of P/E.
Forward P/E Ratio Fwd P/E
The P/E ratio using estimated future earnings instead of past earnings.
Free Cash Flow Yield FCF Yield
A company's free cash flow as a percentage of its market value, the inverse of P/FCF.
PEG Ratio PEG
The P/E ratio divided by the earnings growth rate, to judge value against growth.
Price-to-Book Ratio P/B
How the stock price compares to the company's net accounting value per share.
Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio P/E
How many dollars investors pay for each dollar of a company's annual earnings.
Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow P/FCF
How many dollars investors pay for each dollar of cash a company generates after capital spending.
Price-to-Sales Ratio P/S
How many dollars investors pay for each dollar of a company's annual revenue.

Profitability & returns

8
EBITDA Margin
Operating cash profitability as a percent of revenue, before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.
Gross Margin
The share of revenue left after the direct cost of making or buying what a company sells, shown as a percentage.
Net Profit Margin
The share of revenue that becomes bottom-line profit after every cost, including interest and taxes.
Operating Margin
The share of revenue left after all operating costs, showing how profitable the core business is before interest and taxes.
Return on Assets ROA
How much profit a company earns for each dollar of total assets it controls, shown as a percentage.
Return on Capital Employed ROCE
Operating profit (EBIT) as a percentage of the long-term capital a company has put to work in its business.
Return on Equity ROE
How much profit a company generates for each dollar of shareholders' equity, shown as a percentage.
Return on Invested Capital ROIC
The after-tax operating return a company earns on all the capital (debt plus equity) invested in its business.

Growth

4
Compound Annual Growth Rate CAGR
The steady yearly growth rate that would take a starting value to an ending value over a number of years, as if it compounded smoothly.
EPS Growth
The percentage change in earnings per share (net profit divided by share count) from one period to the same period a year earlier.
Free Cash Flow Growth
The percentage change in free cash flow (cash from operations minus capital spending) from one period to the same period a year earlier.
Revenue Growth
The percentage change in a company's total sales (revenue) from one period to the same period a year earlier.

Financial health & leverage

8
Altman Z-Score
A weighted score that estimates a company's risk of bankruptcy within about two years.
Current Ratio
Whether a company has enough short-term assets to cover its short-term bills.
Debt-to-Equity Ratio D/E
How much debt a company uses for every dollar of shareholder equity.
Interest Coverage Ratio
How many times a company's operating earnings can cover its interest payments.
Net Debt
A company's total debt minus the cash it holds, showing what it would owe after paying down debt with cash on hand.
Net Debt / EBITDA
How many years of core earnings it would take to pay off net debt, a key gauge of leverage burden.
Piotroski F-Score
A 0-to-9 scorecard of a company's fundamental strength based on nine pass/fail financial tests.
Quick Ratio
A strict liquidity test of whether a company can pay short-term bills using only its most liquid assets, excluding inventory.

Cash flow

7
Capital Expenditures CapEx
The cash a company spends to buy, build, or upgrade long-lived physical and intangible assets like property, plant, and equipment.
Free Cash Flow FCF
The cash left over after a company pays to maintain and grow its asset base — money it can return to investors or reinvest.
Free Cash Flow Conversion
The share of a company's profit that turns into actual free cash flow, showing how cash-efficient its earnings are.
Maintenance Capex
The portion of capital spending a company must make just to maintain its current productive capacity, not to grow it.
Operating Cash Flow OCF
The cash a company actually generates from its core day-to-day business, before financing and investing activities.
Stock-Based Compensation SBC
Pay given to employees in the form of stock or options rather than cash, recorded as an expense even though no cash leaves the company.
Working Capital
The short-term money a company has tied up in running its business, measured as current assets minus current liabilities.

Per-share & capital returns

9
Book Value Per Share BVPS
BVPS is the company's net assets attributable to common shareholders divided by common shares outstanding, the per-share accounting value of the business.
Buyback Yield
Buyback yield is the percentage of a company's market value returned to shareholders through net share repurchases.
Diluted EPS
Diluted EPS is earnings per share calculated as if all dilutive stock options and convertibles had been turned into shares.
Dividend Payout Ratio
The payout ratio is the share of a company's earnings paid out as dividends rather than kept for reinvestment.
Earnings Per Share EPS
EPS is a company's net profit divided by its shares outstanding, showing how much profit each share earned.
Free Cash Flow Per Share
FCF per share is the cash a company generates after capital spending, divided by its shares outstanding.
Share Dilution
Share dilution is the drop in existing owners' percentage stake when a company issues new shares.
Shareholder Yield
Shareholder yield combines dividends, net buybacks, and net debt paydown to show total cash returned to owners.
Shares Outstanding
Shares outstanding is the total number of a company's shares currently held by all investors.

