The problem is that stocks trading on foreign exchanges that don’t have the same reporting standards or data providers as the U.S.
In these cases, international investors are limited to using specific stock screeners for these particular markets or manually screening for stocks using Microsoft Excel and similar tools. Emerging markets and frontier markets in particular usually have limited access.
In this article, we’ll take a look at how to screen for ADRs as well as how to screen for companies in both developed and developing markets.
Screening for ADRs
ADRs provide U.S. investors with the easiest way to gain exposure to foreign markets. By purchasing a bulk lot of foreign securities, U.S. financial institutions bundle and reissue them as ADRs on U.S. exchanges. These securities usually trade close to parity with the underlying foreign equity, although there are often disparities based on liquidity risks on either exchange.
Many ADRs are larger companies that make regular filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), which means that stock screeners can access and parse the data relatively easily.
As a result, many U.S. stock screeners have built-in support for ADRs and searching for them is as easy as searching for U.S. equities by putting in the desired criteria and reading through a list of results.
Screening in Developed Markets
Many developed markets have established standardized rules and data requirements that have made stock screeners widely available. For example, Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange (“TSX”) provides its own stock screener that includes broad access to Canadian equities. The only exceptions tend to be smaller and illiquid securities trading on pink sheet or other over-the-counter exchanges.
Here are some stock screeners for developed markets:
- Canada. Many different stock screeners are available for the Canadian market, including those provided by organizations like TSX Money.
- Britain. Britain’s status as the second most popular market in the world means that a variety of screeners are available, such as Telegraph U.K.
International Stock Screeners
Many stock screeners are available that target both U.S. companies and international companies across many developed markets. While these screeners provide international investors with the ability to search a wide array of companies, it’s worth noting that they are usually not entirely comprehensive, especially when it comes to including smaller exchanges equivalent to the OTC markets in the U.S.
Some of the most popular international stock screeners include:
- Financial Times. Financial Times’ international stock screener makes it easy to identify investment opportunities by region or country, as well as by using a number of different criteria like industry or market capitalization.
- Reuters. Reuters’ international stock screener provides investors with the ability to screen a total of 114,224 different companies across a wide variety of different countries and markets.
- Morningstar. Morningstar provides an international stock screener available to members-only that searches across many different markets with an impress data set that’s among the most comprehensive available.
- Finviz. Finviz provides a free and easy to use international stock screener that searches across a number of different countries, including capabilities to search using both fundamental and technical data points.
Key Takeaway Points
- Stock screening tends to be a little more difficult in foreign markets, since financial data can be a little less reliable.
- Many ADRs and developed markets have easy-to-use stock screeners operated by news agencies or stock exchanges.
- International stock screeners can be used to search across many different countries at once with the exception of smaller companies.