In this tutorial, we will discuss how to create your own value stock screener using GuruFocus’ All-in-one Screener, a powerful tool that contains more than 500 fundamental, valuation, profitability, growth, dividend, guru and insider filters. You can also create customized filters to further narrow the list of stocks that tailor to your investing strategy.
Accessing the Screener
To access the Screener, please select “Screeners” from the GuruFocus Blue Ribbon and then select “All-in-One Screener” from the “GuruFocus Screeners” or “Value Screens” columns.
Regions, countries and exchanges
GuruFocus tracks over 90,000 stocks across the globe, broken down into several regions, countries and exchanges. You can select the regions you wish to screen by clicking on the appropriate checkmarks. You can also subscribe to additional regions by clicking on a region you are not subscribed to.
GuruFocus Screens
The All-in-One Screener contains a wide range of predefined Screener templates to help guide you to stock ideas based on Ben Graham, Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio)’s investing strategies. You can start with a predefined screen by clicking on “GuruFocus Screens” and selecting the desired screen from the drop-down menu.
My Screens
You can save your own screens and retrieve them by clicking “My Screens” and selecting the desired screen. The “My Screens” menu contains a search bar for easier access to the desired screen.
Load from portfolio
To set a user-defined portfolio as the universe of stocks for the Screener, please click on the “Load from Portfolio” drop-down menu and select the desired portfolio from the drop-down menu.
The "Load From Portfolio" feature also allows you to exclude specific stocks from the screening universe. Click on the "Exclude" button next to the Stock field to exclude the list of stocks entered.
Setting filters / entering values
The All-in-One Screener contains over 500 filters broken down into several categories, including fundamental, valuation ratio, profitability, growth, valuation rank, price, dividends, gurus and insiders. You can set filters by selecting a value from the drop-down menu or directly entering the value into the cell.
Search filters
The All-in-One Screener contains a “Search Filter” field that facilitates finding the desired filter. For example, you can search for filters involving debt. The Screener will then show you the filters containing the keyword debt.
Save new screen
When you set filters, the All-in-One Screener will display an active “Temp Screen” tab in the Screens section. You can save your screen by clicking on the “Save” button located inside this tab and following the instructions in the “Edit Screen” wizard.
Customized filters
You can create customized filters within the Screener by clicking on the “Customized” tab and then the “Add Filter” button. The “Create Filter” wizard allows you to write the expression, set the operator and value for the filter.
Divide expression into filter
If you enter a full expression, operator and value inside the “Expression” field, the Create Filter wizard will give you the option to divide the expression into a filter.
Make sure you click the Confirm button to finish adding the customized filter. You can then activate your customized filters for screening by clicking on the toggle switch for the desired filter.
Adding columns to Views
The default “Active Filters” view gives you the total number of active filters and the number of stocks in the Screener results.
If you want to start with a predefined view, click on “GuruFocus Views” and select the desired view.
You can create a new view by clicking on the “Views (Customize)” button or the blue plus button.
You will then see the “Edit Fields for the View” pop-up wizard. Add fields by searching for the desired field and clicking on the desired term. You can also change the order of the fields by using the four-direction arrow button or remove fields by clicking on the X.
Click “Confirm” to close the Edit Fields for the View wizard.
You can also add or remove columns from the view by clicking on the “eye” icons in the “Filters” section.
Saving views
As you add and remove columns to the view, you will see a “Temp View” tab listed as the active view.
Click on the “Edit / Save” button inside “Temp View” to open an “Edit / Save View” pop-up wizard that allows you to add further columns or delete columns from the view. Click on “Save” to save the view.
The Edit View pop-up allows you to display stocks, guru trades or insider trades in your view. If you wish to display and download the related guru or insider trades for the stocks listed, you can select "Display Guru Tradings" or "Display Insider Tradings" in the "Options" menu.
You can access your saved views under “My Views.”
Downloading to Excel / Manual of Stocks
To download a screener results table to Excel, please click on either the “To XLS” button or the “To CSV” button. To view the Manual of Stocks for the screener results, click on the Manual of Stocks button.
Add to Portfolio
To add the stocks shown in the screener results table to a portfolio, click on the “Add to Portfolio” button. You can then save a portfolio to “My Portfolios” using the “Create Portfolio” pop-up window.
Manage Screens / Filters / Views
If you ever want to change or delete screens, filters or views, you can do so using the “Manage Screens / Filters / Views” section.
For example, the “Manage Screens” pop-up wizard allows you to rename a screen, change the privacy and Email Alert settings, or delete the screen.
A few frequently asked questions:
Q: How do I screen for preferred shares?
A: To view the prefered shares of stocks, set the "Is Preferred Stock" filter to Yes. By default, this filter is set to No, which limits the Screener results to common stock only.
The other filters are as follows:
Optionable Stock: Set this filter to Yes to show only the stocks that offer stock options.
From Home Exchange: Set this filter to Yes to show only the stocks in which the exchange matches the company's headquarter country.
Q: Why do I not see GOOG in the Screener results?
A: By default, the All-in-one Screener sets the "Display Multiple Classes in One Region" filter to No. The results will display just the stock class with higher volume. To display all classes of stocks in a region, set this filter to Yes.
For preferred shares, set "Display Multiple Classes in One Region" to Yes to view all the preferred shares classes for a stock.
