Size Still Decides the Score: What 3,638 Scored US Companies Show (September 2026)
A full scan of the Stock Expert AI universe on 26 September 2026. How MoonshotScore bands split by company size and sector, which pillar holds back even the top-rated companies, and how many exchange-listed stocks trade under $1.
Key numbers
- 3,638 US-listed operating companies carry a current five-pillar MoonshotScore: 3,410 common stocks and 228 ADRs. 97.9% of those scores were recomputed in the seven days before the scan.
- 44.7% sit in the Weak band (below 45); 17.9% are Exceptional (80–100). The median score is 50.2.
- 86.4% of companies worth $200 billion or more score Strong or better. Among companies worth less than $50 million the share is 2.3%.
- Healthcare has the lowest median score of any sector (29.9); 67.6% of scored healthcare companies are Weak.
- For Exceptional-band companies, the most common weakest pillar is Valuation (30.9%). For Weak-band companies it is Financial Safety (25.2%).
- 237 of 3,623 active exchange-listed common stocks and ADRs (6.5%) traded below $1.00 at the time of the scan.
What we measured
The scan read every record in the site's public stock list on 26 September 2026 between 13:18 and 13:45 UTC: 23,255 unique US-listed instruments after removing duplicates. Funds, ETFs, warrants, units, SPACs and notes were excluded from the score analysis, leaving the 3,638 operating companies that carry a current score.
MoonshotScore rates a company from 0 to 100 on five sector-relative pillars: Business Quality, Financial Safety, Valuation, Growth Durability and Momentum. The bands are Exceptional (80–100), Strong (65–79), Fair (45–64) and Weak (below 45). Prices and financial statements come primarily from Financial Modeling Prep (FMP); sectors come from FMP's company screener. Bands in this note are computed from the numeric score, not from stored labels. Bands use the unrounded score; site pages show the score rounded to a whole number, so the 59 companies within half a point below a band boundary (1.6%) appear one band higher there. The full method is published at www.stockexpertai.com/methodology.
The size gradient
The clearest pattern in the data is size. The median score falls at every step down the market-cap ladder:
| Market cap | Companies | Median score | Strong or better | Weak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| mega (200B+) | 59 | 78.9 | 86.4% | 5.1% |
| large (10-200B) | 594 | 69.8 | 60.4% | 13.3% |
| mid (2-10B) | 774 | 68.1 | 54.9% | 23.6% |
| small (300M-2B) | 912 | 51.3 | 35.0% | 41.6% |
| micro (50-300M) | 637 | 38.3 | 15.5% | 60.9% |
| nano (<50M) | 662 | 25.8 | 2.3% | 90.0% |
This is not a rule that bigger is better. The pillars reward durable earnings, a balance sheet that can absorb bad quarters, and a price trend that confirms the numbers. Larger companies meet those conditions more often. Among companies worth less than $50 million, no single pillar explains the low scores: the weakest pillar is spread across all five, with Momentum the most common at 26.6%. Low scores there reflect weakness on several fronts at once.
Sectors: a wide spread
Pillars are ranked within each sector, but the final score is adjusted after ranking, so sector medians can and do differ:
| Sector | Companies | Median score | Strong or better | Weak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Financial Services | 658 | 62.0 | 46.5% | 23.9% |
| Real Estate | 121 | 60.7 | 42.1% | 33.9% |
| Basic Materials | 203 | 56.8 | 38.4% | 36.5% |
| Consumer Cyclical | 338 | 55.7 | 39.1% | 39.6% |
| Industrials | 470 | 54.4 | 40.0% | 41.7% |
| Energy | 167 | 53.4 | 29.3% | 41.3% |
| Consumer Defensive | 150 | 51.7 | 36.0% | 42.7% |
| Utilities | 83 | 49 | 20.5% | 42.2% |
| Communication Services | 146 | 42.2 | 30.8% | 51.4% |
| Technology | 546 | 41.3 | 32.2% | 52.7% |
| Healthcare | 686 | 29.9 | 20.3% | 67.6% |
Financial Services leads with a median of 62.0. Healthcare trails at 29.9. Of the 449 Weak-band healthcare companies, 304 are classified as biotechnology by FMP, and across that Weak group the most common weakest pillar is Financial Safety (26.5%). Technology's median of 41.3 hides a split: the 127 technology companies worth $10 billion or more have a median of 73.2, while the 212 worth less than $300 million have a median of 26.0.
What holds scores back
For each company we identified the pillar with the lowest percentile, its weakest link. The answer changes with the band:
- Exceptional: Valuation (30.9%), then Momentum (28.2%). Top-rated businesses are rarely also the cheapest.
- Strong: Momentum (26.4%) and Financial Safety (26.1%) are close.
- Fair: Growth Durability (28.0%).
- Weak: Financial Safety (25.2%), then Growth Durability (22.1%). Low scores most often trace back to balance-sheet risk rather than to price.
Business Quality is the least common weakest pillar in every band. When a company scores poorly, the business itself is rarely the only problem.
The sub-$1 corner
Nasdaq and the NYSE both open a continued-listing compliance process when a stock stays below $1.00 for 30 consecutive trading days (Nasdaq looks at the closing bid, the NYSE at the average closing price). At the time of the scan, 237 of 3,623 active exchange-listed common stocks and ADRs (6.5%) were priced below that level. On over-the-counter markets the picture is different: 3,423 of 6,266 active OTC stocks (54.6%) traded under $1.
Limits of this snapshot
- It is one moment in time. Prices move daily, and scores are recomputed as new data arrives.
- The public list is not returned in a stable order, so the scan was deduplicated by ticker. Coverage figures describe what the list contained at scan time.
- 70 scored companies could not be matched to an FMP sector and are left out of the sector table only.
- Scores describe current financial data. They are not forecasts, price targets or recommendations.
This is educational content, not investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Prepared by Stock Expert AI Research from the site's public data on 26 September 2026. Editorially accountable: Sedat Anak, founder. Corrections: www.stockexpertai.com/corrections.