The following is a guest post from Kashif Choudhury (bio at end). We think its a great sharia and commercial analysis coming at it from a perspective that it is best to just go for zero-debt companies. We are personally happy with the 33% debt allowance that most Islamic scholars allow, but have sympathies with the zero-debt school. Enjoy!

Introduction

In the modern debt and riba-ridden world, investing your money can seem like an all or nothing proposition. You either disregard the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah and go all out on riba based investments, or you don’t invest at all, trying to adhere to the restrictions.

But I argue in this article that you can stick to the teachings of Islam and still invest your money in stocks that will grow over time and give you a competitive return on investment.

I do this by sharing my list of the top 5 stock picks on the New York Stock Exchange that have zero debt on their books and run their operations solely from their retained earnings and cash reserves.

But before we get into exactly how, let’s start with:

1. How to actually screen a stock to make sure it is halal; and
2. How to pick the best performing businesses.

The Fundamentals

Our stock investing principle follows a three pronged approach. That is,

“We invest in shariah compliant companies, with great business performance, at fair prices.”

So let’s unpack that a bit.

The first criteria that the stock has to pass through is the Shariah compliance screen. You can learn more about this in our exhaustive article on how to invest in halal stock. Moreover, in terms of texts, Mufti Taqi Usmani’s books on Islamic Finance are a great foundational resource for both those new to the field and veterans alike.

Once a stock passes through the Shariah compliance screen, it moves on to the Business Fundamentals screen. This is where we deal with the latter half of our investment philosophy, “Great business performance at fair prices”.

For the foundational methodology, we use the popular value investing methodology pioneered by Benjamin Graham in his book the Intelligent Investor and for the actual stock picks and execution, we use concepts like the magic formula which you can read about in Joel Greenblatt’s The Little Book That Beats the Market.

Stock Screening Breakdown

Now let’s look at what each of the two screens, the Shariah screen and the Business Fundamental screen actually consist of.

Here is a brief overview of each of the criteria used.

Shariah Compliance Screen

• Business Permissibility: This screen ensures that the primary business of the company does not fall under any prohibited categories. These may include, but not be limited to dealing in riba, gambling, spreading nudity/lewdness, selling intoxicants, pork etc.
• Riba Transaction Profile
  1. Non Shariah Compliant Income: This criterion deals with how much non-halal (e.g. interest income) the company generates from its investments. The cap used is 5% of gross revenue. This should ideally be 0%.
  2. Interest Bearing Debt: This is how much interest bearing debt that the company has taken out to conduct operations. The cap is 33% of Total Assets. This should ideally be 0% – and for the 5 stocks that are discussed in this article, they are.
• Liquidity Profile
  1. Illiquid Asset Requirement: There is a minimum amount of illiquid assets that a company should have. The minimum amount used in the screen is 20% of Total Assets.
  2. Net Liquid Asset Cap: There is a maximum amount of liquid assets that a company is allowed to have. If this is too high, then the concept of “exchanging money for money” comes into play, which falls under the category of Riba al-fadl. The criterion is that the Net Liquid Assets should be less than the Market Capitalization.

Business Fundamentals Screen

• Business Fundamentals
  1. Business Overview: This screen looks at the holistic business case to discern whether the company’s track record, current standing and forward trajectory set it up for future success.
  2. Product Resilience: Here we look into the company’s products and whether they have a meaningful edge over the competition. A strong showing in this category means that the company has increased chances of weathering external shocks than it otherwise would have.
  3. Business Model: This screen analyzes whether the company can take its products and market it in a way that gives it good margins, recurring revenue and customer loyalty. These are all crucial factors behind the consistent growth of a company.
  4. Industry Outlook: The last screen in this category looks into the industry’s overall growth prospects to paint a macro picture for the company in the medium to long term.
• Performance and Profitability
  1. Revenue Growth: This screen looks at the year on year revenue growth of the company. Good past growth is often a lagging indicator of strong business performance. The target rate is determined based on the industry that the company operates in.
  2. Return on Assets: This screen looks into how effective the company is at generating income from its assets. The higher this number, the better it is at utilizing its assets to turn a profit.
  3. Net Profit Margin: The last ratio analyzes how good the company is at turning its revenue into profits. Again, just as with the ratio above, the higher the number the better.

• Price Dynamics
  1. P/E Ratio: There are a lot of metrics that can be tracked and analyzed to determine the best buying price of a stock. But for our purposes, we used the Price to Earnings ratio. It signals how much investors are willing to pay for each dollar of current earnings. If the number is too high compared to the industry average, it indicates that the company may be overpriced. This however is not always the case as high P/E ratios are sometimes justified by the growth prospects of the company.
  2. [BONUS] 200 Day Moving Average: This is a basic metric that can act as an indicator of what a good price to enter a particular stock may be. This is a technical metric and is a complementary tool, not a fundamental one.

