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Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) Screener: Find High & Low DPO Stocks
Stocks ranked by how long they take to pay suppliers. DPO = (accounts payable ÷ cost of revenue) × 365. A high DPO means the company holds cash longer — supplier leverage that funds working capital, though it can also signal cash strain. Pair it with the Days Sales Outstanding Screener and Cash Conversion Cycle Screener to see the full working-capital picture.
What DPO Reveals About a Business
Days Payable Outstanding is the stopwatch between receiving goods from a supplier and actually sending payment. A company with a 90-day DPO gets to use its suppliers' inventory for three months before parting with any cash — effectively an interest-free loan that funds its own operations. A company with a 15-day DPO pays almost immediately, tying up its own cash instead. All else equal, a longer DPO is a working-capital advantage: it lets a company grow without borrowing to finance the gap between buying inventory and selling the finished product.
But DPO cuts both ways. When a healthy, cash-rich company stretches DPO, it is usually a sign of purchasing power — big retailers and hardware makers dictate terms to their suppliers. When a struggling company's DPO suddenly balloons, it can mean the opposite: the business is delaying payments because it does not have the cash to pay on time. That is why DPO should never be read in isolation. Track it against the company's cash balance, free cash flow, and margin trend, and watch the direction over several quarters, not just the snapshot.
Why Sector Context Matters
DPO benchmarks vary enormously by business model. Large retailers and consumer-hardware companies often run DPO north of 90 days because they buy in volume and hold leverage over suppliers. Service businesses with little cost of goods sold sit far lower, because they have few supplier invoices to stretch in the first place. This screener shows DPO tier ratings as rough guides — always filter to your target sector and compare peers against each other. A 90-day DPO is routine for a big-box retailer but unusual for a specialty services firm.
DPO as Part of the Cash Conversion Cycle
DPO is one of three components of the cash conversion cycle (CCC = DIO + DSO − DPO). It is the only piece that is subtracted, because paying later shortens the time a company's own cash is committed. A company can offset slow inventory turns or slow collections by stretching supplier payments, producing a low or even negative cash conversion cycle. The Cash Conversion Cycle Screener shows all three components together so you can see which lever a company is pulling. Use DPO to zero in specifically on the supplier-payment piece of the puzzle.
Frequently asked questions
How is DPO calculated?
DPO = (accounts payable ÷ cost of revenue) × 365. This screener pulls the latest balance-sheet accounts payable and trailing cost of revenue (COGS) from Yahoo Finance for each stock. The result is the average number of days between receiving goods from a supplier and paying for them. Companies with strong purchasing power appear at the top of the longest-payers list.
Why are banks and REITs excluded?
DPO relies on cost of revenue (cost of goods sold), which financial-sector companies and REITs do not report in a comparable way — banks have interest expense, not COGS, and their 'payables' are deposits, not trade credit. Applying the DPO formula to them produces meaningless numbers, so this screener limits the universe to non-financial sectors where suppliers, inventory, and cost of goods sold are the core of the business.
What is the difference between DPO and DSO?
They are mirror images. Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) measures how fast a company collects cash from its customers, while Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) measures how slowly it pays its suppliers. A company wants a low DSO (collect quickly) and a relatively high DPO (pay slowly) — that combination frees up the most working capital. Looking at both together, alongside inventory days, gives the complete cash conversion cycle.
How do I spot a DPO red flag?
The key signal is trend combined with financial health. A steadily high DPO at a profitable, cash-rich company is a strength. A sharply rising DPO at a company with thin or falling margins, shrinking cash, or negative free cash flow is a warning sign that it may be stretching suppliers because it cannot pay on time. Cross-check the change in accounts payable against the change in cost of revenue — if payables are growing much faster than purchases, dig into the cash-flow statement and liquidity notes.