A Review of Stock Rover

In this article, I provide a review of Stock Rover. Before I proceed, I want to disclose that I am an Affiliate of Stock Rover. I provide affiliate links to the Stock Rover website in this post, meaning that I earn a commission for any purchases you make at the Affiliates’ website through these links. This will not incur additional costs for you. Please read my disclosure for more information.

What is Stock Rover?

In this review of Stock Rover, I want to first answer the question, “What is Stock Rover?” The Stock Rover website is an investment research and analysis platform for retail investors like you and me. The company was founded in 2008 by two individual investors, Howard Reisman and Andrew Martin. They are software engineers with a passion for investing. The Stock Rover app was created out of frustration. They were looking for a better way to perform an analysis of stocks for their personal investments.

Previously they used multiple sources and tools from different websites and separate spreadsheets. Instead, they designed and built their own comprehensive and integrated stock screener and tool to simplify their research and analysis efforts. Their stated goal was to “create a product that they would look forward to using, and more importantly, one that would make them better investors.” In addition, their stated vision was to “share this product with the investment community so that other individual investors would have access to the same resources.”

Today, Stock Rover’s mission is to “empower investors of all levels to make better investment decisions by offering a comprehensive, accessible, and affordable stock research platform.” Stock Rover is growing rapidly and currently has over $11 billion in linked assets.

Awards

Stock Rover continues to win accolades from the investor and financial press. Below is a partial list of awards.

• Named Best Buy and Hold screener by Investopedia
• Named Computerized Investing Editor’s Choice by the American Association Individual Investors (AAII)
• Finalist for for the US 2021 Fin Tech Awards in the Personal Finance Tech of the Year category
• Named Best of the Web in 2020 by the American Association Individual Investors (AAII)
• Called the Best Fundamental Screener by the Stock Screener Tips
• Named Best of the Web in 2019 by the American Association Individual Investors (AAII)
• Named Best Stock Screener 2019 by Liberated Stock Trader

Stock Rover Free Plan – Review

Stock Rover has a free plan that is relatively decent and several paid premium plans. The platform has information on more than 8,500 stocks in North America, 4,000 ETFs, and 40,000 mutual funds. Thus, stock Rover covers the great majority of equities and funds that you are interested in. In addition, the free plan has some reasonably powerful tools, including charting, market news, stock news, analyst rating, analyst ranking, earnings calendar, and weekly ideas screener panel, and the ability to research a single stock. Below is a list of some of the things in the free plan:

• Coverage on 8,500+ North American stocks, 4,000 ETFs, and 40,000 mutual funds
• Portfolio management and brokerage integration
• Charting capabiliites
• Analyst ratings with rankings
• Market and stock news
• Earnings calendars

The screener and analysis tool on Stock Rover is excellent. However, Stock Rover also permits brokerage integration and connection of brokerage accounts even in the Free Plan. This feature is accomplished without manual entry of stock positions through an API connection, which is very convenient.

There are a lot of features for a free plan, but it does not unlock the full power of Stock Rover for do-it-yourself or DIY small investors. Additionally, users of the free plan do not have access to technical help from Stock Rover.

Stock Rover Paid Plans – Review

Stock Rover offers three paid plans: Essentials, Premium, and Premium Plus. The different plans include the capabilities of the plan below it and add more to it. The plans all have different price points ranging from $7.99 per month / $79.99 per year for the Essentials Plan up to $27.99 per month / $279.99 per year for the Premium Plus plan. You can take a look at the different Stock Rover price points. Now let us review the three other plans in Stock Rover.

Stock Rover Essentials Plan

The Stock Rover Essentials Plan includes everything in the Free Plan and then some. The main add-ons are full customization of views and columns, 260+ metrics with 5-year trailing history, stock screening, real-time text and e-mail alerts, access to the Stock Rover Library of guru portfolios, and technical support. The Essentials plan is $7.99 per month, or $79.99 per year, or $139.99 for two years.

The nice part about the Essentials plan is that it gives you more control than the Free Plan. You are no longer getting investment ideas in a weekly panel, but instead, you create your investment ideas using the stock screener. So, from that perspective, it is really for a DIY investor at all levels.

Stock Rover has preset screeners in its library, but you can also use one of the over 260 metrics to create your screens. The library has over 130 screeners. Some of them include Piotroski High F-Score, Buffetology Inspired, Dividend Growth, and many more. Once you run a screen, you can filter it further by a metric like 5-year return, dividend yield, payout ratio, or another fundamental metric.

