The method

Every company we measure

Every company we measure, and where each one lands. A company is exceptional because of its record. What its latest accounts leave open is reported next to that, never folded into it.

422

measured

exceptional record

…and no open questions

just misses

The two measures

The record — twelve years

Earnings rose in at least 80% of years; no fall below a previous peak deeper than 25% that took more than three years to recover; growth of at least 12% a year.

The condition — today

Five checks on the latest accounts: compounding, earnings quality, balance sheet, capital allocation, per-share value. Plus whether it is still growing above 12%.

Three of the five checks look back three years, not twelve. So a company part-way through heavy investment shows the spending inside that window and the return outside it. That is why an open question never changes the record.

The funnel

422Companies measureda full set of results on file
148With a long enough historyten years of earnings, and a compounding shape. Banks and holding companies are judged on other things
46Exceptional recordclears all three record tests
14Exceptional, no open questionsand all five checks clean, still growing above 12%
16Exceptional, one open questionone check needs an answer, named against the company below
39Just misses the recordshort on one of the three tests

Where the familiar names sit

They are all measured. Where each one lands, and why:

Alphabet, Visa, Costco — exceptional record, open questions today. All three are spending heavily, which is the case a three-year window reads badly. Listed below with the question named.
Apple — earnings rose in 76% of years, against a bar of 80%.
Coca-Cola — grew 3.9% a year over twelve years, against a bar of 12%.
American Express — a bank, judged on capital adequacy. Not in this test at all.

Banks, holding companies and businesses with no clear earnings shape never get these measures computed. A blank row is not a low score.

The four groups

Exceptional, no open questions 14

All five checks clean, and still growing above 12%.

Ticker	Company	12yr growth	Years up	Unrecovered dip	Nothing outstanding
ANET	Arista Networks, Inc.	49.6%	92%	recovered	—
ASML	ASML	21.9%	80%	never fell	—
CW	Curtiss-Wright	15.6%	82%	recovered	—
DSGX	Descartes Systems Group	17.3%	94%	recovered	—
EXLS	ExlService	15.1%	82%	recovered	—
FTNT	Fortinet, Inc.	33.0%	76%	recovered	—
IDXX	IDEXX Laboratories, Inc.	17.8%	90%	never fell	—
ISRG	Intuitive Surgical, Inc.	12.5%	76%	recovered	—
MA	Mastercard	16.7%	86%	never fell	—
META	Meta Platforms, Inc.	45.1%	78%	recovered	—
MSFT	Microsoft	16.0%	76%	23%	—
NFLX	Netflix	54.2%	82%	recovered	—
NVDA	NVIDIA Corporation	56.9%	84%	recovered	—
RMD	ResMed Inc.	13.1%	82%	never fell	—

Exceptional, one open question 16

One check needs an answer, named on every row.

Ticker	Company	12yr growth	Years up	Unrecovered dip	The open question
AAPL	Apple Inc.	15.0%	80%	never fell	balance sheet
MSCI	MSCI	19.4%	84%	recovered	balance sheet
EVVTY	Evolution AB (publ)	47.9%	93%	never fell	capital allocation
TYL	Tyler Technologies, Inc.	15.8%	71%	recovered	capital allocation
V	Visa Inc.	15.2%	84%	recovered	capital allocation
FIX	Comfort Systems USA, Inc.	39.3%	90%	recovered	compounding
EME	EMCOR Group, Inc.	23.6%	94%	never fell	compounding
LULU	Lululemon Athletica Inc.	15.6%	71%	recovered	compounding
MYRG	MYR Group Inc.	15.4%	69%	recovered	compounding
TDY	Teledyne Technologies Incorporated	12.3%	67%	never fell	compounding
INTU	Intuit Inc.	14.5%	74%	recovered	earnings quality
MPWR	Monolithic Power Systems, Inc.	33.5%	82%	recovered	earnings quality
TSM	Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited	21.3%	78%	never fell	earnings quality
VEEV	Veeva Systems Inc.	40.5%	96%	never fell	earnings quality
AMT	American Tower Corporation	12.3%	74%	recovered	per-share value
PAYC	Paycom Software, Inc.	15.8%	80%	recovered	per-share value

Exceptional, several open questions 16

Two or more checks need an answer, or growth has slowed below 12%.

