GARP Screener Excel: Growth at Reasonable Price Dashboard for May 2026

GARP screener excel - if that is what brought you here, you are looking for a way to find growth stocks that have not run too far ahead of their fundamentals. After the post-Q1 earnings rally and a Fed that has chosen to wait rather than cut, the cheap-growth opportunity set has narrowed and become harder to spot by eye. A spreadsheet that combines five-year EPS growth, PEG, forward P/E, and ROIC in a single composite score does the work that a watchlist alone cannot.

This post ships a professional-grade GARP dashboard template you can download free, walk through the methodology, and adapt to your own thresholds. Both files are designed to be presentation-ready - the kind of workbook a discretionary portfolio manager could open in front of a client without apologising for the formatting.

What is GARP and why it matters in May 2026

GARP - growth at reasonable price - was popularised by Peter Lynch in One Up On Wall Street and has become the default toolkit for quality-growth managers. The discipline sits between two more familiar styles. Deep value will buy any business if the multiple is low enough; pure growth will pay any multiple for the next NVDA. GARP rejects both. It says: pay a fair multiple for a quality compounder, but never overpay even for the best business.

In May 2026 the S&P 500 has digested Q1 earnings, the Magnificent 7 have continued to expand operating margins, and a softening labor market has nudged the Fed back into wait-and-see mode. The result is a dispersion problem. Index-level multiples look elevated, but underneath the surface there is a long tail of high-ROIC compounders trading at PEG ratios near 1.0 - the Lynch baseline. A screener is the only practical way to find them.

Key data table - what passes the screen today

Illustrative. Data as of 2026-05-04. Values in the live workbook update on open via MarketXLS.

Notice the pattern: semiconductors and platform tech still dominate the GARP-friendly list because their ROIC has scaled with revenue rather than diluting. NVDA looks cheap on PEG only because consensus expects EPS to keep compounding well above 30%. The screener is an idea generator, not a buy list - the next step on every name is to ask whether the growth assumption is durable.

The four pillars of a GARP score

A useful GARP screen does more than rank by PEG. PEG alone has well-known weaknesses: it punishes negative-earnings turnarounds, gets noisy on cyclicals, and over-rewards stocks where consensus is too rosy. The dashboard built into this template uses a four-pillar composite instead.

Pillar 1 - Growth quality (35% weight)

Five-year EPS CAGR is the cleanest growth indicator because it smooths over single-year noise and integrates buybacks. The MarketXLS function:

=EpsFiveYearCAGR("AAPL")

A floor of 8% is a reasonable starting point. Below 8% you are not really getting the growth you came for; above 25% you should question whether the rate is sustainable. The dashboard normalises growth onto a 0-100 scale: each percentage point of growth contributes about 3.5 points up to the cap.

For top-line confirmation, the screener also pulls revenue growth. Earnings can be massaged through buybacks, tax changes, or accounting; revenue is harder to fake.

=RevenueGrowthFiveYearCAGR("AAPL")

Pillar 2 - Valuation discipline (25% weight)

PEG ratio is the headline GARP metric. The Lynch heuristic: PEG of 1.0 is fair, below 1.0 is a bargain, above 2.0 is expensive growth.

=PEGRatio("AAPL")

The dashboard converts PEG to a 0-100 score using 100 - (PEG x 30). A PEG of 1.0 maps to 70, a PEG of 2.0 maps to 40, and a PEG of 3.0 to 10. Negative or zero PEG (loss-making companies) is excluded.

Forward P/E adds a forward-looking valuation lens to balance the trailing PEG:

=forwardPE("AAPL")

When trailing PEG looks attractive but forward P/E is rising, you are looking at a stock where growth expectations have been cut - a yellow flag worth investigating before clicking buy.

Pillar 3 - Capital efficiency (25% weight)

Return on invested capital separates the genuine compounders from the businesses that grow only because they raise more capital. ROIC is the single most predictive metric for long-term GARP success.

=ReturnOnInvestedCapitalOneYear("AAPL")

The dashboard uses a floor of 10% (Base scenario) or 12% (Conservative). Software platforms and semiconductor leaders typically run 25-50% ROIC. Industrial cyclicals and capital-intensive businesses sit lower.

ROE is included as a secondary check:

=ReturnOnEquity("AAPL")

ROE is more sensitive to leverage than ROIC, so a high ROE paired with low ROIC is a warning sign. The screen flags both side-by-side so you can see the spread.

Pillar 4 - Balance-sheet safety (15% weight)

Total debt to equity catches names where leverage is propping up the return metrics:

=TotalDebtToEquity("AAPL")

The default cap is 1.5x. Anything above 2.0x deserves a closer look at refinancing risk and interest coverage, especially in a higher-for-longer rate environment.

The composite GARP score combines all four pillars in a single 0-100 number that is easy to scan and rank. The full formula in the workbook is:

GARP Score = 0.35 × Growth Score
           + 0.25 × Value Score
           + 0.25 × Quality Score
           + 0.15 × Safety Score

Where each sub-score is a normalised 0-100 transform of the underlying metric.

What is inside the template

This is a premium-grade workbook designed to look and feel like a paid product on first open. Eleven sheets, all linked to a single Inputs sheet, with KPI tiles, embedded charts, and conditional formatting throughout.

