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Classic Value Investors

Value Stocks

Value Stocks is a Classic Value Investors screen. It checks every NSE-listed stock against 2 conditions computed from nightly data, after excluding heavily pledged promoters and very small market caps. This page explains the rule, each figure and its source. It lists no stocks and is not advice.

What it does and why

True value stocks are not simply cheap stocks — they are high-quality businesses available at a reasonable price. This screener combines three criteria: strong operating profitability (the business earns good margins), high capital efficiency (ROCE tells you how well management uses every rupee of capital), and low financial leverage (the company does not rely on debt to generate those returns). A stock that scores well on all three is a business with durable earnings power that is not being propped up by borrowed money.

The rule, step by step

A stock must satisfy every condition below. Conditions are grouped under the pillar they test.

Profitability

Described in the philosophy; not a pass/fail condition in the current rule

Financial Strength

  • Debt/Equity < 1

General conditions

  • P/B < 1.5

Hard excludes

  • Promoter pledge above 30% of the promoter's holding
  • Market cap below ₹500 crore
Passes the screen

Ranked by P/B, lowest first.

The figures it uses

P/B

Used in a condition
Formula
Close ÷ (total equity × 10,000,000 ÷ paid-up shares), only when equity is positive
Input fields
close, total equity, paidUpEquityShares
Source of record
Upstox · public historical candles, NSE_EQ|{ISIN} (no auth)FinEdge · /api/v1/daily-quotes/{symbol} (fallback)FinEdge · /api/v1/financials/{symbol}?statement_code=bs&period=annualFinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/summary/{symbol}?period=quarterly
Corporate actions
Adjusted for corporate actions before use
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Debt/Equity

Used in a condition
Formula
Total debt ÷ total equity from the latest annual balance sheet; a company reporting zero debt has a ratio of 0; none is given when the debt figure is unknown or equity is not positive
Input fields
total debt, total equity
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/financials/{symbol}?statement_code=bs&period=annual
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Promoter Pledge

Hard exclude input
Formula
Pledged shares as a share of the promoter's own holding: pledgedSharesPct ÷ promoter holding × 100; blank when the quarter is not listed
Input fields
pledgedSharesPct, promoter holding
Source of record
FinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/summary/{symbol}?period=quarterlyFinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/pattern/{symbol}?period=quarterly
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

Market Cap

Hard exclude input
Formula
Close × paid-up equity shares ÷ 10,000,000 (₹ crore)
Input fields
close, paidUpEquityShares
Source of record
Upstox · public historical candles, NSE_EQ|{ISIN} (no auth)FinEdge · /api/v1/daily-quotes/{symbol} (fallback)FinEdge · /api/v1/shareholdings/summary/{symbol}?period=quarterly
Corporate actions
Adjusted for corporate actions before use
Refresh
Recomputed nightly (06:30 IST job); rows older than 3 days are excluded from screens

What each figure means

EBITDA Margin (%)

Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation as a percentage of revenue. Measures the operating profitability of the core business, before financing and accounting choices.

High is better

Return on Capital Employed (%)

Operating profit (EBIT) divided by total capital employed (equity + debt - cash), expressed as a percentage. Measures how efficiently the business generates profit from all the capital deployed in it.

High is better

Debt-to-Equity Ratio

Total debt divided by total shareholder equity. Below 0.5 means the company is predominantly equity-funded; above 2.0 means debt is dominant.

Low is better

Try the rule

Type hypothetical values to see which conditions they satisfy. These are not real stocks and nothing here is stored.

  • P/B < 1.5—
  • Debt/Equity < 1—

Enter values to begin

How sensitive is it?

How many stocks pass if this threshold were set differently. Counts only; no stocks are named.

A worked example

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Sign in with a completed risk profile to check any stock against this rule.

Evidence

What the harness measured

no_verified_figureNot yet tested

We have not measured this screen yet, so there is no record to explain.

Live monitoring

  • 5-day IC -0.061 · signal date 2026-10-14 · n 4447
  • 22-day IC -0.050 · signal date 2026-09-12 · n 3840

This is a historical, statistical measurement produced by FINOME TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD's research harness on past data. It is not a prediction, and past results do not indicate future results. The universe is today's Nifty 500 constituents, so the sample is affected by survivorship bias. It describes how a screen's selections behaved in the past and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation.

Run this screen

Run this screen

Rule version 1.0.0

Questions

How is this screen calculated?
Each stock is tested against 2 conditions using figures computed from exchange prices and company filings, adjusted for corporate actions. The rule is versioned; this page shows version 1.0.0.
How often does the screen update?
The figures are recomputed once each trading day after the nightly compute. A stock whose figures are more than three days old is left out rather than shown stale.
Is this investment advice?
No. This is educational material describing a screening method. It does not recommend any security and does not consider your circumstances.
Educational use only — GoQuant is a research tool. This page explains a screening method and is not a recommendation. Investment advice is provided by FINOME TECHNOLOGIES PVT LTD (AltQube), SEBI-registered Investment Adviser, registration no. INA000018373, under a signed advisory agreement and after a risk profile. Past performance is not indicative of future results.