Ticker	Company	12yr growth	Years up	Unrecovered dip	The open questions
ADBE	Adobe Inc.	23.5%	86%	recovered	capital allocation, earnings quality, per-share value
GOOGL	Alphabet Inc.	27.2%	90%	never fell	capital allocation, per-share value
AZO	AutoZone, Inc.	14.2%	92%	never fell	per-share value (failed), balance sheet, capital allocation, compounding
BRO	Brown & Brown, Inc.	12.8%	76%	never fell	capital allocation, earnings quality
CPRT	Copart, Inc.	18.4%	84%	recovered	growth has slowed to 10.9%
COST	Costco Wholesale Corporation	12.0%	96%	never fell	capital allocation, compounding, earnings quality
FICO	Fair Isaac Corporation	23.2%	94%	never fell	balance sheet, capital allocation
GMED	Globus Medical, Inc.	14.2%	71%	recovered	capital allocation, compounding
LOW	Lowe's Companies, Inc.	14.7%	78%	never fell	per-share value (failed), balance sheet, compounding, earnings quality
MTD	Mettler-Toledo International Inc.	12.6%	84%	never fell	balance sheet, per-share value
NVO	Novo Nordisk A/S	14.6%	98%	never fell	balance sheet, capital allocation, compounding, earnings quality, per-share value
ODFL	Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc.	16.0%	76%	22%	compounding, per-share value
ROL	Rollins, Inc.	12.6%	88%	never fell	growth has slowed to 11.7%
SPSC	SPS Commerce, Inc.	37.3%	94%	never fell	compounding, earnings quality
TME	Tencent Music Entertainment Group	62.9%	80%	recovered	capital allocation, earnings quality
TTD	The Trade Desk, Inc.	31.5%	82%	recovered	compounding, earnings quality

Just misses the record 39

Short on one of the three record tests.

Ticker	Company	12yr growth	Years up	Unrecovered dip	Which test it misses
ACN	Accenture	7.7%	80%	never fell	growth below the bar
AME	AMETEK, Inc.	10.0%	86%	never fell	growth below the bar
AIT	Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc.	11.1%	82%	never fell	growth below the bar
ADP	Automatic Data Processing, Inc.	10.8%	90%	never fell	growth below the bar
FAST	Fastenal Company	9.1%	88%	never fell	growth below the bar
GD	General Dynamics Corporation	6.9%	84%	never fell	growth below the bar
HD	The Home Depot, Inc.	11.7%	74%	16%	growth below the bar
HUBB	Hubbell Incorporated	9.6%	74%	23%	growth below the bar
INFY	Infosys Limited	6.0%	80%	never fell	growth below the bar
LMT	Lockheed Martin Corporation	8.9%	67%	recovered	growth below the bar
PAYX	Paychex, Inc.	9.1%	84%	never fell	growth below the bar
SNPS	Synopsys, Inc.	9.7%	67%	recovered	growth below the bar
TJX	The TJX Companies, Inc.	11.2%	90%	recovered	growth below the bar
UNH	UnitedHealth Group Incorporated	8.7%	84%	recovered	growth below the bar
VRSK	Verisk Analytics, Inc.	9.5%	67%	recovered	growth below the bar
GWW	W.W. Grainger, Inc.	10.8%	67%	recovered	growth below the bar
WSO	Watsco, Inc.	11.3%	71%	24%	growth below the bar
BKNG	Booking Holdings Inc.	16.7%	74%	99%	fall never recovered
CHE	Chemed Corporation	12.3%	74%	25%	fall never recovered
DY	Dycom Industries, Inc.	19.9%	71%	94%	fall never recovered
LLY	Eli Lilly and Company	16.0%	74%	33%	fall never recovered
EPAM	EPAM Systems, Inc.	15.1%	76%	27%	fall never recovered
EQIX	Equinix, Inc.	14.4%	74%	42%	fall never recovered
HEI	HEICO	17.6%	90%	31%	fall never recovered
ICE	Intercontinental Exchange, Inc.	12.7%	74%	45%	fall never recovered
MANH	Manhattan Associates, Inc.	12.9%	71%	26%	fall never recovered
MKTX	MarketAxess Holdings Inc.	12.6%	78%	28%	fall never recovered
MCO	Moody's Corporation	12.7%	74%	37%	fall never recovered
NICE	NICE Ltd.	13.4%	82%	66%	fall never recovered
PYPL	PayPal Holdings, Inc.	26.3%	86%	32%	fall never recovered
POOL	Pool Corporation	15.1%	76%	45%	fall never recovered
PWR	Quanta Services, Inc.	14.1%	74%	43%	fall never recovered
ROP	Roper Technologies, Inc.	12.9%	84%	47%	fall never recovered
TMO	Thermo Fisher Scientific	13.7%	84%	32%	fall never recovered
TDG	TransDigm Group Incorporated	14.5%	67%	38%	fall never recovered
AXON	Axon Enterprise, Inc.	20.8%	49%	recovered	trailing earnings went negative
CSGP	CoStar Group, Inc.	16.2%	57%	recovered	trailing earnings went negative
MELI	MercadoLibre, Inc.	23.6%	64%	recovered	trailing earnings went negative
PTC	PTC Inc.	70.6%	56%	recovered	trailing earnings went negative

The compounders, by kind of business

The same companies, grouped by what they do.

