Best All-Around Stocks by Balanced UQS Score

Last updated: April 8, 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

#1NVDANVIDIA Corporation83

NVIDIA Corporation tops the balanced ranking at 83, scoring consistently well across all five pillars: quality (87), moat (80), growth (100), risk (93), and valuation (49). A true all-rounder.

#2BZKanzhun Limited79

Kanzhun Limited scores 79 — no single pillar dominates, but none falls short either. This is the compounding profile: steady quality, defensible position, growing earnings, manageable risk, fair price.

#3OGC.TOOceanaGold Corporation78

At 78, OceanaGold Corporation demonstrates balanced strength with particular standouts in quality (95) and moat (28), the two most heavily weighted pillars.

#4ABX.TOBarrick Gold Corporation75

Barrick Gold Corporation 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	NVDANVIDIA Corporation	Technology	83	87	80	100	93	49
2	BZKanzhun Limited	Industrials	79	87	47	89	82	100
3	OGC.TOOceanaGold Corporation	Basic Materials	78	95	28	100	85	95
4	ABX.TOBarrick Gold Corporation	Basic Materials	75	82	32	97	99	81
5	ARGXargenx SE	Healthcare	74	70	55	100	100	52
6	ADMAADMA Biologics, Inc.	Healthcare	74	86	46	77	100	69
7	AEMAgnico Eagle Mines Limited	Basic Materials	73	80	29	100	91	80
8	APPAppLovin Corporation	Technology	71	88	53	77	71	68
9	CGG.TOChina Gold International Resources Corp. Ltd.	Basic Materials	70	91	17	89	85	84
10	EXELExelixis, Inc.	Healthcare	70	98	41	48	82	86
11	ABNBAirbnb, Inc.	Consumer Cyclical	69	87	59	56	67	76
12	FIXComfort Systems USA, Inc.	Industrials	69	76	41	100	83	49
13	EROEro Copper Corp.	Basic Materials	68	78	25	100	64	86
14	APOApollo Global Management, Inc.	Financial Services	68	86	50	49	62	100
15	FHIFederated Hermes, Inc.	Financial Services	68	86	34	46	98	93
16	AFYAAfya Limited	Consumer Defensive	68	80	53	59	53	100
17	FSSFederal Signal Corporation	Industrials	68	72	37	89	84	68
18	NUNu Holdings Ltd.	Financial Services	68	74	43	100	34	87
19	VRTVertiv Holdings Co	Industrials	67	79	42	100	67	47
20	ADPAutomatic Data Processing, Inc.	Industrials	67	85	56	58	59	76
21	ASM.TOAvino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd.	Basic Materials	67	62	16	100	100	85
22	NVONovo Nordisk A/S	Healthcare	67	95	61	21	61	100
23	FASTFastenal Company	Industrials	67	84	51	69	92	37
24	ORLAOrla Mining Ltd.	Basic Materials	67	69	16	96	75	100
25	ACTEnact Holdings, Inc.	Financial Services	66	91	42	18	100	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 quality, moat, growth, risk, and valuation — 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.