ESS
Some scores are at the bottom of their range
This score sits at the bottom of the 0–100 range. The underlying calculation was negative, so the displayed value is a floor, not a measurement of zero.
- Tactical Score: displayed 0, underlying value -17.3
Daily closes · 1Y (252 sessions) · +10.7% · range 239.61–298.33
The Businesswhat the company reports
Business & cash flow
| OCF / assets | 8.2% |
|---|---|
| FCF / revenue | 56.9% |
| Gross margin | 68.8% |
| ROIC | 7.5% |
| Forward P/E | 45.5 |
This company does not report capital expenditure in the standard filing tag, so free cash flow cannot be derived and FCF/assets is not shown — common for asset managers, REITs, insurers and utilities. OCF/assets is shown instead, and it is the other measure Brown Bear's testing found to survive. Assets are from the latest annual filing (FY2025).
Price vs Earnings growth
Price has run ahead of forward EPS growth by 13.9pp
Confidence 95.0/100
Drivers
| Forward EPS growth | -3.1% |
|---|---|
| Trailing price return (1y) | +10.7% |
| Forward P/E compression | -3.2% |
Figures
| Trailing EPS | 6.38 |
|---|---|
| Forward EPS | 6.18 |
| Trailing P/E | 44.09 |
| Forward P/E | 45.51 |
Revisions
Stable (+0.4%, 10 dates)
Takeaway Price has moved further than forward earnings growth currently justifies — worth weighing against the rest of the entry case.
Reported earnings
Revenue Derived Q4
12 quarters to Q1 26. Revenue and net income share one scale, so the gap between them is the margin.
| Quarter ending | Revenue | YoY | Net income | EPS (GAAP) | EPS reported | vs consensus | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | 2.31m | -7.3% | — | — | 1.65 | +17.4% | 2026-04-29 |
| 2025-12-31 (derived) | 2.30m | -4.7% | — | — | 1.25 | -16.4% | 2026-02-20 |
| 2025-09-30 | 2.36m | -7.9% | — | — | 2.56 | +73.1% | 2025-10-30 |
| 2025-06-30 | 2.22m | -13.6% | — | — | — | — | 2025-07-30 |
| 2025-03-31 | 2.49m | -8.1% | — | — | — | — | 2025-04-30 |
| 2024-12-31 (derived) | 2.42m | -13.8% | — | — | — | — | 2025-02-21 |
| 2024-09-30 | 2.56m | -8.0% | — | — | — | — | 2024-10-30 |
| 2024-06-30 | 2.57m | -7.4% | — | — | — | — | 2024-07-31 |
| 2024-03-31 | 2.71m | — | — | — | — | — | 2024-05-01 |
| 2023-12-31 (derived) | 2.80m | — | — | — | — | — | 2024-02-23 |
| 2023-09-30 | 2.79m | — | — | — | — | — | 2023-10-27 |
| 2023-06-30 | 2.78m | — | — | — | — | — | 2023-07-28 |
Earnings response
| Typical move around a filing | ±2.6% |
|---|---|
| On an ordinary two days | ±1.2% — filings move it 2.2× as much |
| Direction | 7 up, 4 down over 11 filings |
Revenue up year on year Revenue down Price move around the filing separate scales — a crossing means nothing
| Quarter ending | Filed | Revenue YoY | Move around filing | Next 20 sessions vs SPY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-03-31 | 2026-04-29 | -7.3% | -1.7% | -1.7% |
| 2025-09-30 | 2025-10-30 | -7.9% | +1.9% | +3.6% |
| 2025-06-30 | 2025-07-30 | -13.6% | -10.5% | +0.3% |
| 2025-03-31 | 2025-04-30 | -8.1% | +3.4% | -5.7% |
| 2024-09-30 | 2024-10-30 | -8.0% | -4.9% | +3.4% |
| 2024-06-30 | 2024-07-31 | -7.4% | +1.7% | +1.5% |
| 2024-03-31 | 2024-05-01 | -1.9% | +1.4% | -0.4% |
| 2023-09-30 | 2023-10-27 | -3.5% | +0.7% | -8.3% |
| 2023-06-30 | 2023-07-28 | +1.5% | +5.1% | +1.0% |
| 2023-03-31 | 2023-04-28 | +2.8% | +4.4% | -3.9% |
| 2022-09-30 | 2022-10-27 | +29.0% | -2.6% | -7.1% |
Share count
Diluted shares Return since the previous filing
| Direction | Flat — little net change |
|---|---|
| Diluted shares | 64.5M as at 2026-03-31 |
| Change over 1 year | +0.2% |
| Change over 3 years | +0.0% |
| Public float | $18.10bn as at 2025-06-30 (10-K) |
History before 2014-06-30 is not shown. The share count jumps at that date by a ratio no ordinary issuance produces — a split whose factor is not in Brown Bear's split store — so earlier figures are on a different basis and cannot be compared with today's.
