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The Fortress List

Every company we cover, ranked by one question: could it survive three bad years without asking anyone for money?

— companies scoredUpdated — from the latest 10-KsUS listings · how a credit file reads
The census · how the balance sheets stand
#CompanyThe six wallsInterest cover
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I

Strength by sector

The bar runs from the weakest company to the strongest; the mark is the median. Lines at 50, 70 and 85 are the grade boundaries. Click a sector to filter the list.

II

This year's movers

The scores that moved most since the annual report before, and the wall that moved them most.

Down mostWalls that cracked

Up mostWalls rebuilt

What the score measures

Six walls, 100 points: leverage, interest cover, the wall of maturities, liquidity, the bad year, and what is hidden (leases, goodwill, payouts). Banks, whose debt is their deposits, have six walls of their own: capital, bonds marked to market, funding, earnings, credit and the dividend. Every point traces to a line in a filing; a wall we can't check is left out, not guessed.

Why the lowest tower matters

Two companies can both score 72. One has six walls at 72%; the other has five at full marks and one in ruins. Sort by "strongest lowest tower" to put the even castles first.

What it is not

Not a price call. A Fortress can be expensive and a Fragile company cheap. Use it to decide what you could hold through a recession, then check the valuation. Not advice.