Market & trading

8
52-Week Range
The lowest and highest prices a stock has traded at over the past 52 weeks (one year).
Beta
A measure of how much a stock tends to move relative to the overall market.
Enterprise Value EV
The total value of a business — market cap plus debt minus cash — i.e. what it would cost to buy it outright.
Free Float
The portion of a company's shares that is freely available for public trading, excluding locked-up or restricted holdings.
Market Capitalization Market cap
The total dollar value of a company's outstanding shares — share price times shares outstanding.
Moving Average (50 / 200-day)
The average closing price over a recent window (e.g. 50 or 200 days) that smooths out short-term noise to show trend.
Relative Strength Index RSI
A momentum oscillator from 0 to 100 that gauges whether a stock may be overbought or oversold.
Short Interest
The total number of a company's shares that have been sold short and not yet bought back to close the position.

Income statement

7
Cost of Goods Sold COGS
The direct costs of producing or buying the goods and services a company actually sold during the period.
EBITDA
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization — a rough proxy for operating cash generation.
Effective Tax Rate
The share of a company's pre-tax profit it actually pays in income tax, shown as a percentage.
Gross Profit
What is left from revenue after subtracting the direct cost of the goods or services sold.
Net Income
The company's bottom-line profit after all expenses, interest, and taxes have been subtracted from revenue.
Operating Income (EBIT) EBIT
The profit a company makes from its core business operations, before interest and taxes.
Revenue
The total money a company earns from selling its products or services before any costs are subtracted.

Balance sheet

6
Cash & Equivalents
Cash on hand plus highly liquid short-term investments that can be turned into cash almost immediately.
Goodwill
An intangible asset recorded when a company pays more to acquire another business than the fair value of its identifiable net assets.
Intangible Assets
Non-physical assets with economic value — patents, trademarks, software, licenses, and customer lists.
Shareholders' Equity
The owners' residual stake in a company — what would be left for shareholders if all assets were sold and all debts paid.
Total Assets
Everything a company owns or controls that has economic value — cash, inventory, equipment, investments, and more.
Total Debt
The sum of a company's interest-bearing borrowings — short-term and long-term loans, bonds, and lease obligations.

Ownership & smart money

5
13F Filing 13F
A quarterly US filing where large investment managers must disclose the public equity holdings they manage.
Form 4 (Insider Transaction) Form 4
A US filing that company insiders must submit to report their own purchases or sales of the company's stock.
Insider Cluster Buying
When several different insiders at the same company buy its stock within a short window, often read as a stronger signal than a single buy.
Insider Ownership
The percentage of a company's shares held by its own officers, directors, and large controlling shareholders.
Institutional Ownership
The percentage of a company's shares held by large professional investors like mutual funds, pension funds, and asset managers.

Filings & disclosure

8
Form 10-K (Annual Report) 10-K
A 10-K is the comprehensive annual report a US public company files with the SEC, covering its full-year financials, business, and risks.
Form 10-Q (Quarterly Report) 10-Q
A 10-Q is the quarterly financial report US public companies file with the SEC for each of the first three fiscal quarters.
Form 8-K (Current Report) 8-K
An 8-K is the filing US companies use to disclose major events to the SEC promptly, between scheduled quarterly and annual reports.
Management Discussion & Analysis MD&A
MD&A is the section of a financial filing where management explains, in plain language, the company's results, trends, risks, and outlook.
NI 43-101 (Mining Disclosure)
NI 43-101 is the Canadian standard governing how mining companies disclose mineral resources and reserves to investors.
Proxy Statement (DEF 14A)
A proxy statement (DEF 14A) is the document a US company sends shareholders before its annual meeting, detailing votes, pay, and board matters.
SEC EDGAR
EDGAR is the SEC's free public database where all US company filings (10-Ks, 10-Qs, 8-Ks, proxies, insider forms) are stored.
SEDAR+
SEDAR+ is Canada's official online system for filing and viewing public-company disclosures, the Canadian counterpart to US EDGAR.