Features

Below is a partial list of things you get in the Essentials Plan:

• Everything in the Stock Rover Free Plan
• 260+ metrics with 5-years of financial data
• Stock screeners
• 6 chartable metrics
• Portfolio and watchlist tracking
• Real-time text and e-mail alerts
• Access to the Stock Rover Library for guru portfolios
• Tech support

Let’s look at an example of the Dividend Growth screener, which is available in the library in all paid plans. A screenshot shows there are seven criteria: dividend yield, dividend 1-year change (%), dividend 3-year change (%), dividend 5-year change (%), EPS 5-year average (%), payout ratio (%), and the sales 5-year average (%). Only 57 stocks or 0.4% of stocks in the Stock Rover universe pass the screen for this particular screen.

If we want to see which of these 57 stocks have dividend yields over 3%, we can sort by dividend yield in descending order. The chart below shows only the first ten stocks in the list. You should try this screen in the free trial of Stock Rover. The main point here, though, is that you can use the screeners in the library to find stocks to research further.

The Essentials Plan is helpful, but it does not unlock the full power of Stock Rover. Many capabilities are not included such as ETF screening, stock ratings, portfolio rebalancing, advanced analytics, ratio charts, custom metrics, etc.

Furthermore, the number of metrics, years of historical data, fair value and margin of safety scores, number of fundamental metrics, etc., are sometimes not enough for serious DIY investors. Like anything else, you need to pay for the next higher-level plans to access more features and capabilities.

Stock Rover Premium Plan

The Stock Rover Premium Plan includes everything in the Free Plan and Essentials Plan, and even more. It is in this plan that you are starting to unlock more of Stock Rover’s true power. The main add-ons are 350+ metrics, 10-years of trailing data history, data export, ETF screening, ETF and mutual fund comparison, 100+ chartable metrics, multiple metric charting, correlation analysis, ranked screening, portfolio analytics, trade planning, rebalancing, stock ratings, formatting features, and a higher level of technical support. The Premium plan is $17.99 per month, or $179.99 per year, or $319.99 for two years.

Below is a partial list of things you get in the Premium Plan:

• Everything in the Stock Rover Free and Essentials Plans
• 350+ metrics and 10-years of financial data
• Data export and auto refresh capabilities
• ETF screening with data and 90+ ETF metrics
• 100+ chartable metrics
• Stock screener with ranked screening ability
• Trade planning and rebalancing tools
• Correlation analysis
• Priority tech support

The main benefit of going up to the Premium Plan is more data and more analytical capabilities. For example, many investors own both stocks and ETFs. You want to screen for both, and in that case, you need the Premium Plan. Additionally, my readers like to go back and look at 10-years of trailing data instead of 5-years in their stock analyses. Five years is nice, but 10-years gives you a better idea of long-term trends for dividend growth, payout ratio, revenue, earnings, etc. In my opinion, this is better when trying to compare stocks and make a decision.

Correlation Example

For example, let’s try the correlation analysis for the Dogs of the Dow in 2022. There are ten stocks in the Dogs of the Dow. Stock Rover has a built-in library for the Dogs of the Dow. If we select Dogs of the Dow, click on correlation analysis, and check the box for Dogs of the Dow, then Stock Rover creates a heat map.

For example, suppose hypothetically we own International Business Machines (IBM). In that case, we can see that Merck’s (MRK) returns areStock Rover Correlation the least correlated to IBM’s returns. This feature can help with diversifying your portfolio. You can even add a stock you own that is not in the Dogs of the Dow to compare it to the stocks in the heat map.

The Premium Plan may not be enough for some investors. Additionally, the full power of Stock Rover is not entirely available. Although you get access to stock ratings, it is only a limited number. Furthermore, you only get access to a limited number of fair value and margin of safety scores, and investor warnings.

If you want unlimited numbers of these, you need to get the next plan up, the Premium Plus Plan.

Stock Rover Premium Plus Plan

The Stock Rover Premium Plus Plan includes everything in the Free Plan, Essentials Plan, Premium Plan, and other add-ons. In addition, you now have 650+ metrics to work with. One of this plan’s most exciting and unique features is that you can now screen with custom equations. You can also filter historical data using custom metrics that you create. Another exciting feature is that you can chart using ratio charts with over 100 fundamental metrics.

Overall, you get more of almost everything since the number of maximum screeners, number of portfolios, number of watchlists, number of brokerage connections, number of views, number of tickers, etc., are all much greater than the lower level plans.

Below is a partial list of things you get in the Premium Plus Plan:

• Everything in the Stock Rover Free, Essentials, and Premium Plans
• 650+ metrics and 10-years of financial data
• Stock fair value with margin of safety
• Custom metrics you create
• Stock screening with equations
• ETF screening with 180+ ETF metrics
• Growth, Value, Quality, and Sentiment score by Stock Rover
• Even higher priority tech support

Custom Screen Example

Let’s try an example. we can create a custom screen based on historical data. Let’s say we are interested in screening out stocks that have low dividend safety. In this example, we create the screen by adding criteria for payout ratio > 65%, debt-to-equity > 2.5X, free cash flow payout ratio > 70%, and a negative trailing 5-year EPS growth rate.

