7 Best Stock Screeners

There is no single metric that can guarantee profits on Wall Street. But it is naive — and very risky — to ignore financial data and trade simply based on hope or whatever flashy tickers are making waves.

Even novice and hands-off investors should have a stock screener they trust to make sense of market trends, risks and opportunities. That can be as simple as looking for stocks with generous and sustainable dividends, or as complex as plotting trend lines for technical analysis. Data-driven investing is a critical part of making good decisions, and there are a host of stock screeners out there designed to help. The right platform will vary for each investor depending on their level of expertise and the types of investments they make.

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The following digital tools are the best stock screeners for a number of applications. Best of all, you can test drive all of them for free:

— Stock Analysis.

— TipRanks.

— TakeProfit.

— Stock Rover.

— Finviz.

— GuruFocus.

— Your broker.

Stock Analysis

Price: Starting at $0 — paid version at $9.99 monthly or $79 annually https://stockanalysis.com/

A simple and easy-to-understand screener with a minimalist design, Stock Analysis is a great place to start if you’re looking to compare and contrast investments. It’s easy to research stock prices, news, financials, forecasts, charts and more for tens of thousands of different companies around the world. There’s also a pretty decent exchange-traded fund, or ETF, screener that allows for holding and performance comparison between funds.

It’s not as high-powered as some other screeners, but its free-to-use model has more than enough for most do-it-yourself investors. And if you do wind up interested in premium features like unlimited Excel downloads of your screens or more granular data on corporate actions, the paid tier is more affordable than many other tools out there.

TipRanks

Price: Starting at $0 — paid versions up to $50 monthly https://www.tipranks.com/

With more than a decade of providing insights to individual inventors, TipRanks is the go-to source for traders looking to learn what major investment analysts are saying about stocks. While there’s no guarantee that the “smart money” knows what it’s doing — remember the infamous Abby Joseph Cohen at Goldman Sachs, who predicted the S&P 500 would rally strongly just before the financial crisis? — price targets are nevertheless an important dataset to many traders.

Tip Ranks offers the standard free screening methodology, along with a focus on consensus ratings and price targets that can help novice traders get a sense of what stocks Wall Street likes. Just remember that these targets are not guarantees while exploring the TipRanks rankings.

TakeProfit

Price: Starting at $0 — paid version at $240 annually https://takeprofit.com/

TakeProfit is a recently launched community for traders that offers screening tools, charting and research “widgets” in a slick and modern-looking interface. Of particular note is the level of technical indicators, including both data and trend lines, that are available for more sophisticated day traders looking at near-term momentum in addition to conventional fundamentals. It also allows individuals to share their screens and commentary on the market and investing strategies — though, as always, investors need to be sure to do their own research before placing trades.

The visually compelling platform is user-friendly and provides a level of detail and flexibility even in its free-to-use format that is hard to find on other zero-cost tools.

[READ: Billionaire George Soros’ 7 Top Stock Picks]

Stock Rover

Price: Starting at $0 — paid versions at $80 to $280 annually https://www.stockrover.com/

An editor’s choice from the American Association of Individual Investors, Stock Rover is an intuitive tool that also provides a bunch of preset screens in case you are paralyzed by all the data on Wall Street. Those screens are customizable, too, so you can add and subtract metrics based on your personal needs. A simple interface allows you to search across nested families of datasets, then just check a box to include or add ranges.

The output isn’t particularly flashy in the lower-tier versions of Stock Rover, with rows of text in a table. But if you’re looking for a database to sift through to provide company names and tickers, then check out the free version and see if it’s worth moving up into one of the paid tiers for more features later.

Finviz

Price: Starting at $0 — paid version at $300 annually https://finviz.com/

The free version of Finviz gives investors an easy way to sort through a host of metrics, including the typical sector screens along with more specific data such as when a stock will report earnings and its current price as a percentage of analyst target prices. Individual stock charts are also big and easy to read, with technical trend lines to help plot the potential path for your next investment idea.

You have to be OK with the sometimes annoying pop-up ads that come along with a free product, though. An “Elite” version offers high-powered add-ons like backtesting capabilities, and it cuts out the ads for a fee. The paid version also boasts professional investors as regular users, including staff at investment firms Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, among others.

GuruFocus

Price: $499 annually for U.S. stocks, with a 100% refund within the first 30 days https://www.gurufocus.com/

For those looking to do very sophisticated screening, GuruFocus provides a high-powered platform with rich data. Unfortunately, you can’t run your own screens unless you sign up for a risk-free trial, but visit the site and you can at least see the wide array of drop-downs and screening methods at your disposal. Most notably, you’ll have access to 30 years of historical data to do a level of backtesting that other tools simply can’t match. In addition, you’ll find “guru” portfolios from other users in the community as well as look-alike portfolios of high-profile investors like Carl Icahn or major investment managers like Dodge & Cox to see what stocks they are holding — and more importantly, whether they are outperforming.

The service is pricey, and it gets even more expensive if you’re looking outside the U.S. and need data for other jurisdictions. But if you want to know what the “smart money” is buying and place a priority on backtesting, Gurufocus may be worth the price tag.

Your Broker

Price: Almost always free with your account

One last screening solution that all investors should consider is to use the native tools provided by their broker. Decades ago, it may have been difficult to find good data or screening platforms, but now these features are standard across all major brokers — and in many ways, a selling point to win new accounts.

Schwab’s Thinkorswim platform provides powerful charting and analysis, Robinhood’s mobile-friendly approach allows desktop-level research on your phone, and old-school shops like Merrill Lynch now take great pains to post all their internal investment banking research as a value-add for customers. Then there are the supercharged platforms like Interactive Brokers and TradeStation designed specifically for day traders. In short, consider your broker before paying a premium for tools you already have. And if you’re unsatisfied with your current broker, consider opening up an account at a competitor specifically to access their higher-quality screening tools.

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7 Best Stock Screeners originally appeared on usnews.com

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