Dividends & corporate actions

6
Dividend
A cash (or sometimes stock) payment a company distributes to shareholders out of its profits, usually on a regular schedule.
Ex-Dividend Date
The cutoff date on which a stock begins trading without the right to the next declared dividend; buyers on or after it do not receive it.
Reverse Stock Split
A corporate action that combines shares into fewer, higher-priced shares without changing the total value of a holding.
Share Buyback
A company repurchasing its own shares from the market, which reduces shares outstanding and returns cash to shareholders.
Spin-Off
A corporate action where a company separates a business unit into a new, independent public company whose shares go to existing shareholders.
Stock Split
A corporate action that increases the share count and proportionally lowers the price per share, leaving total value unchanged.

Cross-border & specialty

15
AAOIFI Standards
A widely used set of Islamic finance standards that define the rules for screening stocks and other investments for Sharia compliance.
American Depositary Receipt ADR
A US-traded certificate that represents shares of a foreign company, letting Americans buy non-US stocks in USD on US exchanges.
Cross-Listed Arbitrage
Profiting from a temporary price gap between the same stock's two listings, after accounting for the currency exchange rate.
Currency-Hedged ETF
An ETF that uses currency forward contracts to cancel the exchange-rate effect, so returns track the foreign assets without the FX swing.
Dividend Tax Credit DTC
A Canadian tax credit that offsets corporate tax already paid, lowering personal tax on dividends from taxable Canadian corporations.
Dual Listing
When the same company's shares trade on two stock exchanges at once, such as both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
Flow-Through Shares
A Canadian share type that lets mining and energy exploration companies pass certain tax deductions through to investors.
Passive Foreign Investment Company PFIC
A US tax label for foreign corporations that are mostly passive-income vehicles, triggering punitive tax and heavy filing for US owners.
Registered Retirement Savings Plan RRSP
A Canadian retirement account where contributions are tax-deductible and growth is tax-deferred until you withdraw the money.
Sharia Stock Screening
Filtering stocks against Islamic-law rules to identify which companies are considered permissible for Muslim investors to own.
Superficial Loss Rule
A Canadian rule that denies your capital loss if you or an affiliated person rebuy the identical property within 30 days and still hold it.
Tax-Free Savings Account TFSA
A Canadian registered account where investment growth and withdrawals are completely tax-free, within an annual contribution limit.
Tax-Loss Harvesting
Deliberately selling a losing holding to realize a capital loss that offsets taxable gains, lowering your tax bill while staying invested.
Wash-Sale Rule
A US tax rule that disallows a capital loss if you rebuy a substantially identical security within 30 days before or after selling it.
Withholding Tax
Tax a country deducts at source from dividends or interest paid to a foreign investor before the money reaches you.

Risk & quality scores

11
Beneish M-Score
A statistical model that flags the likelihood a company has manipulated its reported earnings.
Calmar Ratio
A risk-adjusted return measure: annualized return divided by the absolute value of the worst peak-to-trough loss, usually over 36 months.
Delisting Risk
The chance that a stock gets removed from its exchange, often after breaching listing rules like a minimum price or market cap.
Information Ratio IR
Active return (return above a benchmark) divided by tracking error, measuring a manager's skill at outperforming per unit of active risk.
Maximum Drawdown MDD
The largest peak-to-trough percentage drop an asset or portfolio suffered over a period, before a new high was reached.
QuinnScore
Quintarthai's risk-first composite score that summarizes a company's overall risk and quality in one number.
Sharpe Ratio
A measure of how much return an investment earns for each unit of risk (volatility) it takes on.
Sortino Ratio
A risk-adjusted return measure like the Sharpe ratio, but it penalizes only downside volatility instead of total volatility.
Tracking Error
Tracking error is the standard deviation of a fund's return minus its benchmark's return; it measures how tightly the fund follows its index.
Treynor Ratio
Measures excess return earned over the risk-free rate per unit of systematic market risk, using beta as the denominator.
Value at Risk VaR
A statistical estimate of the worst loss expected over a set period at a chosen confidence level, under normal conditions.