The Pricewhat the chart is doingTop ↑
Price Levels
| Strategy | Current Price Reasonable |
|---|---|
| Reference band | 277.05 — 284.08 |
| Protective stop | 267.52 (Atr, 4.7% risk) |
| Support | 279.71 (2 touches, 0.6% away) |
| Resistance | 289.54 (2.9% away) |
Takeaway The shares are nearer the floor than the ceiling: about 0.6% above 279.71, a price buyers have stepped in at before, and 2.9% below 289.54, where sellers have turned up before. That floor has held 2 times, which is how it was spotted. If someone bought at today's price and sold if it dropped through the level below, they would be about 4.7% out of pocket. That is all this figure means — an illustration of the risk, not a price to sell at.
Levels are computed from price structure. They describe where the engine locates support and extension — they are not targets, and not advice.
Ichimoku Cloud (Adaptive)
| Daily cloud | Price BELOW the cloud | periods 6/18/36 (70% of classic 9/26/52) |
|---|---|
| Lines | Tenkan/Kijun BULL | cloud twist BEAR (fresh down, 0d ago) |
| Cloud event | Fresh down breakout 2d ago |
| Cloud thickness | 13% percentile (thin — little structure to fight through) |
| Chikou span | Not clear of price from 26 periods ago |
| Weekly cloud | Price INSIDE the weekly cloud (context only, not scored) |
Takeaway The stock is trading below its cloud — a shaded band drawn from several of its own moving averages, currently 287.83 to 289.18. Being below it means the medium-term picture is pointing downwards, and that band is the first hurdle it would have to climb back through. Its shorter-term averages point the other way, so this is a mixed reading rather than a clear one.
Trailing returns
| 21 days | -5.7% |
|---|---|
| 63 days | +4.7% |
| 126 days | +7.1% |
| 252 days | +11.6% |
| Below 252d high | 5.7% |
Trend context
| Position | At trend |
|---|---|
| Extension | Extended |
| Trend slope | Flat |
| Direction of travel | Converging back to trend |
Takeaway The share price is close to the level its own longer-run trend suggests is fair, and that fair level is going sideways. The gap between the two has been closing. Being stretched this far above trend measures how much room there is to fall back — it does not say the stock will stop rising.
Volatility
| State | In a squeeze |
|---|---|
| Current band width | 7.2% of price |
| Recent tightest | 5.2% (9 sessions ago, narrower than 90.0% of its history) |
| Expansion since | 1.39× |
| Band | 278.89 — 299.83 |
Takeaway Lately this share price has been swinging around inside a range roughly 7% wide, and it recently went unusually quiet — calmer than it has been 90% of the time. When a stock goes quiet like this, its next move tends to look big by comparison. But quiet says nothing about which way it will go: Brown Bear tested calm-before-a-move as a reason to buy, and it did not work.
Historical trends
History begins when the site started recording, not when the company listed, so a short line means a short record and nothing more.
Repair Pathway
- Nearest Trigger Relative momentum rank above 0.55 +0.05 rank relative momentum leadership is not yet strong enough for the next action tier · Broadly stable
- Trigger 2 EMA50 reclaim +1.4% gap is improving · Broadly stable
- Trigger 3 Volume confirmation above 1.2x +0.20x volume confirmation would improve confidence in the pathway · Broadly stable
- Trigger 4 MACD bullish crossover repair trigger repair engine identifies this as the nearest technical repair catalyst · Broadly stable
- Trigger 5 +DI back above -DI secondary repair secondary repair catalyst could add confirmation if the primary trigger develops · Broadly stable
Who's Tradingthe flow behind the priceTop ↑
Insider activity
| Activity | Insider selling |
|---|---|
| Buy filings | 0 |
| Sell filings | 1 |
| Shares sold | 600 |
| Value sold | $167.7k |
| Latest sell | 2026-05-27 |
| Filed | Insider | Shares | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-27 | Sold Kasaris MaryDirector | 600 | $167,670 |
Open-market Form 4 purchases and sales over the last 75 days, read from SEC EDGAR Form 4. Grants, option exercises, gifts and shares withheld for tax are excluded — they are compensation mechanics, not a decision to buy or sell. Reported Form 4 activity. Brown Bear tested insider cluster-buying as a return signal and rejected it as era-unstable; shown as fact, not signal.
