Screen
Welcome to the Doppler Value Investing stock screening system!
Results (unfiltered)
Results (filtered)
Results
These *.csv spreadsheet files (which are intended to be read with LibreOffice, Gnumeric, Excel, or some other spreadsheet program) show the results of applying the Doppler Value Investing philosophy to the thousands of AMEX, NYSE, and NASDAQ stocks. Just click on the links to download. The prices are updated every night, and the financial information is updated every weekend. You may need to save the files in order to sort by criteria or make other modifications to the way the data is presented.Results (unfiltered)
Results (filtered)
Why does the world need another stock screen?
There are thousands of stocks in the US stock market. A detailed analysis of all of them is not feasible. The old stock screens are based on criteria like PE ratios, price/book ratios, price/sales ratios. The stocks that look cheapest often have fatal flaws that manage to elude the official accounting figures, and this limits the value of screens based on these criteria. The Doppler Value Investing stock screen automatically reads the financial statements for each stock (from the Smartmoney web site) and calculates the Dopeler price/book ratios. As a result of this stock screen, value investors can concentrate on the most promising stocks and avoid being distracted by the lesser stocks.Why does the screening system calculate the Dopeler price/book ratio and not the Doppler price/book ratio?
The ratios resulting from the screen are Dopeler ratios, because you have to be a dope to invest in a stock just because the Dopeler price/book ratio and the Dopeler Return On Equity look good. (Yes, the term "Dopeler" comes from the movie Snow Day.) The screening system does a quick analysis and uses the financial figures on the Smartmoney web site, which may occasionally differ from the official numbers published in the annual report and 10-K form. Computers are dumb but extremely fast, so the standardized format of the financial data on the Smartmoney web site is well-suited for the task. You still need to do an in-depth analysis to make sure that the figures are accurate, there aren't any hidden surprises, and the future is likely to be similar to the past.What is the difference between the filtered results and the unfiltered results?
The unfiltered results show the data for all stocks. The filtered results show the data for just the stocks that aren't automatically eliminated due to suspected bad data or incompatibility with the Doppler Value Investing philosophy. Flagging suspected bad data is important, because bad data creates many fake bargain stocks.What is a dB?
dB is an abbreviation for decibel and is used to compare the logarithmic difference between two numbers. 30 dB means a factor of 1000, 20 dB means a factor of 100, 10 dB means a factor of 10, and 0 dB means a factor of 1 (no difference). 1 dB is a factor of about 1.259, 2 dB is a factor of about 1.585, and 3 dB is a factor of about 1.995. (Yes, I have an engineering background.)What criteria are used in the filtering process?
- Asset value comparison: The quantity of total assets reported by Smartmoney is compared to the quantity of total assets reported by Yahoo Finance. A difference of 2 dB or more (a factor of 1.585) is flagged as suspected bad data. If the total asset value is inaccurate, there are likely other major errors in the financial figures as well.
- Revenue comparison: The quantity of revenue reported by Smartmoney is compared to that reported by Yahoo Finance. A difference of 2 dB or more (a factor of 1.585) is flagged as suspected bad data. Again, an inaccurate value here likely means other major errors in the financial figures as well.
- PPE growth rate: This is the average annual rate of growth of the plant/property/equipment at cost in dB.
- Standard deviation of PPE growth rate: This is the standard deviation of the rate of growth of the plant/property/equipment at cost. A standard deviation of at least 1 dB is flagged as suspected bad data. This often happens when the PPE drops precipitously one year and "miraculously" recovers the next, something that virtually never happens in the real world. If the PPE is in error, this pollutes the figures for the Dopeler Return On Equity. An inaccurately low PPE figure means an inaccurately high Dopeler Return On Equity, which then inflates Dopeler Earnings and creates a fake bargain stock.
- Average Dopeler Return On Equity: The average Dopeler Return On Equity is the yardstick for the quality of a company. The higher this figure is, the more free cash flow the company generates per unit of plant/property/equipment.
- Lowball Dopeler Return On Equity: The lowball Dopeler Return On Equity represents the expected Dopeler Return On Equity in a bad year. This figure equals either the lowest Dopeler Return On Equity for the 4 time periods covered in the Smartmoney data OR 1 standard deviation below the average Dopeler Return On Equity, WHICHEVER IS GREATER. (This prevents the lowball ROE from being lower than the lowest figure.) A lowball Dopeler ROE below 10% is flagged as being incompatible with the Doppler Value Investing philosophy.
- Dopeler Book Value: This is the estimate of the intrinsic business value. If the Dopeler Book Value is zero or negative, the stock is flagged as being incompatible with the Doppler Value Investing philosophy.