5 Best Stock Research Tools for Investors in 2025

In-depth research is the cornerstone of successful investing. It provides the insights needed to make informed decisions beyond price movements. Platforms that provide robust tools for data analysis are valuable for retail investors and institutional professionals.

Here are the 5 best stock research tools to consider for your particular needs. 

5 Best Stock Research Tools

We evaluated the best stock research tools based on their depth of financial metrics, including valuation and fundamental data, and their capacity for technical analysis. We also considered the quality of news feeds, the power and flexibility of their screens, and the utility of portfolio analysis features. 

Benzinga Pro — Real-Time News

Benzinga Pro is a news-focused platform that gives active traders an edge through rapid news delivery and real-time market intelligence. Its proprietary news feed, Audio Squawk and Why Is It Moving feature provide immediate context to market movements.  

Key Features: 

• Fees: Benzinga Pro offers three plans. The $37 per month basic package provides access to the site’s full news feed, movers, watchlist alerts, and premium articles. The $147 per month Streamlined plan offers an advanced newsfeed and Audio Squawk. The $ 197-per-month Essential plan adds a real-time scanner, calendar and signals.

• Analyst Ratings: Benzinga Pro aggregates analyst ratings, upgrades, downgrades and price targets from a range of firms. It also provides insights into analyst success scores, allowing users to track which analysts have a strong track record. 

• Financial Metrics: Benzinga Pro provides essential financial metrics and valuation ratios such as price-to-earnings (P/E), price-to-sales (P/S), market cap and earnings per share (EPS) on its Key Data tab in the screener. It focuses on the most relevant data points for quick analysis rather than comprehensive historical financial statements. 

• News Feeds: Benzinga Pro offers real-time customizable news feeds from its dedicated news desk, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, press releases and partner sources. Features like Audio Squawk provide real-time audio alerts for breaking news while the Why Is It Moving feature offers instant explanations for why a stock is going up or down. Customizable filters allow users to tailor news to specific sectors, market caps or keywords. 

• Screeners: Benzinga Pro’s screener allows users to filter stocks based on a variety of criteria, including price, volume, market cap, dividend yield, various valuation ratios, profitability margins and technical indicators. 

• Portfolio Analysis Tools: Benzinga Pro offers watchlist creation and alerts, allowing users to monitor their holdings or potential investments for news, price movements and earnings events. It provides essential portfolio tracking, but it doesn’t offer the deep performance attribution or risk modeling found in institutional-grade portfolio analysis tools.

• Usability: The platform presents a lot of real-time data, and its design helps manage information flow. The customization options for the news feed and alerts enhance usability for retail and active traders. 

• Drawbacks: Benzinga Pro’s long-term fundamental research and historical financial modeling is not as comprehensive as dedicated research platforms. There is no direct brokerage integration for trading. The cost can be significant for some retail traders.

Who It’s Best For: Active traders, day traders, swing traders and short-term investors who rely on real-time news, breaking alerts and actionable market intelligence to make rapid trading decisions. 

TradingView — Best for Technical Analysis

TradingView, known for its charting and technical analysis tools, intuitive interface and global community, has expanded its offerings to include fundamental data, news feeds and powerful screeners. This makes it a versatile platform suitable for a range of users, from retail investors seeking clear visualizations to advanced traders and analysts who leverage its customizability and comprehensive data. 

Key Features: 

• Fees: TradingView’s plans range from $13.99 per month, which includes two charts per tab and five indicators per chart, to $199.95 per month for 16 charts per tab with 50 indicators per chart. 

• Analyst Ratings: TradingView Aggregates analyst ratings and price forecasts sourced from providers like FactSet. This allows users to gauge consensus sentiment and potential price targets from professional analysts. It also integrates news related to analyst upgrades and downgrades. 

• Financial Metrics: TradingView offers fundamental financial metrics, including data from income statements, balance sheets and cash flow statements. Users can access key ratios, growth rates and historical financials. While not as granular as dedicated institutional terminals, it provides plenty of depth for thorough fundamental research for most retail and advanced retail users. Community-built indicators can extend this with custom fundamental calculations. 

• News Feeds: The platform integrates real-time news from a variety of sources, including major financial news outlets like Reuters and Dow Jones Newswires, as well as proprietary TradingView content. Users can customize news feeds, set alerts for keywords or symbols and view news directly on charts.

• Screeners: TradingView offers customizable screeners for stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), bonds and cryptocurrencies. Users can filter using hundreds of criteria, including fundamental, technical, RSI, volume and customer Pine Script indicators. 

• Portfolio Analysis Tools: TradingView doesn’t offer full portfolio management, but it excels in portfolio analysis through watchlists, performance comparison charts and alerts. Users can track their holdings, compare their performance against benchmarks and use community-created Pine Script indicators for portfolio risk assessment. 

• Usability: TradingView’s user-friendly interface, intuitive trading tools and drag-and-drop functionality make it accessible for beginners. For advanced users, features like Pine Script for custom indicators and strategies, multi-timeframe analysis and sophisticated charting options provide flexibility.

• Drawbacks: Some advanced features, real-time data and full extent of its charting capabilities require a paid subscription. There is no direct trading execution through TradingView, although it integrates with many brokers. 

Who It’s Best For: Active traders and investors who value intuitive charting, comprehensive technical analysis, strong fundamental data access and an engaged community for idea sharing. It suits retail users who want a premium experience and professionals who appreciate its flexibility and indicator library.. 

