Free stock screeners

Screeners are tools that filter from the universe of know stocks those that meet certain criteria. They’re used to generate a list of potential candidates for investment. Smart investors should then dig deeper on those on the list, to decide whether they might be a good fit for them. Said criteria can vary depending on what you look for; see below if any of the following is to your liking:

Awarener

This free screener filters companies in terms of investment attractiveness, employing a bottom-up strategy, as per the best Awarener score. To qualify, a company must rank high in various criteria:

Valuation: Genuine cash generation ability in relation to the money required to buy the company outright, considering the net financial position. More bang for the buck.
Growth: revenues trend over time. Prospect of enlarging future cash flows.
Risk: revenues trend stability. The lower the volatility, the less risky the operating business. Predictable is better.
Stockholder focus: favors companies that make an effort to return cash to shareholders, either by dividends or stock repurchases. Managers that work hard for the owners.

Awarener stock screener.

Best of Industry

This free screener filters the best exponents among its peers by Awarener score ranking. If you’re looking to invest in a specific sector or industry (top to bottom strategy), this screener will help spot a potential candidate.

To outpace its peers as a good investment and be worthy of a positive Awarener score, a company must have good genuine cash generating capabilities, financial position, valuation, growth, stability, and stockholder focus.

Best of Industry stock screener.

Growth at a Reasonable Price (GARP) stock screener

This free report lists firms that are both achieving high growth in revenues while still having an attractive valuation. This screener tries to follow the spirit of the teachings of all-time great investor Perter Lynch (Growth Investment).

In principle, the higher the growth, the higher the stock price increase needed to keep up the balance. Growth in Earnings Per Share and Net Income is also provided for your guidance.

GARP stock screener.

Best Research and Development stock screener

These companies invest heavily in research and development and get good revenue growth out of it. If you’re looking for practical innovators, this free tool might help you scouting potential candidates.

Best R&D stock screener.

Cash Hoarders stock screener

This free screener filters companies that are in a paramount financial position, with a lot of cash in excess of financial debt, and therefore poised in the short term for one or more of the following:

Offer to buy a competitor, a provider, or a third-party firm. This may provide strategic value, increasing revenues, profits, and possibly future cash flows.
Pay a one-time very large dividend, or increase regular payments, without increasing debt levels.
Start or increase a large stock buyback program, driving stock demand up and pushing up prices. The fewer diners, the most pie they get (i.e. Earnings per Share goes up)
Reinvest in the company, to fuel revenue growth and potentially profits.

Cash Hoarders stock screener.

Best Shareholders' Rewarders stock screener

These stocks have managers that work hard for stockholders to get the most money, by:

Paying good dividends, increasing them regularly, and generating enough cash flow to sustain them in the long run. This and the next point may be used simultaneously or alternatively.
Using generated cash to repurchase its own shares, at reasonable low enough prices to manifest in a diminishing share outstanding count, thus increasing Earnings Per Share (EPS). This allows for the pie of profits and cash flow to be divided among fewer diners in the future.
On the contrary, large issuing of shares options to managers, that eventually enlarge the shareholder base, represent more diners among which to divide the pie. The company may spend cash to buy back a similar number of shares (neutralizing the effect), but at the cost of reducing net available cash for the current stockowners (funds leakage).

Best Shareholders' Rewarders stock screener.

Dividend Starters stock screener

This free tool lists companies that have recently started a dividend payment policy, or at least restarted it. To qualify, the dividend must also have some significance in relation to market capitalization, in example, not symbolic.

In theory, dividend payments should be neutral. If even if the stockholder receives or not the payment, he’s still the owner of the money generated. Meaning that what you don’t get in dividend payments you should get in stock price increases. In this regard, Peter Lynch taught a build-your-own-dividend method. Nonetheless and tax considerations aside, many investors still prefer the money in their pocket rather than in the company’s.

More important than that, starting or increasing dividends are usually taken by the market as a signal of management’s outlook regarding business prospects.

Dividend Starters stock screener.

Dividend Growers stock screener

This free screener scouts for companies that have consistently increased dividends in the past.

More important than that, starting or increasing dividends are usually taken by the market as a signal of management’s outlook regarding business prospects.

Dividend Growers stock screener.

A Big Moat for my Stronghold stock screener

To qualify for it, a company ought to rank high in:

Profitability, compared to selected peers (good return on investment).
Margins, compared to selected peers. Aims to spot pricing power.
Growth compared to selected peers, the larger the better. Outpacing the neighbors.
Business stability, the more predictable the revenues trend, the better.
A not so small company, to be able to defend the moat.
Valuation, being capable of providing a decent genuine cash flow in relation to the stock price and financial position. The larger, the better.
Stockholder reward in focus, as by how effective the company is when repurchasing its own shares.

This free tool was inspired in the teachings and wisdom of the Oracle of Omaha.

A Big Moat stock screener.

Conservative Value stock screener

This free screener is inspired in the teachings of Benjamin Graham, ideological father of the Value Investing school. Financial metrics might have changed, but conceptual soundness is still as fresh as when it was born.

It scouts for low to moderate risk companies, with attractive valuations. To qualify for these scouting criteria, a company should have:

Low operating risk as well as low financial risk. The first measured as revenues stability (predictability is better than business uncertainty), the second by indebtedness (moderately or lower)
Good income quality, as in a good reconciliation between profits and genuine cash flow generation, considering working capital investments, capital assets expenditures, and other necessary adjustments.
A not so small company size, as per market capitalization.
An attractive valuation, by standards of adjusted versions of the Price Earnings and Price to Book Value.

The first three metrics aim at lowering investment risk, while the last one at getting Margin of Safety (the difference between the Intrinsic Value – value, the true worth of the business – and the stock price – what you pay for). Awarener screener also seeks Margin of safety, with a different approach and with less stringent metrics regarding investment risk.

Conservative Value stock screener.

Multiscreener: Meta stock screener

A free meta screener (a screener of screeners). These companies are selected because they fulfil the requirements of more than one previous filter. They’re interesting even when different set of rules are considered, so there may be true value in them.

Meta stock screener.

Potential Short Sellers

CAUTION: these free screeners aren’t for traditional long investment, but rather for scouting short selling candidates (those whose price you’d expect to go lower). Please read some of the risks of short selling, which may be only suitable for sophisticated investors and still risky nonetheless.

DISCLAIMER: these are automated reports, generated with no human intervention and updated regularly, not intended to offend or harm any company whatsoever, and may contain inaccuracies.

Financial Distress stock screener

These companies may be struggling and in financial peril. They may even be flirting with bankruptcy. These are the criteria filtered:

Very large indebtedness, measured in relative terms to both assets and results (EBITDA). Full repayment could demand a very long time, even if possible, without third-party aid.
High interest expenses relative to the business possibilities. Interest expenses may consume a very large portion of genuine funds generation, or even exceed them.
Mostly illiquid assets (and therefore difficult to exchange for cash or equivalents).
A significant portion of stockholders equity may be backed by intangible assets, which may be potentially worthless in case of bankruptcy.

While not necessarily doomed, they might be at risk of failure.

Financial Distress short stock screener.

Unsustainable Funds Distribution stock screener

These companies are actually paying dividends and/or repurchasing shares, but may not be generating enough genuine cash flow to sustain them at this rate in the future, unless business prospects improve. Some companies may keep up by increasing debt levels, but these are already indebted.

If the company is eventually forced to cut back on dividends or on stock buyback programs due to financial constraints, stockholders’ return might suffer.

Unsustainable Funds Distribution short stock screener.