Now that the Shariah and Business Fundamental screens are taken care of, let’s get to the meat of the article!

The Top 5 Debt Free Stocks on the NYSE

Below are our top 5 picks for debt free Shariah compliant stocks in the NYSE.

NOTE 1: All the screens below are available in this Dashboard if you want to dig into them further

NOTE 2: The data, screens and analysis are based on the 2019 calendar year unless otherwise stated

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. [Ticker Symbol: ISRG]

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) is an established company, whose main product lines are minimally invasive surgical robots. They sell one of the most renowned such devices in the world – The da Vinci Surgical System.

This system allows doctors to operate on patients thousands of miles away with millimeter precision using 3D vision and extremely nimble wrist extensions.

A unique characteristic of the company is that it has operated without any long term debt for all of its around 15 year history.

Shariah Screen

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Business Fundamentals Screen

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Product Resilience

Being a medical product, the demand for these systems is quite resilient to external shocks and economic downturns (although they are not completely immune, as many of the procedures carried out by the device are elective).

It has also recently started to branch out into hospital informatics with its takeover of Orpheus Medical.

Business Model

Intuitive Surgical’s business model is quite stable and self-reinforcing. Meaning that the company’s revenue stream gets stronger as it sells more of the systems.

A significant portion of the revenue comes from the replacement parts that are needed for the da Vinci System after each (or a set number of) procedures and accessories that hospitals can opt to buy for the devices to extend the functionality.

Additionally, the company leases out a lot of the da Vinci systems as a lot of hospitals can’t pay the costs up front (which can range from USD 500,000 to USD 2,500,000).

Leases, combined with parts replacement and accessory sales account for around 70% of the company’s revenue. Which means high switching costs for customers, and low risk of large revenue fluctuations for ISRG.

In addition, ISRG has been debt free throughout its more than 15 years on the stock market. This makes it especially resilient to adverse effects from the business cycle.

Industry Outlook

The minimally invasive robotic surgery market is set to expand in the coming years. Companies like Johnson & Johnson [Ticker: JNJ] and Medtronic [Ticker: MDT] have already caught on to the trend and are competing with ISRG in this space, albeit with significant disadvantages of being late comers.

Revenue Growth

ISRG’s revenue growth has been accelerating over the last few years. The company registered a year on year growth of 15.95% in 2017, 18.67% in 2018 and 20.25% in 2019.

To put the growth numbers into perspective, the revenue figures that the company had in 2010 (USD 1.4 Billion) was its net earnings in 2019!

Return on Assets

The company’s Return of Asset (asset utilization) has been stable over the course of the last 15 years and stands at 14.2%.

Net Profit Margin

ISRG has a Net Profit Margin of 30.8%, which means it manages to keep USD 30.8 out of every USD 100 it earns – helped by the fact that they have no debt payments!

P/E Ratio

Although the P/E ratio of 51.18 seems high when compared to the Healthcare sector average P/E of 24.3, it reflects the value of its solid track record and its expanding industry according to us.

TIP: You can base your buy price on the 200 day moving average, and purchase the stock as close to that price as possible.

Performance Trend

Why Intuitive Surgical is a Buy

 With a solid track record, nearly 2 decades of debt free growth, 20% revenue growth, 70% recurring revenue, strong profit margins and an expanding industry, ISRG should be one of the first stocks in your Halal investment portfolio.

Abiomed [Ticker Symbol: ABMD]

Abiomed describes itself as “A provider of mechanical circulatory support devices offering a continuum of care to heart failure patients”.

It is most famous for its Impella Heart pump, which is one of the few certified for minimally invasive heart procedures and has little competition at its price range.

Shariah Screen

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Business Fundamentals Screen

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Product Resilience

Similar to Intuitive Surgical, the products Abiomed sells are resilient to downturns as it offers lifesaving circulatory support devices to critical patients.

Furthermore, its Impella RP heart pump became the only percutaneous (read: minimally invasive) temporary ventricular support device that is FDA-approved as safe and effective for right heart failure.

Finally, the company has expanded into portable oxygenation systems with the acquisition of Breethe. This will provide strong complementarity to the heart pumps that are the main product line of the company.

Business Model

Abiomed’s business is in a unique position. This is because it has more than 200 patents and its heart pumps are some of the only ones that are FDA approved for percutaneous coronary interventions.

Its main competitor is the Intra-aortic Balloon Pump (IABP), which has been used since the 1960s. But the key difference is that the Abiomed pump operates under its own power, while IABP does not. This basically puts it in a league of its own and increases the chances that the company will hold on to its dominant position in the category.

