Backtested Scanners
Debt Paydown Turnaround
41 Hits · last calculated August 9, 2026 Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q) · Market filter active: the list shows 0 hits from Germany
Methodology & criteria
The turn in a company's debt, in the form we back-tested for you: net debt (financial debt minus cash) first rose for three consecutive fiscal years, at the peak it exceeded either one year of EBITDA or one fifth of total assets — and since then it has been falling for at least two consecutive years, cumulatively by at least 10%. Only debt cut under the company's own steam is shown: anyone who retired debt by issuing new shares (share count up more than 10% since the peak) or by selling off half the business (total assets down more than 20%) is missing from this list. Banks, insurers and financial services companies are excluded — there, debt is the business model, not a burden. In the backtest from April 2005 to July 2026, on a data set that keeps stocks which have since disappeared from the market: 582 signals, resulting in 537 purchases. Held for as long as the paydown continued, that produced 12.20% per year against 11.24% for the S&P 500 including dividends. Held for a fixed twelve months it was only 10.42% — more than the equal-weighted universe at 8.44%, but less than the index. The edge therefore rests on the holding rule, and that is exactly what this scanner reproduces: a stock stays listed only for as long as its net debt keeps falling in the latest fiscal year; once the company takes on debt again, it drops off the list. An honest caveat: the largest interim drawdown was 55%. Source: fundamental data.
Global filters: market cap of $50B or less (mega caps are cut from every scanner); 10- and 30-day ADR must be ≥ 1% (too little movement gets cut); names after a reverse split (distorted price history) and names with a red Stress RS (rating ≤ 30 — weak on stress days) are excluded.
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Hit List
Tip: clicking a column header sorts the table by that column; a second click flips the direction.
| Symbol | Debt Paid Down | Years of Paydown | Earnings | Avg/Y 3Y | Stress RS | Stage | Funda Rating | Piotroski | MktCap | Industry | AI Rating | Deep Dive | Deep-Dive Report | Sector | Price | YTD | 6 Mo. | 1 Year | Off High | Price Target | RS | EPS Rating | ADR 10D | ADR 30D | Beta | P/E | P/E (f) | P/S | P/B | P/FCF | PEG | EV/EBITDA | EBIT Margin | Gross Margin | Net Margin | ROE | ROA | Debt/Eq | Equity Ratio | Sales +/Y | Growth Score | Div. Yield | Payout Ratio | Altman Z | Inst. % | Short % | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No stocks currently pass this scanner. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Asked Questions
The turn in a company's debt, in the form we back-tested for you: net debt (financial debt minus cash) first rose for three consecutive fiscal years, at the peak it exceeded either one year of EBITDA or one fifth of total assets — and since then it has been falling for at least two consecutive years, cumulatively by at least 10%.
All scanners are recalculated daily across the entire stock universe — most recently on August 9, 2026. The data basis is fundamental data and SEC filings (10-K annual reports and 10-Q quarterly reports).
Currently, 41 stocks pass this scanner's criteria (as of August 9, 2026).
Global filters: market cap of $50B or less (mega caps are cut from every scanner); 10- and 30-day ADR must be ≥ 1% (too little movement gets cut); names after a reverse split (distorted price history) and names with a red Stress RS (rating ≤ 30 — weak on stress days) are excluded.
The scanner looks for the point at which an over-indebted company genuinely starts paying its debt down. What is measured is net debt — financial debt minus cash — on the basis of annual accounts. Three things have to come together. First a build-up: at least three consecutive fiscal years of rising net debt — three increases, and therefore four reporting dates, not three. Second a peak at which the burden is real: net debt is above zero and exceeds either one year of EBITDA or one fifth of total assets. If no EBITDA figure is reported, the balance-sheet branch decides on its own, otherwise every company without that figure would quietly drop out. And third the turn: at least two consecutive fiscal years of falling net debt, cumulatively at least 10% of the peak value. What matters is WHERE the money came from. Debt can also be retired by issuing new shares or selling off half the business — that is something different from a paydown financed out of operations. This scanner therefore shows only debt cut under the company's own steam: the share count may have risen by no more than 10% since the peak, and total assets may have fallen by no more than 20%. If the share count is not reported at all, the question cannot be answered, and an unanswerable question does not count as a yes here. Banks, insurers and financial services companies are excluded entirely: there, debt is the business model, and a "paydown" would mean a shrinking balance sheet. Only accounts that genuinely follow one another are compared, too — between 0.7 and 1.5 years apart. A wider gap means a year is missing, and the jump across that gap would look like a powerful turn while being nothing but a hole in the data. We back-tested the rule from April 2005 to July 2026 on a data set that includes stocks which have since disappeared from the market: 582 signals, resulting in 537 purchases across 534 different stocks. Held for as long as the paydown continued, that produced 12.20% per year against 11.24% for the S&P 500 including dividends and 8.44% for the equal-weighted universe. Held for a fixed twelve months it was only 10.42% — better than the universe, but worse than the index. The edge therefore does not come from the signal alone but from the holding rule, and that is what this scanner reproduces: a stock stays listed only for as long as its net debt keeps falling in the latest fiscal year. Once the company takes on debt again, it disappears from the list. Two caveats belong to this honestly: the largest interim drawdown was 55%, and the sector classification is static, meaning today's classification applied backwards. All figures and caveats are in the study. A hit is a find, not a buy signal. Source: fundamental data and SEC filings (annual reports 10-K and quarterly reports 10-Q).
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Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.