Tracking Fundamental Momentum: EPS, Revenue, Cash Flow and Debt Trends
- Sanzhi Kobzhan
- Nov 6
- 5 min read
Investors and traders know that a company’s stock performance is driven by more than just its share price history. Key financial metrics – earnings per share (EPS), total revenue, cash generation and debt – reveal the underlying strength of the business.
Tracking how these metrics change over time (their momentum) can show if a company is accelerating or slowing. For example, consistent revenue growth signals rising demand, while steady EPS gains mean profitability is expanding. Similarly, EPS – profit earned per share – is watched because rising EPS usually means your company is more valuable and profitable.
By following these fundamentals quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year, investors can gauge momentum in the business beyond the stock chart.
Several fundamental indicators are especially important to track:
Revenue Growth: This shows top-line demand and market share. Steady year-over-year revenue growth (or acceleration) suggests a company is winning new business.
EPS Trends: EPS reflects net income allocated to each share. Rising EPS typically means profits are growing faster than dilution. Tracking EPS over time lets investors confirm that profitability is truly improving.
Profit Margins: Gross profit and operating income growth indicate efficiency. Expanding gross margin means each dollar of sales generates more profit. Investors look for improving margins as evidence of competitive advantage.
Free Cash Flow (FCF): Free cash flow is the cash left after operating costs and capital spending. It measures actual cash generation. Management and investors use free cash flow as a measure of a company’s financial health. Strong FCF growth provides funds for expansion, dividends or debt reduction, and it often flags true strength even when earnings are distorted by accounting.
Debt Levels: Debt and leverage need monitoring. Excessive debt can strain a company if growth slows. Investors watch debt-to-equity and interest coverage ratios to ensure debt remains safe. Falling debt or improving coverage is a good sign of financial prudence.
In short, tracking the momentum of these fundamentals helps investors identify acceleration or warning signs. In other words, a stock whose EPS, revenue and cash flow are all rising rapidly (“fundamental momentum”) is often a high-quality momentum stock. Tools that show these metrics side-by-side let analysts see when growth is picking up or fading, often before prices move.
Why Monitor EPS, Revenue and Cash Flow Trends
EPS and Revenue
Tracking EPS and revenue over multiple periods gives a clearer picture than a single quarter’s report. A series of beats and growing figures is more significant than a one-time surprise.
For example, if a company reports increasing revenue each quarter, investors infer the core demand is strong. If EPS is accelerating, it means profit growth is outpacing any dilution. By contrast, a company with flat or volatile EPS growth may warrant caution even if one quarter was strong.
Free Cash Flow
Free cash flow adds another angle. Earnings (and EPS) can be boosted by non-cash items or accounting changes, but free cash flow reveals real cash generation. A company burning cash despite rising accounting profits could be over-investing or mismanaging working capital. Thus tracking FCF growth over time can catch issues early. Conversely, rapidly rising FCF (especially versus revenue) suggests excellent operational efficiency and the ability to fund growth from internal resources.
Debt
Debt and balance-sheet trends are equally vital. A growing business can handle some new debt, but if debt rises faster than cash flow, leverage risk increases. In contrast, a falling debt load (or debt declining as a percentage of assets) signals stronger financial footing. Observing these trends allows investors to spot when a company is financially de-risking (for example, using high cash flows to repay loans or issue dividends).
In sum, the direction and rate of change in these fundamentals – revenue growth rates, EPS growth rates, FCF growth, debt reduction, etc. – deliver important clues that raw values alone cannot.
The Stocks2Buy Fundamental Analysis App
To aid investors, my Fundamental Analysis web app on Stocks2Buy (and the companion iOS app Stocks 2 Buy) aggregates these trends into easy summaries. Simply enter a ticker, and the tool displays the company’s recent EPS and revenue vs. estimates (flagging beats or misses), plus year-over-year growth in profit, cash flow, debt and other metrics.
This “Fundamental Momentum Tracker” highlights whether each metric is accelerating. It effectively turns a stack of earnings reports into a dashboard of momentum, saving manual data lookup. Investors can therefore scan fundamentals much as they would price charts, spotting companies that are simultaneously hitting new highs in business performance.
