GuruFocus Review

Dr. Charli Tian founded GuruFocus in 2014. As of the moment, it has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. Subscribers can get research tools and value strategies straight from the platform’s creator.

Value investing is a world-recognized strategy for gaining profits in the long term. Warren Buffet, perhaps the greatest value investor of all time, has said it so himself. GuruFocus is a hub where value investing research takes place.

The Power Of Value Investing

In order to understand what GuruFocus is all about you’ll need to understand the concept of value investing. In a nutshell, value investing is a practice where one selects stocks that are traded below their intrinsic values. Investors who believe in this concept are always on the lookout for stocks that are marked as “underappreciated”.

In a world where investors are easily swayed by current news events and are prone to overreacting, value investing is a step ahead as the investors look at the long-term qualitative and quantitative information instead of going with the flow. This way, investors can stand to gain huge profits by purchasing deflated stocks that have potential.

GuruFocus is one of the best platforms that engage in value investing. Right now the site enjoys huge traffic from interested individuals looking for research tools and value screeners to aid them in selecting the right stocks from the pool. Plus, there are some interesting articles regarding value tactics they could apply.

Aside from that GuruFocus offers stock picks and in some cases, interview-type content that really adds to the knowledge of both beginner and pro value investors. The platform sends out a couple of in-depth analyses regarding stocks that have met or exceeded Warren Buffet’s criteria for sound investment, which include long-term track records and shareholder equity for increased profitability.

GuruFocus Features

GuruFocus has plenty of features that separate it from the rest of the pack. Once you opt-in, you can enjoy model portfolios for reference, inclusive ratios and trading data, updates in guru insider trading, screening capacities wrapped in a seamless, premium interface. As what you’d expect in a top company, customer support is outstanding and responds quickly.

1. Stock Screener

Within the GuruFocus platform, you’ll have access to Screeners, where users will have a choice on what they can add that could help in their investment decisions. One of the best-selling points that GuruFocus has is that the interface is really intuitive and easy to use.

Other platforms show you a complicated screen that’s difficult to navigate, but GuruFocus has managed to pack everything you’ll need in a screen that’s clean, sleek and responsive all the time.

Users get access to the All In One Screener, the Buffett Munger Screener and the Ben Graham Net Screener, which are considered to be the best research tools that have ever existed. It’s one of the major things investors look at day in and day out, and therefore it should be optimized for quick viewing.

GuruFocus users will be able to use the Stock Screener to look at Growth, Profitability, Financial Strength, Enterprise Value, Market Cap, Price, etc.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what you can expect from the Screener aspect:

• Piotroski F Score
• Market Cap to Current Asset Net Value
• Beneish M Score
• Return to Equity, Price To Book and P/E.
• Dividend Yield
• Share Buybacks
• Short Percent of Float
• Institutional and Inside Ownership
• EBIT/EV
• Guru Insider Buy & Sells
• Criteria for Shorting
• All-Time Low & High of Stock
• Net, Operating & Gross Margins

Each of these details has their own sub-categories for highly specific filtering options.

2. Strategies

Strategies are needed to gain income following stock movement and trading. GuruFocus has the following strategies for its users:

1. The Buffet Munger Screener
2. Most Broadly Held
3. Most Weighted
4. Top 25 List of Undervalued Companies
5. Top 25 CEO Purchases

3. Guru Picks

Investors and traders can access certain securities provided by the industry’s top traders and investors in the world, including the Guru’s own stock picks.

Each one is divided into 2 parts- the Quarterly Updates and the Real Time Picks. Quarterly Updates include complete portfolio updates as given by gurus while Real Time Picks include stock purchases that gurus have been making in the last 2 weeks.

Who are the gurus in this case? Most notable names include Warren Buffet, Carl Icahn, and George Soros, among others. The Picks provide a detailed insight into what’s going on inside the brightest minds in the stock industry. GuruFocus even has useful features such as Guru Bargains and Consensus Picks to help you narrow down your list of potential stocks to get.

4. Guru & Insider Trades

Subscribing to GuruFocus gives you access to the latest picks by investment savants like John Paulson, David Einhorn, Warren Buffet and others. The outdated profiles are free but you can get full access via the subscription.

5. Financial Data & Ratios

While there is free stock research information that could be found on the web, GuruFocus is an all-in-one platform that you can use for extensive data, for the sheer number of stats and ratios involved and the excellent user interface that makes important decisions that much easier. In short, you’ll have all the necessary information in one place when thinking about value investing.

GuruFocus allows users to do extensive research regarding a particular company and get specifics such as cash flow, income, revenues, value, and equity, etc. Plus, you get the essential company ratio information such as debt/equity, bv/p, p/e and many others.

There’s somewhat of a safety feature when you’re considering a risky proposition. GuruFocus will inform you of any details that you may need to know and reason(s) why you should do a double-take on the investment you’re getting yourself into.

Things such as company revenue experiencing a sharp decline during the last fiscal year, debts, operating income decreasing, etc. will be shared as a deterrent to less-than-wise trading.

6. Model Portfolios

GuruFocus has plenty of portfolios you can browse through depending on certain parameters you’ve set. You can use them as a rough guide to planning your very own unique portfolio. These become somewhat useful especially if you’re into mechanical tactics.

Trade experts say that a strong portfolio can outperform market trends at any given time. As users follow the model portfolio they’re getting sound and proven strategies on historical profits down the line.

GuruFocus has the following model portfolios- Low Price to Sales, Short Only Portfolios, Low Price to Book, the Buffet Munger, Undervalued Predictable, Guru Consensus Purchases, Insider Cluster Purchase and CEO Buying.

7. International Markets

GuruFocus can be used for gathering trading information on international markets as well. It works great if you’re into buying foreign stocks and presents you with a wealth of data as compared to limited ones in other platforms.

What’s more, the same research tools and Screening interface can be applied to stocks in Asia, Europe, and Canada. Filtering by country is an option.

GuruFocus Pricing

Investors and traders can access GuruFocus for free but they are limited to certain information. The meat of the platform shines when users pay to access premium features.

Premium Membership – $449 per year for the US market. Foreign market memberships are priced at $399 per year for Asian and European markets among many other markets. Included in this membership are S&P 500 stocks, 3 years back testing, GuruFocus API and the Excel Add-In which allows 2,000 queries each month. These are just the tip of the iceberg when you opt in for premium.

Premium Plus Membership –  $849 per year. You get all the features in a Premium Membership, backtesting starting from 2006 up till now, unlimited queries in Excel Add-In, the whole GuruFocus stock manuals, the GuruFocus API for 20,000 queries per month, and more.