Volume confirmation
| Volume-price trend | Below its signal line |
|---|---|
| Confirmation | Marginal |
No absorption or distribution event in the recent window.
Takeaway The heaviest trading has been happening on days when the price falls: when large numbers of shares change hands, the price has tended to go down rather than up. That tells you where the weight of trading has been. It does not tell you what happens next, and it is not a signal to sell.
Options Positioning
No binary-event flag
ESS: no binary-event flag. Near IV 23%, far IV 37% (ratio 0.62), implied move 2.8%.
| Implied volatility | 23% near (9d) · 37% far (65d) |
|---|---|
| Term structure | 0.62× near/far |
| Historical volatility | 23% |
| Implied vs historical | 0.99× |
| Implied move | ±2.8% by 2026-08-21 |
| Implied move vs ATR | 0.51× |
| Skew | Flat (0.97×) |
| Call wall | 300.00 (+6.7% away) |
| Put wall | 240.00 (-14.7% away) |
| Gamma pin | 300.00 |
Takeaway Insuring against a move in this stock costs less for the next few weeks than for the next few months, which is the normal state of affairs and suggests no particular date is worrying anyone. Options traders are positioned for a move of around 2.8% in either direction by 2026-08-21.
Chain as at 2026-08-12. This is a risk read on whether a specific event is being priced — not a directional view.
Context & Methodthe record, and how it was builtTop ↑
Relative Rotation
Mixed Rotation Phase
Rotation health 50.2/100; Mixed Rotation.
| Rotation health | 50.2 |
|---|---|
| Rotation strength | 80.7 |
| Leg | Quadrant | RS-Ratio | RS-Mom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stock vs sector | Improving | 88.8 | 118.7 |
| Stock vs SPY | Improving | 79.6 | 110.0 |
| Sector vs SPY | Lagging | 80.6 | 83.3 |
Direction of travel: North-East / strengthening leadership
Position only. Brown Bear's RRG redesign programme is closed — five constructions, none beat an appropriate null — so this section describes where the name sits, and is not a signal.
News Headlines
- Loading headlines\u2026
Headlines are supplied by third-party feeds and are not written, ranked or interpreted by Brown Bear. They feed no score on this page.
Detailed Scoring
Positive signals
- Piotroski F-score 5/9 (+10.0)
- Altman Z-score 3.25 (+5.0)
- Gross margin quality: 68.8% (+17.9)
- ROIC quality: 7.5% (+2.2)
- FCF margin quality: 56.9% (+20.0)
- FCF margin improving by -3.3 pts (+-3.0)
- High earnings quality (accrual ratio -0.031) (+2.0)
- Accrual ratio improving (-0.03 -> -0.03) (+5.0)
- Track 1: ADX 45.6 and rising (+10.0)
- Track 1: relative momentum rank 0.50 (+0.6)
- Track 1: EMA50 support proximity 1.4% (+3.8)
- Track 1: EMA200 support proximity 3.4% (+4.7)
- Track 1: Bollinger position 0.11 (+7.1)
Negative signals
- Track 1: weak MACD histogram (-1.27)
- Track 1: weak volume confirmation (0.29x average)
- Relative strength versus sector deteriorating
- Track 1: negative 20-day momentum acceleration (-0.08)
- Track 1: bearish DI spread (-21.3)
- Track 1: price below EMA20 by 2.2%
- Track 1: EMA20 slope deteriorating -0.8%
- Track 1: weak MACD line/signal structure (-5.0)
- Track 1: MACD slope deteriorating (-5.0)
- Track 1: RSI deterioration/extension 36.1, 5-day change -1.2
- Track 1: weak VPT confirmation (-0.06)
- Track 1: price below EMA50 by 1.4%
- Track 1: EMA50 slope deteriorating -0.1%
- ROIC improving by -0.9 pts (+-5.0)
Chase risk is not elevated for this name, so extension penalties are omitted from the negative signals above.