Stock Screeners

[12Percent]

G'day,

I have been on the hunt for a reasonably priced stock screener for fundamental analysis.

I have tried most of the free ones which are largely disappointing, I have also searched this forum and tried many suggestions without luck.

I am looking for a screener which screens the ASX, screens for value; namely EV/EBIT.

At this stage the only one I've found is the Uncle Stock screener which is $100us per year, while this one looks pretty good I thought I'd ask the collective knowledge here for any other options which are reasonably priced?

Cheers,

 

[galumay]

Does you broking service offer one? With Commsec its possible to do some FA screening. I run a few screens to filter down to a researchable universe.

 

[tech/a]

Stock doctor

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

And then comes along IFL and LLC.

gg

 

[12Percent]

I do use Commsec, however their screener is the common basics which is not quite what I'm after.

I had a look at Stock Doctor however with a $1500 p/a price tag it would be 10% of my portfolio for this investment. Do you use Stock Doctor Tech/a? I will definitely give their 14 day trial a go. I used to have some money in one of their funds when I was younger and naive, they under performed for the entire ten years, that didn't stop them from blowing their trumpet regarding their investment prowess however.

Appreciate the responses.

 

[luutzu]

I do use Commsec, however their screener is the common basics which is not quite what I'm after.

I had a look at Stock Doctor however with a $1500 p/a price tag it would be 10% of my portfolio for this investment. Do you use Stock Doctor Tech/a? I will definitely give their 14 day trial a go. I used to have some money in one of their funds when I was younger and naive, they under performed for the entire ten years, that didn't stop them from blowing their trumpet regarding their investment prowess however.

Appreciate the responses.

I my opinion, and being Dr. Obvious, stock screeners are supposed to screen for stocks to a shortlist you can then go through to start the dig right?

It being the first filter, why would you need it to be more detailed or accurate than the basics that are freely available? I mean, why pay for a thorough screener?

Too detailed a screener could be a bad thing. It might narrow your list too much it misses stocks that could prove interesting if you look closely into them.

There are businesses where it's actually worst off for investors if management report too high a profit margin. First, they'd be paying more taxes (and of course taxes are bad ).... there are instances where the gov't (it could be private customer, but often it's gov't as they're the ones who write such stuff)... where contract dictate if profit margin is above x%, the company will have to start sharing y% of the profit.

SO while it might be too much to just download all the listed stocks, goes down them from A to Z... can narrow it through the sector/industry you feel you can understand better. Apply filters/screening on a couple of factors to help narrow that down further. BUt too fine a filter and the big nuggets might be stuck up high as you look into the pan.

 

[12Percent]

Hi,

I see your point, however I'm not looking to over complicate the screen, just screen for EV/EBIT.

The research suggests that experts under perform basic models, as Joel Greenblatt found, individuals who cherry picked stocks from within their supplied list of Magic Formula stocks under performed the auto picked list.

I would like to formulate the list and follow it without fear or favour, and not let any of my pseudo stock picking skills erode the potential gains which is almost a guarantee.

 

[systematic]

Sorry @12Percent - I said I might need a prod, lol PM sent.

 

[tech/a]

Do you use Stock Doctor Tech/a?

No I'm purely technical and currently DAX futures.
Personally prefer futures as I can trade long and short.

It being the first filter, why would you need it to be more detailed or accurate than the basics that are freely available? I mean, why pay for a thorough screener?

Speed!?
As for the $1500 P/A
Its tax deductable and one trade could fix that in a few weeks.

 

[luutzu]

Hi,

I see your point, however I'm not looking to over complicate the screen, just screen for EV/EBIT.

The research suggests that experts under perform basic models, as Joel Greenblatt found, individuals who cherry picked stocks from within their supplied list of Magic Formula stocks under performed the auto picked list.

I would like to formulate the list and follow it without fear or favour, and not let any of my pseudo stock picking skills erode the potential gains which is almost a guarantee.

EV = enterprise value? EV/EBIT similar to P/E ratio?

 

[luutzu]

No I'm purely technical and currently DAX futures.
Personally prefer futures as I can trade long and short.

Speed!?
As for the $1500 P/A
Its tax deductable and one trade could fix that in a few weeks.

Oh. Yea I thought he was looking for a fundamental/business screener so he'd just want a short list to then start digging into the financials etc.

 

[12Percent]

Yes, Enterprise value is calculated as the market capitalization plus debt, minority interest and preferred shares, minus total cash and cash equivalents.

Similar yes, but not quite the same.

 

[luutzu]

Yes, Enterprise value is calculated as the market capitalization plus debt, minority interest and preferred shares, minus total cash and cash equivalents.

