Retrieving Comparable EBIT Data Across XBRL Filings
Article Quant Q&A · Author: Guilherme Caminha
Summary
The document describes a problem in extracting EBIT from company XBRL filings: reported concepts vary across accounting standards and issuers, and several candidate fields can contain different values. It asks how to choose a reliable figure when mapping those tags directly proves ambiguous.
The answer recommends obtaining standardized fundamentals through a third-party data library rather than parsing XBRL directly. It illustrates the approach with sample JSON containing an EBIT field alongside income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow data. This sidesteps the specific tag-selection problem, but the document does not explain the provider’s normalization rules, coverage, accuracy, or licensing, and the example does not establish that its figures are universally reliable. The suggested method is therefore a data sourcing option, not a general accounting reconciliation procedure.
Key ideas
- EBIT may appear under different XBRL concepts across accounting standards and filings.
- Multiple candidate facts can disagree, making direct tag selection uncertain.
- The answer suggests using a fundamentals data provider that supplies a normalized EBIT field.
- The example shows income statement and other financial data in structured form.
- The document does not assess provider coverage or the accuracy of its normalization.
Tags
Full text
# Retrieve EBIT from XBRL documents
# Retrieve EBIT from XBRL documents
It appears that EBIT information is not very uniform across different XBRL documents.
Cross comparing data with other sources, such as Yahoo, I have seen some XBRL use the fact `us-gaap:OperatingIncomeLoss` to store it if using US-GAAP, or `ifrs-full:ProfitLossBeforeTax` if using IFRS.
However, sometimes it looks like they also use `us-gaap:IncomeLossFromContinuingOperationsBeforeIncomeTaxesMinorityInterestAndIncomeLossFromEquityMethodInvestments` or `us-gaap:IncomeLossFromContinuingOperationsBeforeIncomeTaxesExtraordinaryItemsNoncontrollingInterest`.
And sometimes many of those are actually filled with different values, so there is no way to know which one is correct.
Is there a more reliable way to retrieve EBIT data?
## Answer by Jay (score 1)
https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/43241
You can use the method `getFundamentals(ticker)` provided by the package `eodhistoricaldata-api` (https://www.npmjs.com/package/eodhistoricaldata-api).
The library returns EBIT information, and other fundamentals (quarterly/yearly income statements, balance sheets, cash flow statements). The data is provided in JSON - no need to parse XBRL.
For example:
```
"Highlights": {
"MarketCapitalization": 54915055616,
"MarketCapitalizationMln": "54915.0556",
"EBITDA": 616286976,
"PERatio": null,
"PEGRatio": "-1.5700",
"WallStreetTargetPrice": "321.8900",
"BookValue": "26.2790",
"DividendShare": null,
"DividendYield": null,
"EarningsShare": "-4.8500",
"EPSEstimateCurrentYear": "-6.5600",
"EPSEstimateNextYear": "-2.0000",
"EPSEstimateNextQuarter": "-1.6700",
"MostRecentQuarter": "2018-09-30",
"ProfitMargin": "-0.1022",
"OperatingMarginTTM": "-0.0710",
"ReturnOnAssetsTTM": "-0.0271",
"ReturnOnEquityTTM": "-0.3397",
"RevenueTTM": "17523644416.00",
"RevenuePerShareTTM": "103.3240",
"QuarterlyRevenueGrowthYOY": "1.2860",
"GrossProfitTTM": "2222487000.00",
"DilutedEpsTTM": "-10.5600",
"QuarterlyEarningsGrowthYOY": null
},
// ...
"Income_Statement": {
"currency_symbol": "USD",
"quarterly": {
"2018-09-30": {
"date": "2018-09-30",
"filing_date": "2018-11-02",
"researchDevelopment": "350848000.00",
"effectOfAccountingCharges": null,
"incomeBeforeTax": "271320000.00",
"minorityInterest": "1344731000.00",
"netIncome": "311516000.00",
"sellingGeneralAdministrative": "729876000.00",
"grossProfit": "1523665000.00",
"ebit": "442941000.00",
"operatingIncome": "442941000.00",
"otherOperatingExpenses": null,
"interestExpense": "-169858000.00",
"extraordinaryItems": null,
"nonRecurring": null,
"otherItems": null,
"incomeTaxExpense": "16647000.00",
"totalRevenue": "6824413000.00",
"totalOperatingExpenses": "6381472000.00",
"costOfRevenue": "5300748000.00",
"totalOtherIncomeExpenseNet": "-171621000.00",
"discontinuedOperations": null,
"netIncomeFromContinuingOps": "254673000.00",
"netIncomeApplicableToCommonShares": "311516000.00"
},
// ...
"Balance_Sheet": {
"currency_symbol": "USD",
"quarterly": {
"2018-09-30": {
"date": "2018-09-30",
"filing_date": "2018-11-02",
"intangibleAssets": "291476000.00",
"totalLiab": "23409144000.00",
"totalStockholderEquity": "4508838000.00",
"deferredLongTermLiab": "0.00",
"otherCurrentLiab": "2266778000.00",
"totalAssets": "29262713000.00",
"commonStock": "171000.00",
"otherCurrentAssets": "158627000.00",
"retainedEarnings": "-5457315000.00",
"otherLiab": "2285172000.00",
"goodWill": "65226000.00",
"otherAssets": "1233979000.00",
"cash": "2967504000.00",
"totalCurrentLiabilities": "9775324000.00",
"shortLongTermDebt": "2106538000.00",
"otherStockholderEquity": "8271000.00",
"propertyPlantEquipment": "19733969000.00",
"totalCurrentAssets": "7920491000.00",
"longTermInvestments": "17572000.00",
"netTangibleAssets": "4152136000.00",
"shortTermInvestments": "0.00",
"netReceivables": "1155001000.00",
"longTermDebt": "9726589000.00",
"inventory": "3314127000.00",
"accountsPayable": "3596984000.00",
"totalPermanentEquity": "0.00",
"noncontrollingInterestInConsolidatedEntity": "0.00",
"temporaryEquityRedeemableNoncontrollingInterests": "0.00",
"accumulatedOtherComprehensiveIncome": "0.00",
"additionalPaidInCapital": "0.00",
"commonStockTotalEquity": "0.00",
"preferredStockTotalEquity": "0.00",
"retainedEarningsTotalEquity": "0.00",
"treasuryStock": "0.00"
},
// ...
"Cash_Flow": {
"currency_symbol": "USD",
"quarterly": {
"2018-09-30": {
"date": "2018-09-30",
"filing_date": "2018-11-02",
"investments": null,
"changeToLiabilities": "895197000.00",
"totalCashflowsFromInvestingActivities": "-560965000.00",
"netBorrowings": "-221931000.00",
"totalCashFromFinancingActivities": "-84218000.00",
"changeToOperatingActivities": "98770000.00",
"netIncome": "311516000.00",
"changeInCash": "739728000.00",
"totalCashFromOperatingActivities": "1391281000.00",
"depreciation": "502825000.00",
"otherCashflowsFromInvestingActivities": "128600000.00",
"dividendsPaid": "0.00",
"changeToInventory": "-55055000.00",
"changeToAccountReceivables": "-587594000.00",
"salePurchaseOfStock": "0.00",
"otherCashflowsFromFinancingActivities": "42839000.00",
"changeToNetincome": "179168000.00",
"capitalExpenditures": "-559765000.00"
},
```
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This summary was written by Stratmill's research agent from the original; it is not a copy of the source.