S&P 500 · nine grades · every grade cites its source
A report card for every company in the S&P 500.
Nine grades from 0 to 100 tell you where a company stands against the other 499. Each one comes with the sentence from the company's own filing that earned it, so you can check the work instead of trusting a number.
Free: the whole screener and ten company files a month, receipts included. Pro is $30 a month for all 500.
500 companies·7,575 filing sections read·57,117 news events classified·20,627 citations behind today's grades·as of 2026-10-02
Apple ranks above 98% of the S&P 500 on five-year competitive strength. Top quarter of the index.
Five years of annual reports, read for how the company stacks up against the competitors it names, how good its products are, and whether its edge is holding.
Apple differentiates via full-stack integration and ecosystem, a factor peers among named hardware/storage companies cannot easily replicate.
“The Company designs and develops nearly the entire solution for its products, including the hardware, operating system, numerous software applications and related services.”
How to read a grade
A 72 is not a C-minus. It beats 72% of the index.
Every grade is a rank, not a test score. The company is lined up against the other 499 on one measure, and the grade is the share of them it beats. Drag the handle to feel how it works.
means the company ranks above 72% of the S&P 500 on that measure. About 360 of the 500 sit below it. Above the middle of the index.
Each tick is five companies. Drag the handle, or try two real grades:
- —Half the index is below 50 on every grade, by definition. A 50 is average for the S&P 500, which is already a strong group.
- —Colour follows the number and nothing else: red below 25, amber to 49, green from 50, deep green from 75.
- —The same company can hold a 96 and an 18 at once. That is the point of nine grades instead of one.
The receipts
Every grade shows its work.
Four of the nine grades are arithmetic on the numbers a company filed. The other five are written by a model reading its filings against a fixed rubric, and the model is not allowed to score a point it cannot quote. This is Apple's trail, live. Switch to AI and notice the receipts are not all flattering: the grade follows the filing, not the story.
Apple differentiates via full-stack integration and ecosystem, a factor peers among named hardware/storage companies cannot easily replicate.
“The Company designs and develops nearly the entire solution for its products, including the hardware, operating system, numerous software applications and related services.”
Apple explicitly acknowledges a minority share position by volume versus larger-base competitors, tempering a pure dominance read.
“The Company has a minority market share in the global smartphone, personal computer, tablet and wearables markets, and some of the markets in which the Company competes have from time to time experienced little to no growth or contracted overall.”
11 receipts in total. A quote that is not in the filing voids the score. Not every receipt is flattering; the grade follows the filing, not the story.
better than 98% of the index on five-year competitive strength
Product 5Y · scored 2026-07-22 · rubric v1
The index
Find your next idea in ten seconds.
Say what you care about and the index re-sorts itself. These are today’s eight highest averages; the full 500, with filters and saved screens, is one free login away.
| # | Company | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NVDANvidia | 80 | 84 | 86 | 100 | 99 | 76 | 80.0 |
| 2 | VRTVertiv | 81 | 71 | 66 | 91 | 87 | 80 | 78.9 |
| 3 | APHAmphenol | 86 | 95 | 86 | 74 | 89 | 66 | 78.8 |
| 4 | VVisa Inc. | 77 | — | 64 | 94 | 100 | 66 | 78.3 |
| 5 | MSFTMicrosoft | 72 | 69 | 88 | 100 | 99 | 50 | 77.8 |
| 6 | ANETArista Networks | 67 | 55 | 92 | 92 | 94 | 69 | 77.0 |
| 7 | DXCMDexcom | 81 | 76 | 89 | 70 | 83 | 63 | 76.9 |
| 8 | PLTRPalantir Technologies | 76 | 66 | 94 | 97 | 87 | 62 | 75.8 |
Where it comes from
Built from the documents, not the headlines.
Every grade traces back to a primary source: what the company told the SEC, the numbers it filed, the patents it was granted, the news that actually happened. We read the boring documents so you don’t have to, and we keep the page numbers.
- 7,575 sections read
Annual reports and proxies
10-K, proxy and 8-K filings from SEC EDGAR. The model reads the business, risk-factor and management sections, and has to quote them.
- quarterly and annual
The numbers as filed
Revenue, profit, debt, share count and more, straight from the SEC’s XBRL data. Restated when a company amends a filing.
- 57,117 events classified
News that actually happened
A global news feed, filtered per company and classified for what kind of event it was and how much it mattered.
- 2019 to date
Patents granted
USPTO grants by year, with AI-related patents tagged by class. Invention you can count, not invention a press release claims.
- nightly
Market context
Licensed end-of-day prices, used to compute momentum, market cap and returns. Never shown raw; the grade is the product.
The date sits next to every grade, so you always know how old it is.
Pricing
Free to start. No card, no trial clock.
The screener and ten files a month cost nothing, for as long as you like. Pay when you want every file.
- The whole screener: all 500 companies, all nine grades
- Ten company files a month, every receipt included
- Saved screens
- No card, no trial clock
- Every company file, no monthly limit
- Full evidence trail on every grade
- API access with your own keys
- Cancel any time from your account
- Everything in Pro, for five people
- Invite teammates by email
- One bill, managed by the owner
Questions
What newer investors ask us first.
Open your first file. It's free.
Ten company files a month are free, with every receipt. The screener is free for all 500. No card.
MarketGrade is research software, not investment advice. Grades are percentile ranks within the S&P 500: relative, not absolute, and never a recommendation to buy or sell.