CompanyGraph
Consistent growth is a historical pattern, not a promise. The screen should distinguish repeated operating progress from one favorable endpoint and then test what produced it.
What counts as consistent company growth?
Consistency is not the same as a high latest-year percentage. A company can post one spectacular year after a contraction, while another grows at a moderate rate through most years. For screening, the useful evidence is agreement among the path of revenue, endpoint-to-endpoint revenue and profit growth, and cash generation.
Even that evidence is descriptive. Acquisitions, currency, accounting changes, inflation, buybacks, and portfolio disposals can alter reported growth. Sustainability depends on demand, capacity, pricing, competition, funding, and reinvestment that the ratios do not observe.
How does the consistent-growth screen work?
The Multi-Year Revenue and Profit Growth interpretation requires all three of these annual observations to fire:
- a revenue-growth consistency composite that combines median growth, the share of positive years, and stability relative to industry peers;
- positive six-year net-income CAGR under the configured centered mapping; and
- positive six-year revenue CAGR under the same type of mapping.
A match establishes a historical co-occurrence. The two CAGRs use the first and last values of their windows, so they do not see volatility inside the period. The consistency observation partly addresses that weakness for revenue, but there is no equivalent path test for net income.
Multi-Year Revenue And Profit Growth
A growth-consistency composite reads high while net income and revenue have both grown on a 6-year compound basis
Does the earnings-acceleration screen measure acceleration?
No. Despite its legacy key, Earnings, Profit, and Cash Flow All Compounding requires positive four-year CAGRs for net income, gross profit, and derived free cash flow. It measures endpoint-to-endpoint compound growth, not an increasing growth rate.
Free cash flow is derived as operating cash flow less the absolute value of capital expenditure. Net income is company-level profit, not earnings per share, so the panel does not capture dilution or buyback effects. A match can support a consistent-growth investigation, but it cannot establish acceleration or future compounding.
Earnings, Profit, and Cash Flow All Compounding
Net income, gross profit, and free cash flow have all grown on a 4-year compound basis
Can capital expenditure confirm sustainable growth?
The Capital Reinvestment Intensity interpretation requires annual capital expenditure relative to operating cash flow to be elevated against industry peers and capital expenditure to exceed depreciation under a 0-to-3-times mapping. It identifies a current spending configuration, not the purpose or return of the investment.
Capex above depreciation may indicate expansion, replacement of old assets, compliance work, inflation, or a lumpy project. It can consume cash before revenue arrives, and a low reading can be normal for an asset-light company. Use this panel only when the research question includes current physical reinvestment.
Industry-Benchmarked Capex/OCF Elevated And Capex Above Depreciation
Two observations co-occur: industry-benchmarked Capex/OCF in elevated range, and Capex/Depreciation ratio above 1.0
How should you combine growth filters in CompanyGraph?
Begin with Multi-Year Revenue and Profit Growth. Add the four-year profit-and-cash panel to require another set of lines to have positive endpoint growth. Add reinvestment intensity only for businesses where physical capacity is relevant. Every added panel contributes AND requirements, so the result set becomes narrower.
A zero result means no company in the currently evaluated universe met all conditions with available data. It does not show that consistent growers do not exist. The six-year and four-year windows, missing history, strict thresholds, industry benchmarks, and fiscal-year timing can all change eligibility.
How do you check whether reported growth is organic?
Reconcile revenue changes using acquisition, disposal, currency, price, volume, and segment disclosures. IFRS 15 governs when and how revenue is recognized, but the reported line does not automatically separate organic and acquired growth. IFRS 8 segment information can help locate where growth occurred.
Read several annual reports and reconcile net income to operating cash flow. IAS 7 provides the cash-flow framework. Growth in receivables, contract assets, inventory, or capitalized costs may absorb cash even while revenue and profit rise. One working-capital release can also flatter a free-cash-flow endpoint.
What can make a consistent-growth screen misleading?
Endpoint selection is the central statistical risk. A depressed starting year or unusually strong ending year can lift CAGR. Acquisitions can add revenue and profit without improving the legacy operation. Inflation can create nominal growth without more physical output. Share issuance can fund growth while reducing per-share economics.
Consolidated results may also hide shrinking units behind a larger growing segment. Use the SEC's Form 10-K guide to locate the business, risk, management-discussion, and audited-statement sections, then test customer concentration, order volume, capacity, price/mix, churn, backlog quality, and management's non-GAAP reconciliations.
What does the screen not predict?
The screen does not predict demand, competitive response, capacity completion, financing availability, acquisition supply, or management execution. It does not measure return on new investment or valuation. Historical consistency is most useful as a research filter when the physical source of growth, cash requirements, and per-share outcome are independently verified.