Intrinsic value & DCF

19
Capital Asset Pricing Model CAPM
A model that estimates required return from one factor: how much a stock moves with the overall market.
Cost of Equity
The annual return shareholders expect for the risk of owning a company's stock.
Discounted Cash Flow DCF
Valuing a business by projecting its future cash flows and discounting them back to today's dollars.
Dividend Discount Model DDM
Valuing a stock as the present value of all the dividends it is expected to pay.
EV / EBIT EV/EBIT
Enterprise value divided by operating profit — a debt-aware way to compare how expensive companies are.
Earnings Power Value EPV
A no-growth valuation that capitalizes a company's sustainable after-tax operating earnings by its cost of capital.
Free Cash Flow to Equity FCFE
The cash left for shareholders after the business reinvests and meets its debt obligations.
Free Cash Flow to the Firm FCFF
The cash a business generates for all its investors — both debt and equity — after reinvestment.
Graham Number
Benjamin Graham's rough maximum 'fair' price a defensive investor should pay, from a stock's earnings and book value.
Intrinsic Value
What a company is actually worth based on its fundamentals, independent of its current market price.
Invested Capital
The total money put into a business by lenders and shareholders that is funding its operations.
Magic Formula
Joel Greenblatt's rules-based strategy that ranks stocks by cheapness (earnings yield) and quality (return on capital), then buys the best combined scorers.
Margin of Safety
The discount between a stock's price and your estimate of its intrinsic value — a buffer against being wrong.
Net Operating Profit After Tax NOPAT
A company's core operating profit after taxes, before any effect of how it is financed.
Net-Net Working Capital NCAV
Benjamin Graham's deep-value floor: current assets minus all liabilities, ignoring fixed assets, as a conservative estimate of liquidation value.
Owner Earnings
Warren Buffett's measure of the real cash an owner can take out of a business each year.
Reverse DCF
A reverse DCF takes today's share price as given and solves for the growth rate the market must be assuming to justify it.
Terminal Value
The estimated value of all a company's cash flows beyond the explicit forecast period, in one figure.
Weighted Average Cost of Capital WACC
The blended return a company must earn to satisfy all its investors — both lenders and shareholders.

Quality & efficiency

14
Accruals Ratio
Measures how much of reported earnings is accounting estimates rather than cash — high accruals are a red flag.
Asset Turnover
Revenue generated per dollar of assets — how efficiently a company uses its asset base to produce sales.
Capital Intensity
How much a company must invest to generate its sales, most often capital expenditures divided by revenue.
Cash Conversion Cycle CCC
The number of days cash is tied up in operations — from paying suppliers to collecting from customers.
Days Inventory Outstanding DIO
The average number of days a company holds inventory before it is sold.
Days Payable Outstanding DPO
The average number of days a company takes to pay its suppliers, computed from accounts payable relative to cost of goods sold.
Days Sales Outstanding DSO
The average number of days a company waits to collect cash after making a credit sale.
Economic Moat
A durable competitive advantage that lets a company protect profits and high returns on capital for years.
Gross Profitability
Gross profit divided by total assets — a quality signal that often predicts returns better than earnings-based ratios.
Inventory Turnover
How many times a company sells and replaces its inventory in a period — a measure of inventory efficiency.
Receivables Turnover
How many times a year a company collects its average accounts receivable — the inverse view of DSO.
Return on Incremental Invested Capital ROIIC
The after-tax return a company earns specifically on the NEW capital it deploys, not on its whole capital base.
Return on Tangible Equity ROTE
Profit earned on shareholders' equity after stripping out goodwill and intangibles — a stricter return measure.
Rule of 40
A growth-plus-profit health check for software firms: revenue growth % plus profit margin % should be at least 40.

Growth & SaaS metrics

8
Annual Recurring Revenue ARR
The value of a subscription business's recurring revenue normalized to a full year, excluding one-time fees.
Churn Rate
The percentage of customers or recurring revenue lost over a period.
Customer Acquisition Cost CAC
The average total sales and marketing spend required to win one new customer.
Customer Lifetime Value LTV
The total gross profit a company expects to earn from an average customer over the entire relationship.
Gross Revenue Retention GRR
The share of recurring revenue kept from existing customers, excluding any expansion, so it caps at 100%.
Net Revenue Retention NRR
How much recurring revenue a cohort of existing customers generates a year later, after upgrades, downgrades, and churn.
Remaining Performance Obligation RPO
The total contracted revenue a company has signed but not yet recognized, including both billed and unbilled amounts.
Same-Store Sales
Revenue growth from locations open for a full prior year, stripping out the effect of opening new stores.

Income statement (deeper)

8
Contribution Margin
Revenue left over after variable costs — the amount each sale contributes toward fixed costs and profit.
Depreciation & Amortization D&A
Non-cash charges that spread the cost of long-lived assets over the years they are used.
Earnings Before Interest & Taxes EBIT
Profit from a company's core operations before financing costs and income tax are deducted.
LIFO vs FIFO
Two inventory cost-flow methods: FIFO expenses the oldest costs first, LIFO the newest — and IFRS bans LIFO entirely.
Operating Leverage
How much profit amplifies (up or down) when sales change, driven by the mix of fixed vs. variable costs.
Pre-Tax Income EBT
A company's profit after all expenses except income tax — the base that income tax is applied to.
Research & Development Expense R&D
Spending to create new products and technology — usually expensed now, with payoffs hoped for later.
Selling, General & Administrative Expense SG&A
The overhead of running and selling — salaries, marketing, rent, and admin costs not tied to making the product.

