Stock valuation on your phone: how Graham, Lynch and Buffett methods work on mobile

🌍 Bu makalenin Türkçe versiyonu: Telefonunuzda hisse değerlemesi — Graham, Lynch ve Buffett yöntemleri mobilde

Judging whether a stock is “cheap or expensive” is a different job from screening. Screening filters thousands of companies down to a shortlist. Valuation tries to estimate what a single company is actually worth — its intrinsic value. Three names from the classic investing literature approach this from different angles: Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and Warren Buffett. This article explains what these methods are, and how they can now be calculated automatically on a phone.

Why is valuation harder than screening?

Screening is relatively simple: “show me everything with a P/E under 15 and RSI under 30,” and you get a list. But valuation takes several steps: reading the financial statements, assuming a growth rate, choosing a discount rate, and discounting future cash flows to the present. On desktop it’s done with Excel or tools like Stock Rover; on mobile, most apps either don’t offer these steps at all or leave the math to you.

That’s why the answer to “can I see a stock’s fair value and margin of safety on my phone?” is limited to far fewer apps than you’d expect.

The three classic methods, briefly

Benjamin Graham — Graham Number and margin of safety

Graham is considered the father of value investing. Two core contributions:

• Graham Number: A formula combining earnings per share (EPS) and book value to estimate a stock’s “reasonable maximum price.” If the price is below this number, the valuation is considered attractive.
• Margin of safety: Perhaps the single most important concept in investing. The buffer between intrinsic value and market price. A 50% margin of safety means you’re buying at half of estimated fair value — leaving plenty of room for error.

Peter Lynch — PEG and fair value

Lynch puts growth at the center of valuation. His famous rule: a company’s reasonable P/E should equal its growth rate (PEG = 1). So a company growing at 30% can justify a P/E of 30. Lynch fair value uses this logic to estimate what a stock “should” be worth.

Warren Buffett — quality + DCF logic

Buffett was Graham’s student but took the work a step further: he looks not just for cheap, but for quality and cheap — high return on equity (ROE), low debt, stable cash flow, and a reasonable price. Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) estimates intrinsic value by converting a company’s future cash-generating capacity into present value.

Can these be calculated automatically on mobile?

Yes — but few apps offer it. Fin Screener (iOS) is one example filling this gap. For any stock, it automatically generates, on a single screen:

• Graham Number and where the price sits relative to it
• Lynch fair value (PEG=1 logic)
• DCF valuation (with growth, WACC and terminal-rate assumptions)
• Average fair value, upside potential and margin of safety
• Buy/sell strategy zones based on these (strong buy, accumulate, hold, take profit, sell)

On top of that comes the quality and risk side: Piotroski F-Score (9 criteria), Altman Z-Score, ROE/ROA/ROIC, debt ratios, free cash flow and volatility (beta). It finally distills all of this into a single 0–10 investment score.

Honest limitation: these calculations are only as good as the financial data behind them; the data is sourced from TradingView and delayed. So this is designed for evaluating a company and making a decision, not for intraday trading. And no automatic fair-value figure is a “correct answer” independent of its assumptions — changing the growth assumption in a DCF changes the result dramatically. Treat these tools as a starting point, not the final word.

Coverage: not just NASDAQ

An important point: this valuation report works not only for American stocks but for stocks across 30+ exchanges in 13 countries — BIST, NASDAQ, NYSE, London (LSE), Germany (Xetra), Euronext, Toronto (TSX), Tokyo (TSE/JPX), Hong Kong (HKEX), Tadawul and more. So you can evaluate a German industrial company or a Japanese tech stock with the same Graham/Lynch/Buffett framework.

Who is it for?

• Value investors: those who want Graham Number, margin of safety and DCF in one place.
• Growth-oriented investors: those who want to see the growth-vs-price balance via Lynch’s PEG logic.
• Multi-market investors: those comparing stocks across countries within the same framework.
• People avoiding Excel: those who want these calculations automated rather than done by hand.

Conclusion

Valuation is the hardest but most instructive part of investing. Graham’s margin of safety, Lynch’s PEG and Buffett’s quality+DCF approach have held up for decades. Being able to generate these calculations on a phone — as a 10-section report for a single stock — is a real convenience for the individual investor. Just don’t forget to question the output, check the assumptions, and do your own research: no score replaces thinking.

About Fin Screener:

*fin-screener*

*App Store: The free tier offers full analysis of 4 stocks per day; Pro includes unlimited analysis and advanced screening.*

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.