Best All-Around Stocks by Balanced UQS Score

Last updated: October 7, 2026

The Balanced preset is the UQS default — and for most investors, it's the right starting point. Instead of tilting heavily toward any single investment philosophy, it distributes weight across all five pillars in proportions that reflect decades of academic research on what drives long-term stock returns. Quality and Moat each carry 25% because the evidence is overwhelming that profitable companies with durable competitive advantages outperform over multi-year periods. Growth receives 20% because expanding businesses compound shareholder value, but growth without quality or moat is fragile. Risk and Valuation each carry 15% as essential guardrails — avoiding financial distress and overpaying.

This balance isn't arbitrary. Factor investing research by Fama-French, AQR, and others has demonstrated that quality, value, momentum, and low-volatility factors each contribute independently to long-term returns. The UQS balanced approach captures most of these factors: Quality maps to the profitability factor, Moat captures elements of both quality and low-volatility, Growth maps partially to momentum, Risk captures the low-volatility anomaly, and Valuation maps to the value factor. By combining them, the Balanced preset diversifies across return drivers rather than concentrating on any single one.

The stocks ranked highest below are the best all-rounders in a universe of 6,400+ companies. They don't have the absolute highest growth, cheapest valuation, or widest moat — but they score well across every dimension simultaneously. In practice, these tend to be the compounders: companies that grow steadily, maintain their competitive advantages, avoid financial trouble, and trade at reasonable prices. They rarely make headlines, but their shareholders tend to do well over 3-5 year horizons with lower drawdowns than the market.

Balanced Approach's Principles: The Balanced approach: (1) No single factor dominates — diversify across return drivers, (2) Quality and Moat are slightly overweighted because they have the strongest long-term evidence, (3) Growth matters but must be backed by fundamentals, (4) Risk and Valuation provide downside protection, (5) Rebalance attention, not weights — use the balanced score to identify opportunities, then investigate individual pillar scores for deeper insight.

Balanced Preset Weights

Quality25%

Moat25%

Growth20%

Risk15%

Valuation15%

Top Balanced Stocks: Who Ranks Highest and Why

#1TSMTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited83

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited tops the balanced ranking at 83, scoring consistently well across all five pillars: quality (79), moat (82), growth (77), risk (95), and valuation (86). A true all-rounder.

#2WSEWise Group plc Class A Ordinary Shares77

Wise Group plc Class A Ordinary Shares scores 77 — no single pillar dominates, but none falls short either. This is the compounding profile: steady quality, defensible position, growing earnings, manageable risk, fair price.

#3SKHYVSK hynix Inc.73

At 73, SK hynix Inc. demonstrates balanced strength with particular standouts in quality (80) and moat (50), the two most heavily weighted pillars.

#4DPM.TODPM Metals Inc.72

DPM Metals Inc. scores 72 — consistently above-average across all pillars, the kind of stock the balanced approach is designed to surface.

#5GLPG.ASLakefront Biotherapeutics71

Lakefront Biotherapeutics scores 71 — consistently above-average across all pillars, the kind of stock the balanced approach is designed to surface.

Full Balanced Ranking: Top 25 Stocks

#	Stock	Sector	Score	Q	M	G	R	V
1	TSMTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited	Technology	83	79	82	77	95	86
2	WSEWise Group plc Class A Ordinary Shares	Industrials	77	70	50	98	100	80
3	SKHYVSK hynix Inc.	Technology	73	80	50	77	93	76
4	DPM.TODPM Metals Inc.	Basic Materials	72	80	27	85	100	87
5	GLPG.ASLakefront Biotherapeutics	Healthcare	71	65	50	61	100	99
6	GOOGLAlphabet Inc.	Communication Services	69	66	84	56	88	48
7	PLGOPelagos Insurance Capital Limit	Financial Services	68	75	50	73	49	100
8	KNT.TOK92 Mining Inc.	Basic Materials	68	76	25	85	100	71
9	TXG.TOTorex Gold Resources Inc.	Basic Materials	67	80	24	81	85	82
10	LUG.TOLundin Gold Inc.	Basic Materials	67	85	26	85	75	73
11	CGG.TOChina Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd.	Basic Materials	66	80	17	76	91	89
12	STRLSterling Infrastructure, Inc.	Industrials	65	76	37	87	82	48
13	LTMLATAM Airlines Group S.A.	Industrials	65	87	28	88	26	100
14	TSU.TOTrisura Group Ltd.	Financial Services	65	54	34	70	100	90
15	EPACEnerpac Tool Group Corp.	Industrials	65	89	37	46	85	72
16	HWMHowmet Aerospace Inc.	Industrials	64	80	46	86	75	30
17	FLSFlowserve Corporation	Industrials	64	65	40	62	92	80
18	TRUTransUnion	Financial Services	64	70	60	65	45	79
19	PLMRPalomar Holdings, Inc.	Financial Services	64	86	34	77	70	54
20	MRXMarex Group Limited	Financial Services	64	79	44	66	37	97
21	APOSApollo Global Management, Inc.	Financial Services	64	64	57	49	59	99
22	ESQEsquire Financial Holdings, Inc.	Financial Services	64	88	32	80	41	79
23	SEICSEI Investments Company	Financial Services	64	85	48	25	100	71
24	ALIZFAllianz SE	Financial Services	64	66	43	66	64	92
25	ITGartner, Inc.	Industrials	64	90	54	33	43	98

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do you build a balanced stock portfolio?

A balanced approach evaluates every stock across multiple dimensions rather than optimizing for just one. The UQS Balanced preset weights Quality (25%), Moat (25%), Growth (20%), Risk (15%), and Valuation (15%). Stocks that score highest are strong across all five — they're profitable, competitively advantaged, growing, financially stable, and reasonably priced. Building a portfolio of these all-rounders diversifies your exposure across investment factors, reducing the risk that a single style going out of favor drags your returns.

What is the best way to screen stocks?

The most effective screening combines multiple financial metrics across different categories rather than filtering on just one or two ratios. A stock with a low P/E but terrible margins may be a value trap. A stock with great growth but crushing debt may not survive a downturn. The UQS system scores 29 metrics across six pillars — quality, moat, growth, risk, valuation, and momentum (Pro) — then weights them into a single score that identifies stocks strong across all dimensions. Start with the overall UQS score for breadth, then drill into individual pillar scores for depth.

How do you evaluate stock quality?

Stock quality is measured by how efficiently and profitably a company converts capital into returns. The UQS Quality pillar evaluates six metrics: ROIC (return on invested capital), ROE (return on equity), operating margin, net profit margin, gross profit to total assets (the Novy-Marx factor), and free cash flow yield. Each metric is scored against sector-calibrated thresholds, so a technology company isn't compared against an industrial company's standards. A high quality score means the business generates superior returns consistently — the hallmark of a well-managed company with structural advantages.