My readers know that these are some of the criteria and thresholds that I analyze for dividend safety. Seven stocks pass this screen. These seven stocks are higher risk for a dividend freeze or cut. In addition, we weight the criteria, as seen in the screenshot below.You should try this out in a free trial of Stock Rover and see which seven stocks the screener identified with poor dividend safety.

The Premium Plus Plan is the plan you need to unlock the full power of Stock Rover and go to the next level. The Premium Plan Plus plan is $27.99 per month, or $279.99 per year, or $479.99 for two years.

Stock Rover Research Reports

One more feature of Stock Rover that can help you as an investor are the Stock Rover Research Reports. The Research Reports can be bundled with one of the paid plans, or the Research Reports can be bought separately.

You get unlimited access to these reports, which are updated with the latest data in Stock Rover. It includes all the information any investor could want. This consists of a business summary, key fundamental metrics, chart for the past year, analysis of valuation and growth and other metrics, comparison to peers, dividend information, balance sheets, cash flow, income statement, valuation history, and more.

Below are three screenshots of one of the free reports Stock Rover updates weekly. In this example, the stock is Apple (APPL). The full report is eight pages, so we re only seeing part of the report. However, it allows you to get an idea about the quantity and quality of available information.

The Research Reports can be bundled with a paid plan for $49.99 or bought separately for $99.99.

What I Like About Stock Rover?

Beginner to Advanced DIY Investors

I like the Stock Rover website for beginner to advanced investors. It has information for all levels. Overall, one thing that became apparent in this review is that Stock Rover is for the serious DIY investor. Stock Rover is an interactive tool that lets you conduct investment research, stock screening, and also manage your portfolio all in one place.

The large number of metrics and ability to perform screening and comparisons is compelling. The ability to screen based on custom equations and fundamental metrics is very useful for individual to professional investors. Investors created Stock Rover with other investors in mind. Stock Rover provides you with the information and analysis tools to become a better investor.

Shines When Performing Fundamental Analysis and Comparing Stocks

Stock Rover shines when performing fundamental analysis and comparing investment choices. It is different from many other research platforms due to the number of fundamental metrics available, customization for screening, charting capability, and custom metrics.

This ability is combined with portfolio tools by linking to brokerage accounts. From this perspective, it is helpful for dividend growth investors or any investors thinking about the long-term. Suppose, for example, you are trying to pick between adding money to hypothetical holdings in Apple or Microsoft. You can perform a side-by-side comparison of the two. In the screenshot below, we are comparing the two companies’ dividends, but you can see from the tabs that you can compare almost any fundamental metrics you are interested in.

You can also compare the charts for Apple and Microsoft as seen below and look at the stock reports. Below, we show the price chart for Apple in the past two years along with the 50-day and 200-day EMA. The bottom half of the chart shows the valuation multiple range in the past two years.

One negative aspect about Stock Rover is that the layout can be challenging for some. However, for all that Stock Rover provides, this is a tiny negative. The amount of metrics and financial data may also be a bit overwhelming for those just starting in investing. Two other limitations are that phone support is only available from 9 am to 5 pm, and e-mail support may be the next business day. That said, Stock Rover is winning accolades from financial organizations for individual investors and the press. I am not going to list them all here, but you can check the StockRover website.

Why Stock Rover

Investing is about information, structure, and decision-making. Stock Rover is a tool that lets you perform investment research and analysis. It permits you to analyze your portfolio, whether stocks, ETFs, or mutual funds, and plan trades and rebalancing in an integrated environment.

Stock Rover permits the DIY investor to make decisions with information and knowledge and compare different investment choices. Not too many tools do this function as effectively. As you are well aware, the path of a DIY or self-directed investor is not for everyone. It takes time and effort. However, if you are a DIY investor, then Stock Rover could help you make investment decisions and become a better investor. It would be best if you tried it out during Stock Rover’s 14-day free trial.

What is the Price of Stock Rover?

Hopefully, this review of Stock Rover was helpful. If you are interested in trying out Stock Rover, please click here. You can sign up for the Free Plan and also trial the paid premium plans for free for 14-days. There is no risk and no obligation. Stock Rover is a reasonable cost and a good value considering all the tools and features that you get.

The Essentials plan is $7.99 per month, or $79.99 per year, or $139.99 for two years.

The Premium plan is $17.99 per month, or $179.99 per year, or $319.99 for two years.

The Premium Plan Plus plan is $27.99 per month, or $279.99 per year, or $479.99 for two years.