Industry Outlook

The market for heart pumps was valued at around USD 1 Billion with a CAGR of 12.5% until 2023. When combined with the dominant position of Abiomed’s Impella heart pumps, this paints a very optimistic picture for the company for the foreseeable future.

Revenue Growth

Revenue has been steadily increasing for the company from 2005, with significant growth taking place from 2014 and reaching USD 0.769 Billion in 2019. The most recent year on year growth was 29.59%.

Return on Assets

Abiomed registers USD 24.57 as income for every USD 100 of assets it has (ROA of 24.57%). This has been steadily climbing in recent years.

Net Profit Margin

Similar to the Return on Asset scenario, the Net Profit Margin has been steadily gaining ground, especially since 2012 and stands at 33.7%. This provides a long and consistent track record of strong performance for the company. One that is projected by industry analysts to continue into the future.

P/E Ratio

The P/E ratio of 32.07 is a bit higher than the industry average of 24.3. This can be attributed to its strong growth outlook according to investors.

TIP: As usual, you can base your buy price on the 200 day moving average, and purchase the stock as close to that price as possible.

Performance Trend

Why Abiomed is a Buy

Having the only modern heart pump approved for percutaneous coronary interventions by the FDA in your portfolio is a very good start. Add to that zero debt, continuously expanding product line and a decades long history of growth – and you have a winning Halal stock that is worthy of serious consideration.

Axon Enterprise [Ticker Symbol: AAXN]

Axon Enterprise specializes in the development and manufacture of electrical weapons for law enforcement services. In fact, the company invented the TASER! That was also the company’s former name (TASER International).

Shariah Screen

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Business Fundamentals Screen

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Product Resilience              

Crime will exist – in good times and bad. Moreover, police departments will always have a budget for the upkeep and advancement of their forces. These two factors combined make Axon’s product line resilient to wild fluctuations due to changing economic winds.

Business Model

The company sells TASERS! That in itself is a very strong revenue source. But also included among its other products is cloud infrastructure services. This brings all its products under one platform and allows law enforcement to increase effectiveness and impact.

It also allows Axon to have a recurring source of stable revenue as agencies have high switching costs once they have invested in the ecosystem.

Industry Outlook

The market for TASERs and body cameras that Axon sells is estimated to be almost a USD 8.5 Billion market that is continuously growing.

Revenue Growth

Currently at 26.37%, revenue growth for the company has been steady since 2006, culminating in USD 0.531 Billion in 2019.

Return on Assets

Axon has had historically low returns on asset compared to industry averages (it currently stands at 0.104%). This is offset somewhat by the stability of its revenue streams, still making it a preferred buy for investment analysts.

Net Profit Margin

Just like the Return on Asset ratio, this is something that the company has to improve on going forward (current Net Profit Margin stands at 0.166%).

P/E Ratio

Axon’s P/E ratio of 70.02 [Trailing Twelve Months] is much higher than the industry average of 19.42 and is something buyers should be aware of.

TIP: When buying, you can base your purchase price on the 200 day moving average, and get the stock as close to that price as possible.

Performance Trend

Why Axon Enterprise is a Buy

Having invented the TASER, established a wide reaching cloud platform presence in law enforcement and being a consistently dominant player in a USD 8.5 Billion market, Axon is a strong contender to be a top pick in a Halal stock portfolio.

The only thing that investors have to keep an eye on now is that its ever expanding product line and cloud services start pushing its asset utilization and profit ratios upwards.

Fortinet [Ticker Symbol: FTNT]

Fortinet has been one of the most established players in the cybersecurity space for the last 20 years. Its products include firewall, VPN, private networking, antivirus, web filtering and wide area network acceleration products among others.

Like Intuitive Surgical, the company has always been debt free.

Shariah Screen

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Business Fundamentals Screen

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Product Resilience

Fortinet is unique in the cybersecurity space in the sense that it merges offline, hardware based products with cloud infrastructure to build hybrid systems tailored to customer needs.

Business Model

The company generates revenue from services like “Security Fabric” and a variety of other Hybrid (hardware+cloud) solutions.

One of the technologies that is up and coming in Fortinet’s portfolio is SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network). The technology essentially facilitates secure remote connections to on premise installations via a VPN like set up.

Industry Outlook

As more and more people live their lives online, and as companies transition to digital, cybersecurity is going to be an industry that will see growth in line with the increasing transaction economy on the web.

Revenue Growth

Fortinet’s revenue growth rate stands at 19.71% and has steadily and consistently increased over the years, going from USD 155.4 Million in 2007 to USD 2.16 Billion in 2019.

Return on Assets

Return on Assets for Fortinet are near 10 year highs at 8.4%, meaning that the company is being able to utilize its assets well on a consistent basis.

Net Profit Margin

It’s a similar story with the Net Profit Margin, with the current figure of 15.1% being close to its 10 year high.

