How scores work
Every score shows its working.
A Faithful Invest score measures how a company lines up with one tradition’s investing guidelines. It is not a rating of the company as an investment, and it isn’t advice. This page sets out the rules as they run today.
The score, step by step
Every check adds up the same way. The parts are shown on each stock page, so you can see exactly where a score came from.
- Starting point
- 50
- Every company begins in the middle.
- Business activities
- up to +25
- Revenue from industries your tradition excludes.
- Financial ratios
- up to +25
- Debt, cash and interest compared with the size of the company.
- Positive signals
- bonus
- Conduct your tradition rewards (Catholic and Evangelical only).
- Recent news
- −20 to +20
- An AI review of recent headlines.
Scores are capped at 100. If a company breaks a hard limit, the score is set to 1 whatever the other parts add up to. The result then falls into one of three bands:
- Aligned 75 and above
- Needs review 50 to 74
- Not aligned Below 50, or a hard limit broken
- Not enough data No business or financial figures to score
Business activities
We look for revenue from industries each tradition excludes. When a company reports its business segments to the SEC, we use those figures. Otherwise we estimate from its industry classification and company description, and the stock page says the figures are estimated.
Catholic
- Any involvement fails
- Abortion, IVF, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning, weapons of mass destruction
- Contraceptives
- fails at 10% of revenue
- Pornography
- fails at 10% of revenue
- Conventional weapons
- fails at 5% of revenue
- Tobacco
- fails at 15% of revenue
- Gambling
- fails at 15% of revenue
Smaller shares below a limit lower the score in proportion.
Evangelical
- Any revenue fails
- Abortion, alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, gambling, pornography
- Also excluded
- Anti-family entertainment, and human rights abuses such as forced labour
Islamic
- Prohibited activities
- Alcohol, pork, conventional banking and insurance, gambling, adult entertainment, tobacco, weapons, cannabis, gold and silver trading, derivatives trading
- Impure revenue
- fails above 5% of total revenue
Financial ratios
Islamic screening follows AAOIFI Shariah Standard 21, which sets hard limits. Breaking any of them sets the score to 1.
Islamic (AAOIFI)
- Interest-bearing debt
- below 30% of market value (25% to 30% lowers the score)
- Cash and interest-bearing assets
- below 30% of market value
- Receivables
- below 70% of total assets
- Interest income
- below 5% of total revenue
Catholic and Evangelical guidelines don’t set hard financial limits. Very high borrowing lowers the financial part of the score instead of failing the company.
Purification
When a company passes the Islamic screen but still earns a small share of impure income, AAOIFI guidance asks investors to give that share of their dividends to charity. The stock page shows the percentage.
Positive signals
For Catholic and Evangelical checks, the company description and recent news are searched for signs of environmental stewardship, human flourishing and ethical governance. Each area can add up to 10 points, and signals found by the news review add more. Islamic screening doesn’t award these points.
Recent news
A language model reads the latest headlines about the company, looking for controversies or conduct the tradition rewards. It can move the score by up to 20 points either way, or flag a serious controversy. Its summary is always labelled as written by AI, and it can be wrong: read the headlines themselves before relying on it.
Data and its limits
- Financial statements and segments come from SEC EDGAR filings where available; prices, profiles and headlines come from Yahoo Finance.
- Companies that don’t file with the SEC are checked on Yahoo Finance data only, which is less precise.
- Funds and indices aren’t scored yet, because we don’t have their full holdings.
- Scores can change from day to day as news and filings change.
- Faithful Invest is for information only. It doesn’t recommend buying or selling anything. Speak to a qualified adviser before you invest.
Spotted something that looks wrong? Tell us.