This week's pass through the FMP's Income Statement API surfaced an unusual cluster of companies where multi-year EBITDA trajectories are bending upward faster than top-line growth. It's the kind of divergence that often shows up in the data before it shows up in positioning. Five names cleared that bar in our screen, each showing a distinct acceleration curve worth flagging.

In this note, we break down how the Income Statement API exposes those shifts — and why the pattern matters now — before walking through each company's CAGR profile and the workflow behind the screen.

5 Companies Showing Clear CAGR Momentum

EXEL - Exelixis, Inc.

5-Year Revenue CAGR: 18.20%
5-Year EBITDA CAGR: 111.09%

At a 5-year EBITDA CAGR of 111%, Exelixis isn't just growing — it's transforming its profitability structure. That steep acceleration relative to an already solid 18.2% revenue growth rate suggests operating leverage is kicking in: costs are not scaling in lockstep with sales. The most recent quarter (Q3 2025) saw total revenues climb to $542.9 million from $478.1 million a year earlier (Q3 earnings release).

Why it matters: in the biotech world, many companies can grow revenue but struggle to turn a profit — Exelixis appears to be crossing that chasm. A rising EBITDA margin reinforces that this isn't a fluke.

What to watch next: check if this margin trend persists — especially as R&D and collaboration-license revenues shift, and as new indications (e.g. via its pipeline) start contributing. Watching product-revenue breakdowns and R&D spend will help clarify whether EBITDA growth is sustainable or just a temporary swing.

MLI - Mueller Industries, Inc.

5-Year Revenue CAGR: 12.58%
5-Year EBITDA CAGR: 37.55%

For Mueller Industries, a 12.6% revenue CAGR paired with a near 38% EBITDA CAGR points to consistent but modest operational expansion. The divergence between top-line and EBITDA growth suggests improving operational efficiency, perhaps through cost controls or better utilization of capacity — typical traits of a mature industrial business executing steady growth.

Why it matters: in a capital-intensive sector like manufacturing, growth without margin pressure is a useful signal — it implies the company may be winning scale or passing through cost efficiencies. For value-oriented investors, this kind of steady operational improvement, even if unspectacular, often outlasts cyclical volatility.

What to watch next: data on gross margin trends, capital-expenditure cycles, and working-capital dynamics would help show whether MLI is simply riding a favorable demand wave or structurally improving its margin profile. Also worth monitoring: segment-level revenue growth (e.g. by product line) — this reveals whether the growth is broad-based or dependent on a narrow slice of the business.

CDE - Coeur Mining, Inc.

5-Year Revenue CAGR: 12.70%
5-Year EBITDA CAGR: 77.76%

Coeur Mining's 5-year EBITDA CAGR of nearly 78% stands out, especially next to the ~12.7% revenue growth. That gap reflects favorable tailwinds: rising precious-metal prices, higher output, and likely disciplined cost management across its mining operations. The company's Q3 2025 results underscore this — output jumped, realized metal prices rose, and operating cash flow climbed to $238 million (Q3 earnings release). Yet the latest rally — around 200% year-to-date share-price surge — highlights how much sentiment and macro factors (metal prices, inflation hedge appeal) drive valuation.

What to watch next: metal price volatility, operating-cost per ounce, and capital-expenditure trends (especially exploration vs sustaining capex). A steady lifting of realized prices or lower CAS would confirm that Coeur's EBITDA gains are structural, not just cyclical. Tracking production guidance and reserve drill results will also signal how sustainable growth is.

MRK - Merck & Co., Inc.

5-Year Revenue CAGR: 10.50%
5-Year EBITDA CAGR: 12.17%

Merck's 5-year growth profile — a 10.5% revenue CAGR paired with a moderately higher EBITDA CAGR — suggests stable growth, likely underpinned by consistent demand for pharmaceuticals and pipeline products, plus effective cost management. The relatively modest margin differential may reflect steady R&D and regulatory overhead - typical for large established pharma.

Why this matters: For a legacy healthcare heavyweight, consistent moderate growth can outperform volatile high-growth peers when macroeconomic conditions are choppy. MRK seems to be delivering on that stability — generating reliable cash flow and earnings.

What to watch next: segment-level performance (vaccine vs oncology vs legacy drugs), R&D yield (pipeline read-outs, approvals or setbacks), and margin evolution post-drug-launches or patent cliffs. Income-statement granularity and drug-segment revenue disclosure will help identify which parts of the business are driving earnings growth, and whether growth is sustainable or due to temporary tailwinds.

USFD - US Foods Holding Corp.

5-Year Revenue CAGR: 9.20%
5-Year EBITDA CAGR: 15.97%

US Foods' nearly 9.2% revenue CAGR over five years, coupled with roughly 16% EBITDA CAGR, points to gradual top-line growth with moderate margin gains. This suggests a stable business with incremental improvements — perhaps from better distribution efficiency, cost controls, or scaling logistics.

