Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to evaluate a business fits on one page — the same philosophy behind Value Line's investment survey and the tear sheets that shaped generations of professional investors. Dense, comprehensive, respectful of your time.

Our chart plots price on a logarithmic scale against fundamental fair value. Equal percentage moves look equal, sustainable growth traces a straight line, and valuation gaps are visible at a glance. Warren Buffett studied Value Line's log-scaled charts for years. Charlie Munger called them "one of the great tools ever invented for investors."

The screener completes the workflow: filter stocks by your criteria, then cycle through results one by one with keyboard shortcuts. Systematic screening, then deep dives — no tab switching.

The chart plots stock price (black line) on a logarithmic scale alongside a fair value line (teal dashed). Fair value is calculated as the trailing twelve month fundamental metric multiplied by its median historical multiple.

4 valuation methods are available via dropdown: P/E (earnings), P/FCF (free cash flow), P/CF (cash flow from operations), and P/OE (owner earnings). Different methods suit different businesses — capital-light companies often look better on cash flow metrics.

Reading the chart: Price hugging fair value means rational pricing. Wide gaps above suggest overvaluation; gaps below may signal opportunity. An upward-sloping fair value line means growing fundamentals. Pro users unlock all 4 methods and 15 years of chart history.

The fair value line uses a 3-year geometric average of the underlying metric (EPS, FCF, etc.) rather than the latest trailing twelve months. This is a deliberate design choice rooted in how the best long-term investors think about valuation.

Normalized earning power, not peak earnings. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger never valued a business on a single quarter's results. They asked: what can this business sustainably earn over a cycle? A 3-year average smooths out one-time items, cyclical peaks, and accounting noise to approximate that durable earning power.

Built-in margin of safety. For a company growing earnings at 15–20% per year, the 3-year average will naturally lag behind the latest TTM figure. This means the fair value line is conservative — if it says a stock is "fairly valued," you likely aren't overpaying. The lag acts as a cushion.

Why this can look counterintuitive. A fast grower like Microsoft might show a current P/E of 25x against a historical median of 32x — seemingly cheap. But the fair value line, using smoothed earnings, may show the stock near fair value. That's because the recent earnings surge is already reflected in the price. The chart is asking: relative to what this business has sustainably earned, is the price reasonable?

The trade-off. This approach is more conservative for high-growth companies and more generous for declining ones. We believe that's the right bias for long-term investors — it's better to be approximately right and conservative than precisely wrong and aggressive.

Financial data is extracted directly from SEC EDGAR filings — 10-K and 10-Q reports for 10,000+ US stocks, covering up to 15 years of history. Daily prices come from Yahoo Finance (end-of-day). All SEC links go to the official EDGAR database maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

No third-party financial data aggregators. We parse the source filings ourselves.

Free — 10,000+ stocks, 2 years of financials, 10 daily stock views, screener access, and up to 3 watchlist stocks per list. No account required for basic browsing (5 daily views).

Pro ($11.99/mo billed annually) — 15 years of data, all 4 valuation methods, 9-point quality checklist, compare tool (5 stocks side-by-side), Excel export, and unlimited watchlists. A Founders tier is also available for early supporters.

See our pricing page for full details.

Investors who study businesses, not stock prices. If you appreciate dense financial data presented clearly — or you've wished for a modern version of Value Line's one-pagers — you're in the right place. Search any stock to start — no account required.