Screen · Berkshire Criteria

Buffett Quality Screen

Buffett's "wonderful business" criteria, quantified into six dimensions: earnings record (20), ROE quality (25 — Fortune's double standard), low leverage (15), pricing power (15), business stability (15) and capital efficiency (10), for a 0–100 total. The entry gate is the first of Berkshire's acquisition criteria — at least $50M average pre-tax earnings over the last three fiscal years (banks and insurers excluded, as leverage is their business model; investment trusts and closed-end funds excluded, as they are portfolios rather than operating companies). Recomputed periodically from each company's last ten fiscal years; cross-listings merged by canonical ticker. Hover the score for the six-dimension breakdown; companies we cover link to their report. Filtered by score tier "Top 90+", market cap "Mid $2–10B", Has report: 3 match(clear filters).

# Ticker Mkt Cap Score 10Y ROE Profit Streak Net Debt/Eq Gross Margin Report FY
1 Games Workshop Group PLC GAW · LSE $8.0B
94/100 Elite
57.4%low 48.6% 10 yr+ Net cash 70% Games Workshop: An Exceptional Warhammer Compounder, Priced for Continued ExcellenceJun 26, 2026 · Hold FY2026
2 FactSet Research Systems Inc FDS · US $9.4B
92/100 Elite
40.4%low 27.3% 10 yr+ 0.6× 53% FactSet Research Systems Deep Value Investment ResearchMay 31, 2026 · Cautious Buy FY2025
3 Smith AO Corporation AOS · US $8.2B
91/100 Elite
23.4%low 13.5% 10 yr+ Net cash 39% A. O. Smith Water Heaters & Water Treatment Deep DiveMay 23, 2026 · Watch FY2025

Data and methodology: the six dimensions quantify Berkshire's published acquisition criteria and Buffett's shareholder letters (1981/1987/1991/2007 among others). Qualitative tests in the originals (e.g. "simple, understandable business", "management in place") are out of scope, and price ("available at a fair price") is covered by each report's valuation range instead. Financials come from company annual reports (via EODHD); ratios are computed in reporting currency, the USD gate via static FX. "‡" marks companies whose equity is persistently negative or tiny (ROE falls back to ROCE); "†" marks missing gross profit (operating margin used). Investment trusts and closed-end funds are excluded on two tests — name and financial shape (operating margins beyond what an operating company can achieve); REITs and operating asset managers are unaffected. This is a quantitative first pass, not investment advice. When citing this data, please credit Zen Horizon (zh.app). See our methodology for the scoring process.