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GARP Stock Screener

Growth at a reasonable price — profitable, growing companies you aren't overpaying for. Here's exactly how st-ox's Smart Screen finds them, across 12 markets.

How the score is weighted — Quality Compounder

Quality 35%
Growth 25%
Value 25%
Momentum 15%

What is GARP investing?

GARP — Growth At a Reasonable Price — is the middle ground between pure growth and pure value investing, most associated with Peter Lynch. Growth investors will pay up for fast expansion; value investors hunt for cheap stocks. GARP asks for both at once: real, durable growth and a sensible valuation. The classic shorthand is the PEG ratio — the price/earnings multiple divided by the growth rate — but a good GARP screen goes further than PEG alone.

How the screen works

Smart Screen isn't a single filter — it's a pipeline that turns a whole market into a ranked shortlist:

  1. Pick one of 12 markets to screen.
  2. Apply the hard gates — a company must pass every one to survive.
  3. Keep only uptrends — price above its 200-day moving average.
  4. Score every survivor 0–100 on four factors.
  5. Cap each sector at four names and show the top 25.

The hard gates

These are pass/fail. The Quality Compounder preset requires all of them:

✓Revenue & diluted EPS growth ≥ 10% year over year
✓Return on invested capital (ROIC) ≥ 12%
✓Gross margin ≥ 30%
✓Positive free cash flow
✓Price above the 200-day moving average (in an uptrend)

The four factors

Whatever survives the gates is scored 0–100. Each factor is measured on ratios, so the same scoring works in any currency or market:

Quality35% of the score

ROIC (not just ROE), gross margin, free-cash-flow margin, and low net-debt-to-EBITDA — how good and how durable the business is.

Growth25% of the score

Realised year-over-year revenue and diluted-EPS growth — actual results, not analyst hopes.

Value25% of the score

PEG and price-to-free-cash-flow together, so a rich multiple can't hide behind a big growth number.

Momentum15% of the score

One-year relative performance and how close the price sits to its 52-week high — a light tie-breaker toward stocks the market already favours.

The metric choices that matter

Two screens with the same idea can give very different results depending on which numbers they trust. Smart Screen makes deliberate choices:

Not just GARP: two more styles

Quality Compounder is the core GARP screen, but the same engine runs two other presets:

Markets covered

You can run the screen on any of twelve exchanges: the US, London, Paris, Frankfurt (Xetra), Amsterdam, Milan, Switzerland, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Tokyo and Hong Kong. A stretched market is worth watching too — see the Buffett Indicator for the big-picture backdrop.

Frequently asked questions

What is a GARP screener?
GARP stands for Growth At a Reasonable Price — an approach popularised by Peter Lynch that blends growth and value. A GARP screener finds companies that are genuinely growing and profitable, but whose shares aren't priced so richly that all the future growth is already paid for — avoiding both overpriced hype and cheap-but-declining value traps.
What filters does the Quality Compounder screen use?
Every stock must pass hard gates — revenue and EPS growth of at least 10% YoY, ROIC of at least 12%, gross margin above 30%, positive free cash flow, and a price above its 200-day moving average. Survivors are scored 0–100 on quality, growth, value and momentum, capped so no single sector dominates, and the top 25 are shown.
Why does it use ROIC instead of ROE?
Return on equity can be flattered by debt — a company can boost ROE just by borrowing. Return on invested capital measures the return on all the capital in the business, debt and equity together, so it's a cleaner signal of business quality. The screen also prefers net debt / EBITDA over debt / equity, and judges valuation on both PEG and price-to-free-cash-flow.
Which markets can I screen?
Twelve exchanges: the US, London, Paris, Frankfurt (Xetra), Amsterdam, Milan, Switzerland, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Tokyo and Hong Kong. The scoring is built on ratios and percentages, so it works across all of them unchanged.
Is the stock screener free?
Yes — Smart Screen is free with no ads. It's an idea generator and a starting point for your own research, not investment advice or a recommendation to buy any stock.

Run the GARP screen in st-ox

Pick a market, choose the Quality Compounder preset, and get a ranked shortlist with a quality / growth / value / momentum breakdown in seconds. Free, no ads.

Open st-ox free →

For information and educational purposes only. Not investment advice, and not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Screen results are a starting point for your own research.