Every investor has a favorite website for running stock screens using key metrics and ratios. However, if you don’t have to, why pay for it? That’s why Yahoo Finance’s Stock Screener is my current favorite tool for screening stocks. Sadly, the Reuters Powerscreener (which was a favorite of many) looks like it is no longer available to new users. So, Yahoo takes the #1 spot. We’ll walk you through a sample screen below.
A Sample Screen: PEG Ratio
- First, head to the Yahoo screener located here.
- You have a choice of the Java screener or a less robust html one (I prefer the former)
- Click on “Launch Yahoo Finance Stock Screener”
- A small window will pop-up, answer “Yes” to any security questions
- When the screener appears, select “Click to add Criteria”
- Choose “PEG Ratio”, then click “Select a Condition”
- Choose “<=” for less or equal to
- Under values, choose 1.0
- You can add additional conditions, as well as indicate the number of results to return
- Let’s stick with 25, now click “Run Screen”
Your done! You can now export your results to a spreadsheet or save the screen for future results. The spreadsheet option is helpful, as you may need to further vet your results. For example, the PEG screen above returned stocks with “N/A” in the PEG column (in my opinion, the tool should exclude those). Happy stock hunting!