Methodology

How InTickers sources data, refreshes reports, scores companies, and translates analysis into ratings and action plans.

Using the Site

InTickers is designed to support, not replace, your own investment research.

A Note on Tone

We aim for reports anyone can read easily, so the writing is sometimes informal, conversational, opinionated, or simplified. That's a deliberate choice for readability — read it in that spirit.

Coverage & Refresh Policy

Latest Earnings & Refresh Cadence

Reference Time (ET)

All dates and times in our reports are in U.S. Eastern Time (ET) — the time zone of the U.S. exchanges where these stocks trade — never your local time. Each report carries a publication date (when we released it) and reflects market data as of a stated date; both are in ET, and the two can differ by a day or so depending on when the analysis was produced relative to the latest trading session.

Sources & Report Framework

We've deliberately kept this section high-level: enough for you to use our reports well, without giving away how they're built.

Where Our Data Comes From

  1. Regulatory filings. Company fundamentals are drawn first from disclosures such as SEC EDGAR filings.
  2. Official company materials. Investor-relations releases and other first-party materials are the next source in the hierarchy.
  3. Established secondary sources. When a figure is unavailable from primary sources, we use established financial data platforms and major financial press.

We cross-check figures that disagree. When sources conflict, the more authoritative source wins — unless a lower-priority source is genuinely more recent and the higher one hasn't caught up yet.

Two Company Types (A / B)

The same yardstick can't fairly measure a mature company with stable revenue but stalled growth and a young company that just launched and is growing fast. The former is classified as Type A, the latter as Type B. Classification follows our own criteria, weighing factors such as growth trajectory, market size, and valuation.

Investment Thesis & Tags

Beyond the company type, each report carries an investment thesis (the core angle behind the opportunity) and one or more tags (the broader themes it touches). These let you jump from one report to related ones across the site. As with everything else, the specific classification follows our own judgment.

Scoring & Ratings

Each company receives an absolute investment score out of 100, which maps to the rating scale below.

From time to time, we may refine the score ranges behind our ratings as our methodology evolves. When we do, we do not go back and relabel older reports. Each report keeps the Rating and Opinion it received under the scale in use on its report date. A later report on the same company may still reach a different conclusion as the business, the available evidence, or our analysis changes.

Rating Scale (October 18, 2026 or later)

Investment Score Rating Stars Opinion
85–100S⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Strong Buy
75–84A⭐⭐⭐⭐Buy
65–74B⭐⭐⭐Hold
55–64C⭐⭐Sell
45–54D⭐Strong Sell
0–44F⛔Avoid
Previous Rating Scales

September 13–October 17, 2026

Investment Score Rating Stars Opinion
90–100S⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Strong Buy
80–89A⭐⭐⭐⭐Buy
70–79B⭐⭐⭐Hold
60–69C⭐⭐Sell
50–59D⭐Strong Sell
0–49F⛔Avoid

June 21–September 12, 2026

Investment Score Rating Stars Opinion
95–100S⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Strong Buy
85–94A⭐⭐⭐⭐Buy
75–84B⭐⭐⭐Hold
55–74C⭐⭐Sell
45–54D⭐Strong Sell
0–44F⛔Avoid

These ratings are our general, systematic opinion — not personalized advice, and not a guarantee.

Rating Distribution

Each report is graded on its own merits. Our ratings are absolute — not graded on a curve — and we set no quota for how many Buys or Sells appear. A grade reflects the individual company's case, never its rank against the others we cover.

Because our coverage isn't a perfectly random sample of the market, the overall mix of ratings can lean positive or negative at any given time. A stretch of high or low grades reflects which companies we chose to analyze — not an editorial bias toward optimism or pessimism.

Part of that is a deliberate quality filter: we generally don't spend analysis on names that aren't real investment candidates to begin with — penny stocks and other tickers with no genuine business behind them. That's a filter on what's worth your time to read, not on what will score well; the companies we do cover still earn honest Sell ratings when they deserve them.

Valuation & Action Plans

Action plans translate a positive rating into price levels. The rules below explain when those fields may be omitted or appear counterintuitive.

No Action Plan for C or Below (Sell or Weaker)

When the rating is C or lower — i.e., a Sell opinion or weaker — we do not provide an Action Plan (price target, buy zone, etc.). Issuing a sell opinion while also setting a price target would be self-contradictory.

Buy Zones Above the Current Price

For undervalued names in particular, the appropriate buy price can sometimes be higher than the current price. This is not an error.

A Price Target Below the Current Price (Negative Expected Return)

A negative Expected Return means the Price Target is below the report-date Current Price. This can occur even with a Buy or Strong Buy recommendation because recommendations follow a fixed mapping from the overall investment score, which combines business assessment, valuation and risk. This is a limitation of our score-based framework: a favorable recommendation does not always imply an attractive entry price. Consider the Price Target, Buy Zone and valuation analysis together. The recommendation and the price strategy therefore need to be read together. We retain the independently calculated target and its signed return rather than changing valuation assumptions or overriding the score-based recommendation to force agreement.