P/E Ratio

Fortinet’s P/E ratio indicates that it has a high entry price compared to its peers. 70.94 vs 24.7 for a sample peer group and 25.5 for the technology sector as a whole.

But its hybrid hardware/cloud combination and decades of performance go a long way in justifying the premium.

TIP: When buying, you can base your purchase price on the 200 day moving average, and purchase the stock as close to that price as possible.

Performance Trend

Why Fortinet is a Buy

Fortinet is a veteran in the cybersecurity space and has performed consistently for the last 20 years. Add to that a unique combination of hybrid hardware products linked to cloud services, strong revenue growth and profitability and Fortinet stands out as a very strong candidate for a Halal stock investment.

CrowdStrike Holdings  [Ticker Symbol: CRWD]

If Fortinet is the incumbent player in cybersecurity, then CrowdStrike is the newcomer looking to take over the crown.

CrowdStrike differentiates itself by being fully cloud based, allowing it to “”crowdsource”” threat data in real time and bolster networks from attack using AI.

Shariah Screen

*Numbers are based on aggregated quarterly figures

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Business Fundamentals Screen

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Product Resilience

Crowdstrike’s primary product line is the Falcon. These are positioned as cloud based cybersecurity solutions for businesses looking for holistic and fast adapting protection.

With the onset of COVID-19 and many more workers doing remote work, the company may be uniquely positioned to carve out a bigger slice of the cybersecurity pie with its competitive edge in fast deployments through the cloud.

Business Model

A cloud based security provider like CrowdStrike should have recurring revenue from customers through subscriptions. And that is exactly what the company has.

In fact, its year on year subscription revenue growth was 92%.

Additionally, the company has been able to upsell existing customers (with dollar-based retention at 124%) and a 110%+ increase in subscribers.

Industry Outlook

With half of the Fortune 100 companies in the bag, CrowdStrike has room to grow even within the existing cybersecurity market.

Revenue Growth

The company almost doubled its revenue year on year in 2019 at a growth rate of 92.7%. It recently listed in the stock market, so it’s still a bit of a wait and see game as to how the stock performs in the next couple of years.

Return on Assets

CrowdStrike is yet to reach profitability so its ROA is negative at -10.09%. This is slated to change as the company marches towards break even and eventually to profitability.

Net Profit Margin

With a Net Profit Margin of -29.5%, the company is currently tapping its reserve cash in order to scale operations to where it can turn a profit – hopefully in the not too distant future.

P/E Ratio

The P/E ratio is a bit misleading as the company is operating at a loss. So if you decide to invest, it’s best to base your purchase price on the 200 day moving average, and purchase the stock as close to that price as possible.

Performance Trend

Why CrowdStrike is a Buy

CrowdStrike is one of Fortinet’s competitors. It is betting on its cloud-based AI driven platform to one up the incumbent.

But that’s what’s so great about being an investor in the stock market. You can bet on both horses at the same time, hedging risk.

And you never know. The market may be big enough to accommodate the both of them, and then some!

Conclusion

These were our top 5 picks for debt free stocks in the New York Stock Exchange. As the business environment evolves and the companies adjust in their own ways, their operating principles may change – and with that our recommendations may be adjusted as well.

One side note is that if you notice, the companies are still involved with riba on some level. Whether it be earning interest based income or otherwise. The current world economy is structured such that it is very difficult to stay completely debt free.

But there is progress being made. Venture Capital funds like IFG.VC are helping Muslim entrepreneurs bring their ideas into the market, while sticking to the ethos of Islam and the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah.

Until then, we will keep trying to find the stocks that best fit with both the teachings of our Deen, as well as the principles of value investing. To grow our wealth like the best of them – in a Halal way.

Resources

Investment Dashboard

If you want to interact with the screens used in this article, click this link to go to the Dashboard.

List of Resources

Disclaimers

• This is not investment advice. You should not treat it as a substitute for a certified financial advisor
• The author holds shares in the securities discussed in the article

Bio

Kashif is a Business Analyst and Strategy Consultant who helps people with strategies to excel in their careers, businesses and [halal] investments. He is trained in the the art and science of breaking down complex business problems, structuring solutions and implementing them using technology.

He has extensive track record of planning and executing strategic data analytics, market research, business design, investment analysis, company valuation, business IT, process engineering and cross functional projects. He loves reading and writing about technology, productivity and organizational evolution; to find ways to synergize technology and business to leverage human effort in order to solve the biggest problems.

And he believes one of those problems has to do with rising inequality caused by a debt based global financial system. Hence his interest in Islamic Finance. He is working to blend Shariah based stock analysis and fundamental investment research practices to identify investments that are both Halal from an Islamic and ethical context, as well as intelligent from a Return on Investment perspective.