EPAM Systems, it will be recalled, was one of MarketScreener's portfolio holdings at the time of its irresistible rise. The company ticked all the boxes of our fundamental selections: extraordinary growth, superior profitability and self-financing; hyper-solid financial position; margins and returns on capital superior to the competition; etc.

The invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 interrupted this momentum. The strength of EPAM's model lay in its offshoring capabilities in Eastern Europe, where some of the world's best IT engineers are available at a fraction of the cost of an American engineer.

With 14,000 employees in the Ukraine and 18,000 in Belarus - more than half of its total human resources - the company found itself overnight in a very delicate situation. So far, it has managed to cope, even if growth has slowed for the first time in its history this year, with sales declining from $4.8 billion to $4.7 billion between 2022 and 2023.

More worryingly, cash generation has been declining steadily over the last three years, with free cash flow after stock options and provisions of $270 million in 2023, compared with $398 million in 2021. This comes after EPAM made its biggest acquisition two years ago.

EPAM has increased its sales eightfold over the decade 2013-2023, and its earnings per share fivefold. The performance is admirable, but it's hard to justify a valuation of $15 billion in the face of less than $300 million in free cash flow if this virtuous dynamic has indeed come to an end.

Optimists will point out that the company retains $2 billion in surplus cash, which it could perhaps use to finance a judicious acquisition; and that its proven expertise makes it a potential provider of choice in the deployment of artificial intelligence technologies.