Similar yes, but not quite the same.

Maybe filter for companies with little to no long term debt + PE ratio below, say, 15. Done.

Save yourself a grand or two. I mean, if you're going to approach it fundamentally, I don't think any stock screener's going to be good enough for the decision anyway.

If it's of any use to you, how I short list was download the entire market into excel. Filter by sector... then start go down the list. Sometime, if the list is too long, I'd add the P/E in hope of finding something spectacular without having to go through the whole list.

From my own eyeballing, the ASX is pretty poor picking. There's maybe 50 or so stocks that's of investment grade i.e. not losing money and/or reasonable return. Most often, the good ones aren't cheap or reasonably priced. Hence, YouTube.

Sure that mean I might be missing out on some up and coming unicorn... but can't win them all and shouldn't speculate with only a few bucks in the bank anyway.

 

[InsvestoBoy]

Wow.

How can people say so much without just answering the dudes question. If you don't know, then just say you don't know.

@12Percent, the closest you are going to get for free is TradingView stock screener which has EV/EBITDA for the ASX.

You probably want to also filter out Depository Receipts and ETFs, and make sure the two country filters are both set to Australia.

Alternatively you can scrape Yahoo Finance for the same data, I believe they get it from Capital IQ.

FWIW if you can't afford data, you probably can't afford investment styles that depend on that data.

 

[12Percent]

Wow.

How can people say so much without just answering the dudes question. If you don't know, then just say you don't know.

@12Percent, the closest you are going to get for free is TradingView stock screener which has EV/EBITDA for the ASX.

You probably want to also filter out Depository Receipts and ETFs, and make sure the two country filters are both set to Australia.

Alternatively you can scrape Yahoo Finance for the same data, I believe they get it from Capital IQ.

FWIW if you can't afford data, you probably can't afford investment styles that depend on that data.

Thanks, I’ll check those out.

Note I never said free, I said well priced

 

[InsvestoBoy]

Thanks, I’ll check those out.

Note I never said free, I said well priced

There are more than 2000 stocks listed on the ASX.

Even if you just looked at the largest 500, how long would it take you to get all the annual reports, and then extract+adjust+validate all the data you need? Multiply that estimate by whatever you think your time is worth per hour.

 

[luutzu]

There are more than 2000 stocks listed on the ASX.

Even if you just looked at the largest 500, how long would it take you to get all the annual reports, and then extract+adjust+validate all the data you need? Multiply that estimate by whatever you think your time is worth per hour.

Why do people keep thinking that stock investing should take minutes or hours of work?

An investor should count themselves lucky if they spend full time doing research for a year and find two to three stocks they'd throw their money at.

Sure there's some 2000 stocks on the ASX. And sure, if an investor have no interest in what's behind the stocks, their approach is to buy low and sell high a commodity, then they'd need "data" on all the stocks, and then some.

For those who approach investing through "fundamental" data, i.e. they want to understand the business and hope to buy quality businesses at a reasonable price... All the data they'd need are freely available in the annual report.

Honestly, how many sector could an average fundamental investor understand? 3? 4? 1?

Of those couple of sectors, the vast majority of its businesses are mediocre to being on the brink of insolvency. So there's no need to read all their annual reports. You can tell by spending 5 minutes scanning through their MorningStar financial history.

Within those sector/industry they could understand, how many of them businesses are profitable? Are quality operations? 5 to 10 per industry from memory.

Of those 10 or so... how many are selling for a reasonable, or cheap, price? Almost always none.

So an investor approaching stock investing from an owner-investor perspective would be lucky to find a couple of stocks per year to really back the truck into.


If we think that high priced "fundamental" data is the edge, we're way too rich and way too optimistic. I mean, if that's the case, all Fund Managers - with their billions in asset under management, millions in the expense account, rows of "analysts" - would have shown results their clients can retire early.

 

[BlindSquirrel]

Obligatory: Acquirers Multiple for US stocks.
Supposed to be looking at an ASX list in the future but who knows when that will happen.

 

[Cam019]

Wow.

How can people say so much without just answering the dudes question. If you don't know, then just say you don't know.

Thank you!

 

[12Percent]

Obligatory: Acquirers Multiple for US stocks.
Supposed to be looking at an ASX list in the future but who knows when that will happen.

I asked Carlisle and he still has plans to, however his US listing is his first priority currently, I guess the Aussie market is a limiting factor too.

I appreciate all the responses regardless of whether they addressed the initial request or not, it's all good discussion and keeps the thread at the top anyway.

The Uncle Stock screener is probably still the most suitable so will run with it.