Morningstar Investor — Best for Independent Research

Morningstar is known for its independent analysis of stocks, mutual funds and ETFs. Its premium platform, Morningstar Investor, offers data, proprietary ratings and analyst reports as it aims to help retail investors make informed long-term decisions without the bias that can come from being part of Wall Street.  

Key Features: 

• Fees: Morningstar Investor offers a free seven-day trial. The platform costs $249 per year or $20.75 per month for those who sign up.

• Analyst Ratings: Provides proprietary Morningstar Analyst Ratings for stocks and funds, as well as in-depth analyst reports and qualitative assessments of a company’s competitive advantages.   

• Financial Metrics: Offers comprehensive financial statements, key ratios and historical data.  

• News Feeds: Integrates market news, company-specific updates and insightful commentary from Morningstar’s team of analysts.

• Screeners: Powerful screeners with fundamental data, valuations and Morningstar’s proprietary ratings allow users to filter for investment opportunities that meet specific criteria. 

• Portfolio Analysis Tools: Features like Portfolio X-Ray provide multidimensional analysis of a user’s portfolio, identifying concentrations, overlaps and risk factors across asset allocation, sectors and investment styles.

• Usability: A user-friendly interface simplifies complex financial concepts, making it accessible for beginner and experienced retail investors.

• Drawbacks: The depth of real-time market data and technical analysis tools isn’t comparable to trading-focused platforms. Morningstar’s focus is on long-term fundamental investing rather than active trading. 

Who It’s Best For: Long-term investors, value investors, retirement savers and people who want independent, fundamental research and analysis on stocks, mutual funds and ETFs. 

Zacks Investment Research — Best for Earnings Estimates

Zacks Investment Research specializes in leveraging earnings estimate revisions and surprises to predict stock movements. Its platforms offer a blend of quantitative research, proprietary stock ranks and analyst insights to help investors identify market-beating stocks. It caters to retail investors seeking data-driven investment ideas. 

Key Features:

• Fees: Zacks offers free trials for its platforms. Investors can choose from several subscription plans: Zacks Premium for $249 per year, Zacks Investor Collection for $59 per month or $495 per year, and Zacks Ultimate for $299 per month or $2,995 per year.

• Analyst Ratings: It offers the proprietary Zacks Rank stock rating system, consensus analyst recommendations and detailed analyst reports for thousands of companies.  

• Financial Metrics: Provides access to financial statements, key ratios and historical data with an emphasis on earnings-related metrics and forecasts.  

• News Feeds: Offers market news, company-specific updates and research articles from Zacks’ team of analysts and contributors. 

• Screeners: Powerful screeners allow users to filter stocks based on the Zacks Rank, earnings estimate revisions, fundamental criteria and various quantitative models. It also offers prebuilt screens.

• Portfolio Analysis Tools: Basic portfolio tracking and analysis tools, including alerts based on Zacks Rank changes.

• Usability: The user-friendly platform provides clear explanations of its proprietary ranks and research methodologies.

• Drawbacks: Its fundamental modeling tools may not be as deep as other platforms. Its focus is on earnings and quantitative ranking. 

Who It’s Best For: Growth investors, momentum traders and retail investors who prioritize data-driven stock recommendations, earnings estimate analysis and quantitative screening to generate investment ideas. 

Bloomberg Terminal — Best for Equity Research

The Bloomberg Terminal offers deep real-time market data, news, analytics and research tools. It provides institutional-level functionality for equity research, encompassing everything from fundamental analysis to advanced quantitative modeling, proprietary news and direct communication channels.

Key Features: 

• Fees: The Bloomberg Terminal is geared toward institutional investors, and its price reflects it. The annual cost is $31,980, which drops to $28,320 if you have multiple units.

• Analyst Ratings: Offers consensus analyst ratings, individual analyst estimates, target prices and detailed research reports from a network of sell-side and independent research firms. 

• Financial Metrics: Provides historical and real-time financial statements and granular data points for more than 200,000 public and private companies globally.

• News Feeds: Features real-time, proprietary Bloomberg News, Reuters, Dow Jones and other news sources with advanced filtering and alerting capabilities for market-moving events and company-specific headlines.  

• Screeners: Powerful and customizable equity screeners with thousands of criteria allow users to build complex queries based on fundamental, technical, valuation and proprietary Bloomberg data points.

• Portfolio Analysis Tools: Comprehensive tools for portfolio construction, risk analysis, performance attribution, scenario testing and compliance monitoring.

• Usability: Bloomberg Terminal has a steep learning curve because of its vast functionality. 

• Drawbacks: Its high cost makes it inaccessible to most retail investors.

Who It’s Best For: Financial institutions, investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers and professional analysts who require comprehensive, real-time and integrated financial data and research.

Well-informed investment decisions require in-depth research. 

Benzinga Pro offers real-time market intelligence, news and actionable insights for active traders. TradingView’s technical analysis and visual data appeal to both retail and advanced users for comprehensive charting. Morningstar Investor provides independent, fundamental research and portfolio analysis for long-term investors, while Zacks Investment Research offers data-driven stock recommendations focused on earnings estimates. The Bloomberg Terminal is the institutional gold standard for data and analytics.

The ideal platform should align with your investment strategy and analytical preferences

Frequently Asked Questions