Compounder 27

The only archetype the Exceptional Company Series draws from — the grade is defined over a compounding earnings shape.

Company	Sector	Where it lands	The twelve-year record
NVIDIA Corporation NVDA	Technology	Exceptional	rise 84% · worst dip 55% · growth 56.9%/yr
Netflix NFLX	Communication Services	Exceptional	rise 82% · worst dip 54% · growth 54.2%/yr
Fortinet, Inc. FTNT	Technology	Exceptional	rise 76% · worst dip 95% · growth 33.0%/yr
Arista Networks, Inc. ANET	Technology	Exceptional	rise 92% · worst dip 26% · growth 49.6%/yr
Powell Industries, Inc. POWL	Industrials	Not measured on this test	rise 56% · earnings turned negative · growth 13.7%/yr
Meta Platforms, Inc. META	Communication Services	Exceptional	rise 78% · worst dip 42% · growth 45.1%/yr
ASML	Technology	Exceptional	rise 80% · worst dip 16% · growth 21.9%/yr
Copart, Inc. CPRT	Industrials	Exceptional, several open questions	rise 84% · worst dip 26% · growth 18.4%/yr
IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. IDXX	Healthcare	Exceptional	rise 90% · worst dip 11% · growth 17.8%/yr
Microsoft MSFT	Technology	Exceptional	rise 76% · worst dip 23% · growth 16.0%/yr
Intuitive Surgical, Inc. ISRG	Healthcare	Exceptional	rise 76% · worst dip 35% · growth 12.5%/yr
ExlService EXLS	Technology	Exceptional	rise 82% · worst dip 42% · growth 15.1%/yr
HEICO HEI	Industrials	Just misses the record	rise 90% · worst dip 31% · growth 17.6%/yr
Mastercard MA	Financial Services	Exceptional	rise 86% · worst dip 20% · growth 16.7%/yr
Booking Holdings Inc. BKNG	Consumer Cyclical	Just misses the record	rise 74% · worst dip 99% · growth 16.7%/yr
Descartes Systems Group DSGX	Technology	Exceptional	rise 94% · worst dip 39% · growth 17.3%/yr
PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL	Financial Services	Just misses the record	rise 86% · worst dip 32% · growth 26.3%/yr
ResMed Inc. RMD	Healthcare	Exceptional	rise 82% · worst dip 20% · growth 13.1%/yr
Rollins, Inc. ROL	Industrials	Exceptional, several open questions	rise 88% · worst dip 13% · growth 12.6%/yr
Curtiss-Wright CW	Industrials	Exceptional	rise 82% · worst dip 46% · growth 15.6%/yr
Automatic Data Processing, Inc. ADP	Technology	Just misses the record	rise 90% · worst dip 7% · growth 10.8%/yr
The TJX Companies, Inc. TJX	Consumer Cyclical	Just misses the record	rise 90% · worst dip 98% · growth 11.2%/yr
AMETEK, Inc. AME	Industrials	Just misses the record	rise 86% · worst dip 14% · growth 10.0%/yr
Infosys Limited INFY	Technology	Just misses the record	rise 80% · worst dip 9% · growth 6.0%/yr
Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN	Consumer Cyclical	Not measured on this test	no record long enough to measure
DexCom, Inc. DXCM	Healthcare	Not measured on this test	no record long enough to measure
nVent Electric plc NVT	Industrials	Not measured on this test	no record long enough to measure

The other 21

Pass the same five checks, and are judged on a different method entirely: 3 bank, 1 cyclical, 14 no archetype assigned, 3 holding / nav. Counted above, unnamed here.

Before trusting a number on this page

It is not a price view. These measures assess business quality only. An exceptional company can be, and often is, far too expensive.

One number here is ours, not the data's. Descartes' stored quarterly earnings mix two bases, manufacturing a 37.6% fall its audited accounts contradict outright — thirteen years with no down year in revenue, profit or earnings. An independent series puts the worst dip at 2.5%, which is the figure shown. The source data is not yet fixed.

Every earnings series has been checked against a second provider. Descartes is the only company where the two disagree in a way that indicates a fault.

Being listed here does not mean we have written about it. The measurement is systematic; the writing is not.

Some rows are older than others. Results come from point-in-time renders. Where a company has been re-measured since, the newer result wins.

Structural states and archetypes harvested read-only from rendered reports; the record tests re-computed through the same engine that assigns them. Generated 2026-09-02 08:24. A grade is an assessment of business quality only — never a view on any share price, and never a buy signal.