Growth
What is year-over-year growth?
The change in a figure against the same period one year earlier, as a percentage. Comparing a quarter with the same quarter last year removes seasonality.
How it is calculated
This period’s figure divided by the same period a year earlier, minus one. Per-share figures are adjusted for stock splits before comparing.
How to read it
Operating income growing faster than revenue means margins are expanding, the strongest form of growth. Earnings per share growing faster than net income means the share count is shrinking. Decelerating growth is often the first sign a story is changing.
Keep in mind
One-off items make net income growth noisy, and lumpy capital spending does the same to free cash flow. Growth has no meaning when the earlier figure was zero or negative.
Where the numbers come from
Scrutar computes year-over-year growth from the figures each company reports to the SEC in its annual and quarterly filings, using the XBRL data attached to those filings.