From what I gather, VL sometimes is up to a year out-of-date...

Yes, some of their data fields are updated only from the last full year's report.
That includes "Return on Shareholders Equity" and "Sales Growth 5-Year".
They have a quarterly ROE figure, but it's only the ROE in the latest quarter, not for the trailing four quarters.
Trailing four quarters ROE would be better, but the annual figure seems to work fine, and leads to lower portfolio turnover too.

The picks I posted were from earlier in July, which would account for some differences in the results.
Using the current data, I think the picks would go like this:

* Number with any valid Timeliness rank 1-5: 1459 stocks
* Of those, also with a positive dividend: 965 stocks
* 30% of 965 = 289.5 stocks, let's say 290.
* Sorting the 965 stocks by ROE, the cutoff to get 290 stocks is between ROE 25.53 and 25.47
* For those 290 stocks, I calculate [Cash - Long Term Debt], and sort on that.
* The top 40 I get from that process, with the calculation fields shown:

Ticker    Time               Long-Term    Return on    Current     Cash -
Symbol    Rank    Cash       Debt         Equity       Dividend    Debt
MSFT      Yes      104757        47032        41.69        2.75      57725
TSM       Yes     43697.2      27385.3        33.62         1.8    16311.9
CSCO      Yes       19267         8416        35.43        1.56      10851
ACN       Yes      7893.8         45.9        31.11        4.72     7847.9
COST      Yes       11049         6484        28.31        4.08       4565
NKE       Yes       12997         8920        39.56        1.36       4077
NVDA      Yes       13296         9703        37.85        0.16       3593
BHP       Yes       17236        13806        47.47         3.8       3430
INFY      Yes        3185            0        29.85        0.42       3185
TJX       Yes      6226.8       3354.8        54.68        1.33       2872
ROST      Yes      4922.4       2452.3        42.42        1.39     2470.1
EOG       Yes        5972         3795         32.6         3.4       2177
EXPD      Yes      2034.1            0        43.64        1.38     2034.1
STM       Yes        4518         2542        31.19        0.24       1976
AMP       Yes        7097         5184        70.82         5.4       1913
EQH       Yes        5803         4472       121.17        0.88       1331
LOGI      Yes      1328.7            0        26.86        1.16     1328.7
SIG       Yes      1166.8        147.4        29.97        0.92     1019.4
HLI       Yes       942.8          0.5        30.32        2.22      942.3
TER       Yes       894.4            0        29.18        0.48      894.4
TXN       Yes        9067         8235        60.01        4.96        832
SEIC      Yes       831.4           40        29.37        0.86      791.4
KLIC      Yes       775.5            0        37.34        0.76      775.5
MPWR      Yes       737.9            0        35.93           4      737.9
WIRE      Yes       730.6            0        39.47        0.08      730.6
BBY       Yes        1874         1160        57.13        3.68        714
PBF       Yes      2203.6       1492.8        58.36         0.8      710.8
NTAP      Yes        3070         2389       106.12         2.1        681
MLI       Yes       678.9          1.2        36.75         1.3      677.7
WFG       Yes        1162          499        25.92         1.2        663
RHI       Yes         619            0        43.34        2.02        619
PAYX      Yes        1222        798.2        44.58         3.7      423.8
CNS       Yes       420.4            0        50.67        2.28      420.4
NSP       Yes       765.9        369.4       220.67        2.28      396.5
DKS       Yes      1924.4       1540.6         42.2           4      383.8
WSM       Yes       367.3            0         66.3         3.6      367.3
LPLA      Yes      3046.9       2717.4        39.01         1.2      329.5
LSTR      Yes       393.5         67.2        48.56         1.2      326.3
UFPI      Yes       595.4        275.2        27.01        1.05      320.2
BCC       Yes       748.9        444.6        52.67        0.63      304.3

These picks are created from the data set released the morning of Monday July 31, with the download file name "2023-08-04"
(it's the data set for the week ending August 4, so they're always dated in the future)

I don't guarantee a perfect match, but to quote any aging programmer, "it should work".

Note, there is one "bug" in this process.
I believe it's the same issue in the calculation above as in the backtest, and (I think) also in the VL data set I have: it doesn't distinguish between long term debt field unpopulated, and long term debt of zero.
But the backtest works fine, so I'm good with it.
This is a "shotgut" approach to investing, not a "rifle" approach. A few little lead pellets will always go astray, but it's the overall result that matters.

Jim

Berkshire Hathaway FAQ

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