Balance sheet (deeper)

9
Accounts Receivable AR
Money customers owe a company for goods or services already delivered but not yet paid for.
Deferred Revenue
Cash collected for goods or services not yet delivered — a liability, not income, until earned.
Deferred Tax DTA/DTL
Balance-sheet accounts that capture timing differences between accounting (book) profit and taxable profit, recorded as a future tax saving (asset) or future tax bill (liability).
Goodwill Impairment
A non-cash write-down recorded when acquired goodwill is worth less than its carrying value, signaling an acquisition was overpaid or has underperformed.
Minority Interest
The share of a partly owned subsidiary's equity that belongs to outside shareholders, not the parent.
Net Working Capital NWC
Current assets minus current liabilities — the short-term cash cushion that funds day-to-day operations.
Retained Earnings
Cumulative profits a company has kept and reinvested rather than paid out as dividends.
Tangible Book Value
Shareholders' equity minus goodwill and other intangibles — what's left if you ignore non-physical assets.
Treasury Stock
Shares a company has bought back and holds itself — a contra-equity account that reduces shareholders' equity.

Dividend investing

6
Dividend Aristocrat
A company with a long, unbroken record of annual dividend increases, typically 25+ years in the U.S.
Dividend Coverage Ratio
How many times a company's earnings (or cash flow) can cover its dividend payments.
Dividend Growth Rate
The annualized rate at which a company raises its dividend per share over time.
Dividend Reinvestment Plan DRIP
A program that automatically uses your cash dividends to buy more shares of the same stock.
Forward Dividend
The expected total dividend per share over the next 12 months, based on the current rate.
Special Dividend
A one-time, non-recurring dividend paid outside a company's regular schedule.

Cross-border (deeper)

11
Canada–US Tax Treaty
The income-tax convention between Canada and the US that cuts cross-border withholding, prevents double taxation, and protects RRSP and IRA deferral.
Canadian Depositary Receipt CDR
A Canadian-listed receipt that holds a fraction of a U.S. stock, priced in Canadian dollars with a built-in currency hedge.
Canadian Securities Exchange CSE
A Canadian exchange focused on emerging and early-stage companies, with lighter listing requirements than the TSX.
Cboe Canada (NEO Exchange)
A senior Canadian stock exchange, formerly NEO Exchange, now owned by Cboe and a major home for ETFs and CDRs.
Foreign Tax Credit
A credit that offsets tax already paid to another country, so the same income is not fully taxed twice.
Form NR301 NR301
A CRA form on which a non-resident certifies eligibility for a treaty-reduced rate of Canadian withholding tax on dividends and interest.
Form T1135 (Foreign Income Verification) T1135
A CRA form Canadians must file when their foreign property cost more than CAD 100,000 at any point in the year.
Form W-8BEN W-8BEN
US IRS form a non-US individual files to certify foreign status and claim a treaty-reduced rate of US tax withholding.
IFRS vs US GAAP
The two main accounting rulebooks: Canada uses IFRS, U.S. companies use US GAAP, so some numbers are not directly comparable.
Multijurisdictional Disclosure System MJDS
A Canada–U.S. arrangement letting eligible issuers file in the other country largely using their home-country disclosure documents.
Qualified Small Business Stock QSBS
A US tax break (IRC §1202) letting eligible holders of qualifying C-corporation stock exclude most or all capital gain after a multi-year hold.

Guides & how-tos

6
Accounting Red Flags
Warning signs in financial statements that earnings may be overstated, low-quality, or hiding trouble.
DCF Valuation Basics DCF
Estimate a company's worth today by projecting its future cash and discounting it back to present value.
Growth vs Value Investing
Two styles: growth buys fast-expanding companies at higher prices; value buys cheaper companies the market overlooks.
How to Read a Balance Sheet
A snapshot of what a company owns and owes on one day: assets = liabilities + equity, always in balance.
How to Read a Cash Flow Statement
Tracks actual cash in and out across three sections — operating, investing, financing — to show if profit is real cash.
How to Read an Income Statement
Read top to bottom: revenue minus costs at each step, ending in net income — the company's profit over a period.