There are thousands of publicly traded stocks. You cannot research all of them. A stock screener helps you narrow the list to companies that match specific criteria you care about.
What a Stock Screener Does
A stock screener is a tool that filters stocks based on parameters you set. Instead of searching through thousands of companies one at a time, you tell the screener what you are looking for and it returns a list of matches.
Think of it like apartment hunting. Instead of driving past every building in a city, you use filters: price range, number of bedrooms, location. A screener does the same thing for stocks.
Common Screening Criteria
Valuation:
- P/E ratio (price-to-earnings)
- Price-to-book ratio
- Price-to-sales ratio
Size:
- Market capitalization (large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap)
Growth:
- Revenue growth rate
- Earnings growth rate
Dividends:
- Dividend yield
- Payout ratio
- Years of consecutive dividend growth
Financial Health:
- Debt-to-equity ratio
- Current ratio
- Return on equity
Performance:
- 52-week high/low
- Year-to-date return
- Relative strength
How Beginners Can Use Screeners
Example 1: Find Large, Profitable Companies
- Market cap: over $10 billion
- P/E ratio: 10 to 25
- Revenue growth: positive last 3 years
- Net margin: above 10%
Example 2: Find Dividend-Paying Stocks
- Dividend yield: 2% to 5%
- Payout ratio: under 60%
- Consecutive years of dividend growth: 10+
- Debt-to-equity: under 1.0
Example 3: Find Growth Companies
- Revenue growth: above 20% year over year
- Market cap: $2 billion to $50 billion
- Positive earnings or improving trajectory
What Screeners Do Not Do
A screener gives you a list of candidates. It does not tell you which ones are good investments. Every stock that passes your screen still needs individual research.
Think of screening as the first step in a research process, not the last step. It narrows the universe. You still need to dig deeper into each company.
Where to Find Free Screeners
- Finviz (finviz.com)
- Yahoo Finance screener
- Your brokerage platform (most have built-in screeners)
- The Progressive Trailblazer's research tools
The Progressive Trailblazer helps you research any company that catches your eye. Educational only. Not financial advice.