What Screening components do you use??

mskern77 said: "Hi guys, I am looking to screen thru small to mid-cap stocks looking for great growth stocks. What types of fundmentals should I use to sort thru the vast amounts of data to limit the amount of stocks I come up with?"

StockFreak said: "Whats up Kern? Here's a good break down [URL=http://www.ibm.com/investor/financialguide/gs/gs4.phtml]financials site[/URL] . Growth and the right sector is usually a good start."

Airelon said: "This is what I personally use: P/E on a nice slide (I set up the screener so it determines this, and the three factors is uses is to look at the P/E's of 1 year ago, 6 months ago, and current) It then looks at the Stock Scouter Analyst Ratings (As I like those) - and set the screener to look their grades for each of these factors: Fundamentals, Analyst Rating, Risk Expectation set to = Very Low, Return Expectation to >= High, and a Valuation Grade >=B Then I have the rest of the screener look through Net Profit Margin, Industry Average Debt to Equity Ratio, Return on Invested Capital, Expected Next Year Growth Rate, It is set to: Display only for % Change last quarter and a High as possible Beta. After the screener goes through all of those, I have the stocks I take a look at - and pick the best of those. You can make the screener take just a look at small and mid-cap stocks."

LanceJ said: "Depends on what parallel universe ;) I'm investing in. For microcaps/smallcaps, I use [url]http://www.pinksheets.com/index.jsp[/url] , [url]http://www.otcstockexchange.com/[/url] , [url]http://www.otcbb.com/dailylist/[/url] , and [url]http://www.firstcapitalinvestors.com/[/url] In microcaps/smallcaps traded on Pink sheets and OTCBB, I focus not so much on PE as many of my picks are so early in a company's life cycle, there are no earnings (n/a), but on PS and PEG amounts. PS to measure growth is a very valuable indicator, both Q over Q, and Y over Y. Relative strength to peers is very important (what are the industry averages for PS and PEG, and maybe PE also but not so important for small caps). I also like to look at the Income Statement and revenue growth both Q over Q, and Y over Y. Finally, I like to look at insider buying. If insiders are buying like crazy, a very few are selling, it's usually for a reason. I also watch for companies that announce share buybacks. I also watch for "jumpers" either from Pink Sheets to OTCBB, or OTCBB to major stock exchange. In non-smallcap stocks traded on major stock exchanges, I use Yahoo Finance and TDWaterhouse to pull lots and lots of reports. My favorite is Reuters ProVestor Plus Report. My favorite indicator is valuation. PE, PEG, and PS are my favorite valuation indicators. I'm also big on trailing 5 year TTM bands and my favorite graph is from page 5 of the Reuters ProVestor Plus Reports. Again, I like insiders buying and unlike microcaps, I like high institutional ownership to fight off those pesky bears. I prefer to buy what the institutions are buying as one learns very early on, to survive, you must take notice of what the institutions are doing. In both microcaps and equities traded on major exchanges, I'm a contrarian... if everybody else is doing it, I'm not going to.... if no one else is doing it, I might.... contrarian works great for microcaps, but for stocks traded on major exchange one must always look at what the institutions are doing or risk facing the consequences. I prefer to think of myself as a microcap/smallcap Pink Sheets and OTCBB specialist, but will buy a stock on a major exchange from time to time if it has a compelling enough thesis, like my latest pick ALEX (see other thread). :cool:"