NVDA Fundamental Momentum Tracker
For example, looking at Nvidia Corporation (NVDA) in my app shows how dramatic these momentum shifts have been.
In each of the last few quarters, Nvidia beat both EPS and revenue forecasts.
In Q4 FY2025 (ended Jan 26, 2025) NVDA reported GAAP EPS of $0.89 on $39.33B revenue, comfortably above the consensus estimates ($0.848 and $38.10B).
In Q1 FY2026 (ended Apr 27, 2025) NVDA revenue was $44.06B with non-GAAP EPS $0.81.
In Q2 FY2026 (ended Jul 27, 2025) revenue was $46.74B and EPS $1.05.
NVDA's EPS and Revenue Trends
Each quarter’s results came in ahead of analysts’ projections (see table below), reflecting continued momentum.
Quarter (Report Date) | EPS (Actual / Est) | Revenue (Actual / Est) |
2025-02-26 (Q4 FY25) | 0.89 / 0.848 (Beat) | $39.33B / $38.10B (Beat) |
2025-05-28 (Q1 FY26) | 0.81 / 0.737 (Beat) | $44.06B / $43.33B (Beat) |
2025-08-27 (Q2 FY26) | 1.05 / 1.01 (Beat) | $46.74B / $46.05B (Beat) |
Beyond single quarters, Nvidia’s annual growth underlines the power of tracking momentum.
In fiscal 2025, NVDA’s revenue soared to $130.50B – 114% higher than the previous year.
Operating income jumped 147%, net income 145%, and EPS 145.5% (all vs FY2024).
By contrast, fiscal 2023 was modest, so FY2024 was already up 126% from FY2023. This explosion of growth shows in every fundamental metric – gross profit more than doubled and margins expanded.
NVDA's Financial Statements Growth
The app condenses this information, displaying yearly change rates for profit, cash flow and debt. For Nvidia, the Fundamental Momentum Tracker highlights, for instance, that Free Cash Flow grew from about $3.75B in FY2023 to ~$26.9B in FY2024, a >600% leap, and then roughly doubled again in FY2025.
NVDA's FCF Growth Dynamics
Similarly, Operating Cash Flow jumped from $5.64B to $28.09B (up ~399% in 2024), and further to $64.1B in 2025. Meanwhile, NVDA’s debt actually fell by about 7–8% each year as cash piled up. The table below summarizes NVDA’s impressive growth rates by year:
Table: Nvidia (NVDA) fiscal-year growth rates.
Metric | FY2023 YoY% | FY2024 YoY% | FY2025 YoY% |
Revenue | +0.2% | +125.9% | +114.0% |
Gross Profit | -12.1% | +188.5% | +120.9% |
Operating Income | -57.9% | +680.6% | +147.0% |
Net Income | -55.2% | +581.3% | +144.9% |
EPS | -53.8% | +572.2% | +145.5% |
Operating Cash Flow | -38.1% | +398.0% | +128.2% |
Free Cash Flow | -53.2% | +609.6% | +125.2% |
Total Assets | -6.8% | +59.6% | +69.8% |
Debt | +1.7% | -8.1% | -7.1% |
Dividends per Share | +0.1% | -0.0% | +112.3% |
These figures show why a tool like the Fundamental Momentum Tracker is valuable. Rather than digging through several years of filings, an investor can instantly see NVDA’s explosive revenue and cash flow growth, profit margin expansion, and declining leverage. This consolidated view helps answer questions like: Is revenue growth accelerating or slowing?; Is cash generation keeping pace with earnings?; Is debt under control?; and Are profitability trends consistent? By spotting trends early, traders and analysts can make more informed buy/sell decisions.
Tracking the trajectory of EPS, revenue, free cash flow and debt is crucial for understanding a company’s momentum. Short-term beats and misses tell only part of the story – the trend lines reveal whether underlying business performance is improving sustainably. By regularly monitoring these growth and cash-flow trends (for example using my web app or the Stocks 2 Buy iOS app), one gains a clearer, more actionable picture of a stock’s health than by chart analysis alone.
Comments