Free tool · No signup · Refreshed every 6 hours
Graham Number Screener: Find Stocks Below Intrinsic Value
The Graham Number filters the market for stocks where Benjamin Graham's intrinsic value formula — √(22.5 × EPS × Book Value) — exceeds the current price. A positive margin of safety means the stock trades below Graham's estimate of fair value. Updated hourly from live market data. Pair it with the Graham Number calculator, P/B screener, and NCAV net-net calculator to build a deep-value shortlist.
How to Read the Graham Number
Benjamin Graham — the father of value investing and Warren Buffett's teacher — built the Graham Number as a quick fair-value ceiling for a defensive investor. It combines two of his bedrock rules: a defensive stock's price-to-earnings ratio should not exceed 15, and its price-to-book ratio should not exceed 1.5. Multiply those limits together and you get 22.5, the constant at the heart of the formula √(22.5 × EPS × Book Value Per Share). The result is the highest price Graham would call reasonable for a stable, profitable company — anything below it comes with a built-in margin of safety.
The margin-of-safety badge is the bookmark feature of this screener. Rather than making you compute the gap yourself, every row shows how far below the Graham Number the stock trades and labels it: Deep for more than 20% below fair value, Moderate for 5–20% below, and Slim for under 5%. Graham favored a margin of at least one-third; the deeper the discount, the more room for error in the inputs and the more cushion against a decline in the business. Only stocks currently trading below their Graham Number appear in the table.
Read the screener with one important guardrail: the Graham Number leans entirely on trailing earnings and reported book value, so it flatters asset-heavy, stable businesses and penalizes asset-light compounders whose value lives in intangibles the balance sheet never records. A software company can trade far above its Graham Number and still be cheap; a struggling manufacturer can screen as deeply undervalued while its earnings quietly erode. Use the sector filter to compare like with like, then confirm the earnings and book-value inputs are durable before acting. Click any ticker to open the full Basis Report stock intelligence page and run a DCF or earnings-quality check.
Graham Number vs. DCF and P/B
The Graham Number, a discounted cash flow model, and the price-to-book ratio each answer the valuation question from a different angle. P/B compares price to accounting net worth alone and ignores profitability. A DCF projects future free cash flows and discounts them to today, capturing growth but demanding many assumptions. The Graham Number sits between the two: it blends current earnings power with book value in a single, assumption-light number. Its virtue is speed and conservatism; its limitation is that it says nothing about growth. Treat it as a fast first filter for defensive, profitable companies — then graduate the survivors to a full DCF.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Graham Number?
The Graham Number is Benjamin Graham's estimate of the maximum fair price a defensive investor should pay for a stock: √(22.5 × EPS × Book Value Per Share). The 22.5 constant reflects Graham's rule that a defensive stock's P/E should stay under 15 and its P/B under 1.5 (15 × 1.5 = 22.5). Trade below the number and you have a margin of safety; trade above it and you are paying more than Graham's conservative ceiling.
How is the Graham Number calculated?
Multiply 22.5 by trailing earnings per share and by book value per share, then take the square root. A company with $4.00 EPS and $25.00 book value per share has a Graham Number of √(22.5 × 4 × 25) = √2,250 ≈ $47.43. The formula requires both inputs to be positive, so loss-making companies and those with negative equity are excluded from this screener.
What is a good margin of safety?
Graham favored buying at least one-third below intrinsic value, but any positive gap means the stock trades below his fair-value ceiling. This screener labels discounts above 20% as 'Deep,' 5–20% as 'Moderate,' and under 5% as 'Slim.' A larger margin cushions against input errors and business decline — but an unusually large discount can also flag a problem the formula misses, so always cross-check earnings quality.
Why do some quality stocks never appear here?
The Graham Number rewards low P/E and low price-to-book, which favors asset-heavy, slow-growth businesses. Asset-light compounders — software, payment networks, brands — carry most of their value in intangibles the balance sheet never records, so they routinely trade far above their Graham Number even when they are attractively priced on cash-flow terms. The screener is a deep-value filter, not a universal valuation tool.
Is a stock below its Graham Number automatically a buy?
No. A low Graham Number reading is a starting point, not a verdict. Trailing earnings can be inflated by one-time gains, book value can hide impaired assets, and a deep discount sometimes reflects a real deterioration in the business. Use the screener to build a watchlist, then verify the durability of earnings, the health of the balance sheet, and the reason for the discount before committing capital.
How do I find the full analysis for a stock?
Click any ticker in the screener to open the Basis Report stock intelligence page. From there you can run a full DCF valuation, check earnings-quality scores, view analyst consensus, see insider activity, and generate a complete research report. The Graham Number screener surfaces the value signal; the stock page gives you the depth to make a decision.