Distress Radar
ProBankruptcy risk from five balance-sheet ratiosEdward Altman's Z-Score weights five balance-sheet ratios into one number. Below 1.81 is the distress zone; above 2.99 is safe. It reads a balance sheet, not a business. Not investment advice.
How it works
Five ratios, each measuring a different way a balance sheet can fail: short-term liquidity, cumulative profitability, operating productivity, the equity cushion over debt, and asset turnover. Edward Altman weighted them against a sample of manufacturers that went bankrupt in the 1960s.
The weighted sum is the Z-Score. Under 1.81 is distress, 1.81 to 2.99 is grey, above 2.99 is safe. This list runs worst first.
When it misleads
It was fitted to 1960s manufacturers. Asset-light software companies and banks routinely score in the distress zone while being in no danger at all, because the model has nowhere to put intangible value.
A low Z describes a balance sheet. It does not predict a bankruptcy. Treat it as a question worth answering, not an answer.
This screen ranks the most fragile names first, so we don’t publish its list — naming companies as distressed on a public page isn’t something a screening model should do on its own. What today’s run found, in aggregate: