Stock Screener Guide: Find and Shortlist Value Stocks

A stock screener turns a universe of more than 35,000+ stocks into a short, workable list. Instead of scrolling endless tables, you set a few rules, fair value, quality, growth, region, and let the screener surface the names worth a closer look.

What a stock screener does

A screener is a filter engine sitting on top of a large stock database. You define the criteria, market, sector, size, valuation ratios, financial metrics, and it returns only the companies that match. The point is focus: rather than researching every stock, you start from a pre-qualified shortlist and dig into the handful that actually fit your strategy.

What makes our Fair Value Calculator different is that every company already carries an automatically calculated fair value plus fundamental and technical ratings. So you are not just filtering raw numbers, you can screen directly for stocks trading below what the underlying business looks worth, then complement that with your own criteria.

The filters and metrics you can screen by

Every data point in the database is filterable, and you can combine as many rules as you like. The most useful filters fall into a few families:

• Valuation: EV/EBIT, EV/EBITDA, P/E, P/CF and P/S multiples.
• Quality: return metrics such as ROE and ROIC, plus EBIT margin.
• Growth: revenue and earnings trends, trailing twelve months versus multi-year.
• Balance sheet: leverage, debt ratios and interest coverage.
• Cash and income: free cash flow and dividend yield.
• Fair value and ratings: the calculated fair value and the technical and fundamental scores.

You can also narrow by geography, industry and size, the screener spans markets worldwide across every major sector, which makes it easy to stay within markets you actually understand.

Ready-made presets and legend strategies

If you do not want to build a screen from scratch, start from a preset and adjust it. The presets group into a handful of styles:

• Activity: what investors are watching now, most active, most clicked and rising fair value.
• Regions: best fair value stocks by market, for example the USA and Europe.
• Income and growth: high dividend yield, high growth and strong performance.
• Quality: highly profitable and high-quality companies.
• Momentum: high-momentum names and turnaround candidates.

There are also screens inspired by well-known investors, Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, John Templeton, Joel Greenblatt and the O'Higgins "Dogs of the Dow", so you can approximate a legendary approach in one click, then refine it with your own filters.

From screen to shortlist: a simple workflow

I built this screener because I got tired of tools that show plenty of data but rarely give clear answers. Instead of fighting hundreds of filters, you pick a strategy you like and instantly get a focused list, ranked by fair value., Dr. Peter Klein

In practice the flow is short and repeatable:

1. Pick a preset or strategy that matches how you invest.
2. Add or loosen a few filters, region, size, valuation, quality.
3. Review the shortlist ranked by fair value.
4. Open the strongest names and study valuation, fundamentals and the chart together.

A good starting screen is US companies with a positive fair value that are also trading in an upward trend. From there you can analyse each name further or tighten the filters. Early on it pays to focus on large, well-known businesses in familiar markets like the USA or Europe, companies whose products and economics you already grasp. The screener also publishes daily-updated top lists, such as the highest-rated fair value stocks worldwide, if you would rather start from a curated set.

From shortlist to a decision

A screen produces candidates, not conclusions. Before acting, add context and value the business properly:

• Check the top-down backdrop with Market Valuation and Sector Valuation, so you know whether a whole sector is cheap or expensive.
• Keep comparisons consistent, trailing against trailing, forward against forward, and sanity-check cyclical sectors against multi-year medians.
• Favour EV-based multiples such as EV/EBIT: they adjust for debt and cash, so cross-company comparisons are cleaner. Compute enterprise value precisely with the Enterprise Value Calculator.
• Move the survivors into Stock Valuation and run scenarios in the DCF Calculator.
• Mind liquidity and size: thin micro-caps distort spreads and execution, so add minimum market-cap and volume thresholds when needed.

Only act when the margin of safety is adequate for the risk you are taking. This is not investment advice.

Stock screener FAQ

What does a stock screener do?

It lets you combine valuation, quality, growth and balance-sheet filters to find candidates that fit your strategy, then send them to detailed valuation tools.

Which metrics can I filter by?

Valuation multiples, return and margin metrics, growth trends, leverage and interest coverage, plus free cash flow and dividend yield.

Should I compare trailing or forward figures?

Stay consistent: compare trailing with trailing, or forward with forward. For cyclical sectors, sanity-check with multi-year medians and mid-cycle margins.

Why prioritise EV-based multiples?

They adjust for debt and cash, which enables cleaner comparisons across companies with different capital structures.

What is the next step after screening?

Move your candidates into full stock valuation, run scenarios in the DCF, and cross-check the price with EV/EBIT before you decide.

Key takeaways

• A stock screener narrows a huge universe down to a shortlist that fits your rules, its job is focus, not final answers.
• The strongest filters combine valuation, quality, growth, balance-sheet strength and a calculated fair value.
• Presets and legend strategies give you a fast starting point you can refine with your own criteria.
• Always add market and sector context, then value the survivors in detail before acting.
• Insist on an adequate margin of safety, and watch liquidity and size to avoid execution surprises.