How to Use StockSifting | Complete Guide

Step 1

Searching for a Stock

The fastest way to find any company on StockSifting is the search bar, available on the home page and in the top navigation on every page.

1

Type a company name or ticker symbol

Enter the name (e.g., Apple, Tesla) or the ticker symbol (e.g., AAPL, TSLA) in the search bar. Results appear as an autocomplete dropdown — no need to press Enter.

2

Select from the suggestion list

The dropdown shows matching companies with their ticker symbol and exchange. Click any result to go directly to that company's analysis page.

3

Or press Enter for full results

Pressing Enter takes you to the full search results page, showing all matching companies with their current price and percentage change.

💡 Pro tip: You can also type partial names like "micro" to find Microsoft, Microchip Technology, Micron, and similar companies all at once.

Step 2

Reading a Company Analysis Page

A company page is the heart of StockSifting. It brings together everything you need to research a stock in one place. Here's what each section means:

📊

Overview & Price Snapshot

At the top, you'll see the company's current stock price, today's change, market cap, exchange, sector, and industry. The 52-week high and low bars visually show where the current price sits in its annual range — a quick way to assess whether the stock is near its highs or lows.

💰

Valuation Ratios

This section covers how the market prices the stock relative to its fundamentals:

P/E Ratio — Price divided by earnings per share. Lower can mean undervalued, but context matters.
Forward P/E — Based on next year's estimated earnings. Useful for growth stocks.
EV/EBITDA — Enterprise value relative to operating profits. Good for comparing capital structures.
Price/Book — Market value vs book value. A P/B below 1 may indicate undervaluation.
Price/Sales — Useful for pre-profit growth companies.

📈

Profitability Metrics

These ratios tell you how well a company converts revenue into profit:

ROE (Return on Equity) — Profit generated on shareholders' capital. Above 15% is generally strong.
ROCE (Return on Capital Employed) — Efficiency of total capital use, including debt. A key quality indicator.
Net Margin — Percentage of revenue that becomes net profit.
Operating Margin — Profit from core operations before interest and tax.
Gross Margin — Revenue minus direct costs. Shows pricing power.

📋

Financial Statements (Multi-Year)

Scroll down to see the last 4–5 years of:

Profit & Loss — Revenue, operating income, net income, EPS
Balance Sheet — Total assets, liabilities, shareholder equity, cash, debt
Cash Flow Statement — Operating, investing, and financing cash flows; Free Cash Flow

Trend analysis across multiple years reveals whether a business is genuinely growing or stagnating.

🎯

Analyst Estimates

Wall Street analyst consensus data includes:

Recommendation — Aggregated buy/hold/sell rating across all covering analysts
Price Target — Average, high, and low 12-month price targets
EPS Forecasts — Estimated earnings for current and next year/quarter

A wide gap between current price and average target can indicate either opportunity or analyst overoptimism — always dig deeper.

💵

Dividend History & Corporate Actions

Review the company's dividend payment history (ex-dates and amounts) to understand income consistency and payout trends. The stock splits section shows historical split events, which is important context for long-term price chart analysis.

💡 Pro tip: Use the Ctrl+F browser search on a company page to quickly jump to a specific metric by name.

Step 3

Using the Stock Screener

The Screens page lets you filter the entire US stock database using 30+ financial criteria simultaneously — ideal for finding investment ideas that match a specific strategy.

1

Open the Screens page

Click SCREENS in the top navigation bar. The page loads with all US stocks displayed in a sortable table.

2

Set your filter criteria

Use the filter panel to set minimum/maximum ranges for metrics like P/E Ratio, Market Cap, ROE, Dividend Yield, and more. For example: P/E between 5–20, ROE above 15%, Market Cap above $1B.

3

Sort the results table

Click any column header to sort by that metric — ascending or descending. Sorting by ROCE or ROE descending is a quick way to surface the most capital-efficient businesses.

4

Click a company row to dive deeper

Any row in the screener table links directly to that company's full analysis page. Use the screener to generate a shortlist, then do a deeper per-company review.

🗂 Example Screening Strategies

Value Investing

P/E < 15 · P/B < 1.5 · Debt/Equity < 1 · ROE > 12%

Dividend Income

Dividend Yield > 3% · Payout sustainable · Market Cap > $5B

Quality Growth

ROCE > 20% · Net Margin > 15% · Revenue growth positive

Deep Value

P/B < 1 · EV/EBITDA < 8 · Current Ratio > 1.5

Step 4

Exploring Sectors & Industries

The Sectors and Industries pages let you browse stocks grouped by business category — useful for peer comparison and thematic research.

1

Go to Sectors or Industries

Find the links in the footer or navigate directly to /sectors or /industries. You'll see a list of all categories with the number of companies in each.

2

Click a category

Opening a sector (e.g., "Technology") or industry (e.g., "Semiconductors") shows all companies in that group with their key metrics: P/E, market cap, ROE, ROCE, dividend yield, and 52-week range.

3

Compare peers side by side

Sort the table by any column to instantly rank companies within the same sector by valuation, profitability, or size. This makes it easy to spot outliers — either unusually cheap or unusually expensive relative to peers.

💡 Pro tip: Industry-level comparison is more meaningful than sector-level for valuation analysis. Comparing a semiconductor company's P/E to a cloud software company's P/E within "Technology" can be misleading — look at the industry-level view for a fairer apples-to-apples comparison.

Step 5

Understanding Key Financial Metrics

Not sure what a particular number means? Here's a quick reference for the most important metrics on StockSifting:

Metric	What It Measures	General Benchmark
P/E Ratio	Price paid per dollar of earnings	Lower = cheaper; varies by sector
EV/EBITDA	Enterprise value vs operating profit	<10 often considered value
ROE	Return on shareholders' equity	>15% is generally strong
ROCE	Return on total capital employed	>15–20% indicates quality moat
Net Margin	% of revenue kept as net profit	Higher is better; varies by industry
Debt/Equity	Financial leverage of the company	<1 is conservative; >2 is high risk
Current Ratio	Short-term liquidity (assets vs liabilities)	>1.5 is comfortable
Free Cash Flow	Cash generated after capital expenditure	Positive FCF is a quality signal
Dividend Yield	Annual dividend as % of current price	Depends on income strategy
Market Cap	Total market value of the company	Large-cap (>$10B) · Mid ($2–10B) · Small (<$2B)

For a deeper dive into how each metric is used in analysis, see our Stock Analysis Guide.

Step 6

Managing Your Account

1

Sign up (optional)

Click SIGN UP in the top right. Enter your name, email, and a password — or choose Continue with Google for one-click registration. A verification email will be sent to your address.

2

Verify your email

Open the verification email from StockSifting and click the link. This activates your account. If you don't receive it within a few minutes, check your spam folder.

3

Log in on return visits

Click LOGIN, enter your email and password (or use Google login). Your session stays active until you explicitly log out.

4

Log out

Click your name/avatar in the top right to open the user menu, then click Logout. Your session is immediately cleared.