Why it matters: For a food-distribution company operating in a competitive, low-margin sector, growing EBITDA at nearly twice the rate of revenue signals operational execution — possibly picking up share, improving margins, or optimizing delivery and procurement networks.

What to watch next: metrics like same-store sales growth, distribution-cost per unit, freight/logistics expenses, and margin per revenue dollar. Also worth observing: working capital turnover and inventory days — since food distributors' cash-cycle efficiency often drives profitability. Segment data (e.g. by customer type: restaurants vs institutions) would clarify where growth is strongest.

Interpreting the Broader Pattern Behind the Numbers

Taken together, the five names show a similar structural pattern: EBITDA curves bending upward faster than revenue, but for different underlying reasons. That dispersion is the signal. Exelixis' profitability surge is tied to a shifting product mix; Mueller and US Foods are tightening operational systems; Coeur's trajectory reflects both commodity leverage and internal cost discipline; and Merck is the outlier of steadiness — a slow, reliable widening of earnings power rather than a breakout. When viewed as a group, the pattern points to a broader theme: multi-year EBITDA acceleration is emerging not in one sector, but across businesses with improving cost structures or rising pricing power — a classic marker of sustained growth rather than cyclical noise.

The shape of that momentum becomes clearer when revenue-EBITDA spreads are paired with other FMP datasets. Insider-trading activity can signal whether management teams are leaning into the trend or using strength to de-risk. Analyst-estimate data and target-price consensus help contextualize whether the market has already priced in these multi-year shifts or is still trading them like ordinary earnings beats. And when cash-flow behavior is brought into the picture — drawing on operating-cash-flow readings and the broader concepts outlined in Financial Modeling Prep's discussion of cash-flow fundamentals — it becomes easier to separate companies converting profitability into real liquidity from those showing mostly accounting lift. Even a simple overlay of historical valuation ranges can reveal whether margin expansion is occurring quietly, before the market begins to re-rate the story.

Viewed through that multi-endpoint lens, these five companies are not just posting strong backward-looking CAGRs; they're each exhibiting early signs of durable efficiency curves. The real value lies in spotting where the revenue-to-EBITDA gap is widening for structural reasons rather than temporary conditions. Combining the Income Statement API with forward estimates, insider flows, and cash-flow data makes that distinction sharper — and turns a historical CAGR read into a forward-leaning growth signal.

A Practical Workflow for Generating Reliable CAGR Reads via FMP

A clean CAGR screen doesn't require heavy tooling — just a repeatable sequence and consistent pulls from the FMP Income Statement endpoint. The workflow below mirrors how most analysts automate multi-year growth checks without ever opening a spreadsheet.

Step 1: Pull Income Statement Data

Begin with a single-ticker request through the standard Income Statement API. This call provides the full historical set of reported periods you'll rely on for the calculation. Make sure your API key is active before pulling the data.

Endpoint:
https://financialmodelingprep.com/stable/income-statement?symbol=AAPL&apikey=YOUR_API_KEY

Step 2: Gather Historical Figures

From the JSON payload, extract the metric you're evaluating — revenue, EBITDA, EPS, or any other line item — and sort the values chronologically. Having a clean, ordered series is essential before applying any growth logic.

Step 3: Calculate CAGR

Once you have the earliest and latest values, run the standard CAGR formula across the span of years:

CAGR = (Ending Value / Beginning Value)^(1 / Years) - 1

This smooths out year-to-year noise and gives you a single annualized growth rate that reflects the underlying trend instead of the volatility around it.

Step 4: Scale Screening with Bulk API

Once you've validated the approach on one ticker, expand the workflow to a full universe by using the Income Statement Bulk API:
https://financialmodelingprep.com/stable/income-statement-bulk?year=2025&period=FY&apikey=YOUR_API_KEY

Running the same logic across a wide dataset lets you apply filters — for example, flagging any name with a five-year revenue CAGR above a chosen threshold — and ensures each company is evaluated on identical footing. With the Bulk API in place, refreshing or modifying the screen becomes a one-step process.

Expanding the Screen Into Full-Market Coverage

The simplest way to broaden this workflow is to scale it in controlled steps. Start with a narrow list of tickers and validate that your CAGR logic is returning consistent results; the Basic plan offers enough access to the Income Statement endpoints to test and refine the process without overcommitting to volume.

Once the mechanics are stable, the Starter tier becomes the practical next move. Full U.S. equity coverage means the screen can run at market breadth, allowing cleaner comparisons and more reliable filtering across a broad domestic universe.

For teams that need to look beyond U.S. names or work with longer historical windows, the Premium plan brings in global exchange data and additional reporting years. With that level of depth, the same CAGR workflow scales into something closer to an institutional screen — without requiring any change to the core methodology.

Turning Recurring Data into a Forward-Looking Signal

Once the workflow is running on repeat, CAGR shifts from a backward-looking metric to a live read on how a company's efficiency curve is evolving. Regular pulls through the FMP Income Statement API and Income Statement Bulk API surface momentum inflections early — often well before they show up in wider market narratives.

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