Best All-Around Stocks by Balanced UQS Score

Last updated: August 23, 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

#1ATATAtour Lifestyle Holdings Limited77

Atour Lifestyle Holdings Limited tops the balanced ranking at 77, scoring consistently well across all five pillars: quality (92), moat (29), growth (96), risk (91), and valuation (94). 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.

#3HRMYHarmony Biosciences Holdings, Inc.76

At 76, Harmony Biosciences Holdings, Inc. demonstrates balanced strength with particular standouts in quality (78) and moat (43), the two most heavily weighted pillars.

#4PDDPDD Holdings Inc.75

PDD Holdings Inc. scores 75 — consistently above-average across all pillars, the kind of stock the balanced approach is designed to surface.

#5ARGXargenx SE74

argenx SE scores 74 — 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	ATATAtour Lifestyle Holdings Limited	Consumer Cyclical	77	92	29	96	91	94
2	WSEWise Group plc Class A Ordinary Shares	Industrials	77	70	50	98	100	80
3	HRMYHarmony Biosciences Holdings, Inc.	Healthcare	76	78	43	79	98	98
4	PDDPDD Holdings Inc.	Consumer Cyclical	75	91	50	64	78	100
5	ARGXargenx SE	Healthcare	74	80	55	100	100	38
6	APPAppLovin Corporation	Technology	74	89	53	91	74	58
7	SKHYVSK hynix Inc.	Technology	73	80	50	77	93	76
8	KGCKinross Gold Corporation	Basic Materials	73	84	20	85	99	100
9	NEMNewmont Corporation	Basic Materials	73	77	32	84	96	95
10	DPM.TODPM Metals Inc.	Basic Materials	72	80	27	85	100	87
11	INCYIncyte Corporation	Healthcare	72	100	44	48	100	74
12	MKTXMarketAxess Holdings Inc.	Financial Services	71	88	65	36	100	74
13	GLPG.ASLakefront Biotherapeutics	Healthcare	71	65	50	61	100	99
14	RDDTReddit, Inc.	Communication Services	70	77	47	97	82	49
15	ALNYAlnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc.	Healthcare	70	78	53	100	76	40
16	NUTXNutex Health, Inc.	Healthcare	70	93	32	69	76	100
17	VCXFundrise Innovation Fund, LLC	Financial Services	70	75	24	100	100	96
18	LUXELuxExperience B.V.	Consumer Cyclical	70	70	29	94	94	100
19	XZOExzeo Group, Inc.	Financial Services	70	98	37	94	68	86
20	MLIMueller Industries, Inc.	Industrials	70	86	34	77	82	80
21	DRDDRDGOLD Limited	Basic Materials	70	71	24	82	100	98
22	VRTXVertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated	Healthcare	70	84	55	64	100	49
23	PIPRPiper Sandler Companies	Financial Services	70	77	27	80	100	83
24	MAMastercard Incorporated	Financial Services	69	85	83	72	35	51
25	VRTVertiv Holdings Co	Industrials	69	87	42	100	71	42

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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.