• Cover page: Branded title, version, table of contents. Hidden gridlines and navy/yellow palette set the tone.
• How To Use: Tutorial that walks through every input cell and every output sheet. No mystery cells.
• Inputs / Controls: Yellow-highlighted input cells with data-validation dropdowns. Set portfolio size, max position, PEG cap, growth and ROE floors, and pick a scenario preset (Conservative / Base / Aggressive).
• Dashboard: KPI tile row at the top (universe size, GARP candidates, average PEG, average ROIC, average 5Y EPS growth, median P/E), two embedded charts (top-12 GARP score bar chart and a growth-vs-valuation scatter), and a full screener table with three-color heatmap on PEG, EPS growth, ROE and ROIC plus data bars on GARP score.
• Scenario Analysis: Seven pre-built scenarios from Strict Conservative through Looser. Each row shows how many names pass and what the average PEG, ROIC, and composite score look like under that threshold mix.
• Strategy: Watchlist / Entry / Strong Entry / Hold / Trim / Exit playbook with PEG and growth thresholds. Plus a per-name action table for the top 8 candidates.
• Portfolio Allocation: Position-sizing calculator that pulls from the Inputs sheet. Side-by-side comparison of equal-weight, score-weighted, and risk-weighted allocations across the top 10 names. Includes a pie chart of the score-weighted split and suggested share counts.
• Sector Comparison: GARP candidates aggregated by GICS sector with a heatmap on average PEG, growth, and ROIC. Helps you spot crowded sectors and contrarian opportunities.
• Methodology: One-page explainer of how the composite score works, the hard pass gates, data sources, and limitations.
• Glossary: Plain-language definitions of GARP, PEG, forward P/E, ROIC, beta, score-weighted allocation, and other terms.
• Disclaimer: Educational-use disclaimer in plain English.

Every sheet has frozen panes, tab colours set per sheet, and a footer line linking back to MarketXLS. The Cover and Dashboard sheets have gridlines hidden so the design reads as a layout, not a worksheet.

How to use the template - step by step

The whole workbook is driven by the Inputs sheet. Once you set your thresholds there, every other sheet recomputes on the fly.

Step 1 - Open the Inputs sheet. The yellow cells are your only inputs. Defaults match the Base scenario:

• Portfolio Size: $100,000
• Max Position: 5%
• Min Market Cap: $10B
• Max PEG: 1.5
• Max P/E: 30
• Max Forward P/E: 25
• Min 5Y EPS Growth: 8%
• Min Revenue 5Y CAGR: 5%
• Min ROE: 15%
• Min ROIC: 10%
• Max Debt/Equity: 1.5

Step 2 - Go to the Dashboard. The KPI tile row at the top tells you how many names pass under your current settings, what the average PEG and ROIC look like, and where the median P/E sits. The screener at the bottom is colour-coded: green cells mean better-than-average on that metric, red means worse. Names that pass every gate are flagged with a green "1" in the Pass column.

Step 3 - Stress-test on Scenario Analysis. Move through the seven scenarios from Strict Conservative to Looser to see how the candidate pool grows or shrinks. If your Base scenario only passes 3 names, you are in a regime where reasonably-priced growth is scarce - either widen the gates or wait. If 30 names pass, the gates are too loose to be discriminating.

Step 4 - Size positions on Portfolio Allocation. The sheet pulls your portfolio size and max position cap and proposes three weighting schemes for the top 10. Equal weight is the simplest. Score-weighted concentrates capital in the highest-scoring names. Risk-weighted uses inverse beta to dampen volatility. Pick the column that matches your style.

Step 5 - Cross-check on Sector Comparison. Even within a passing list, sector concentration can be a problem. The sector heatmap surfaces whether your candidates are bunched in one or two sectors. If 8 of 12 candidates are in Information Technology, that is a tilt you should make consciously, not by accident.

Why this works in the current market

GARP screening tends to outperform pure growth in three regimes: when interest rates are stable but elevated, when earnings dispersion across stocks is wide, and when index-level multiples have already expanded. May 2026 ticks all three boxes.

Stable-but-elevated rates compress the discount-rate sensitivity that pure-growth names enjoy when the Fed is cutting. With the Fed in pause mode, the duration tailwind that lifted unprofitable growth in 2020-2021 has gone, and quality of earnings becomes the differentiator.

Wide earnings dispersion - some sectors growing 20%+ while others contract - rewards selectivity over index exposure. Tech and healthcare are still expanding earnings power; consumer discretionary and traditional industrials are mixed. A composite score that rewards growth and penalises overvaluation captures this dispersion better than a single ratio.

Already-expanded index multiples mean that buying the index is buying valuation risk. Within the index, however, a quality-growth tilt picks up names where the price you pay matches the growth you receive. That is the entire premise of GARP.

MarketXLS implementation - the formulas behind the dashboard

The full template uses these MarketXLS functions. Every one is verified live in the workbook:

=Name(ticker)                         → Company name
=Sector(ticker)                       → GICS sector
=Industry(ticker)                     → GICS industry
=QM_Last(ticker)                      → Live last price
=PERatio(ticker)                      → P/E ratio (TTM)
=forwardPE(ticker)                    → Forward P/E (next-year)
=PEGRatio(ticker)                     → PEG ratio (TTM)
=EpsFiveYearCAGR(ticker)              → 5Y EPS CAGR
=RevenueGrowthFiveYearCAGR(ticker)    → 5Y revenue CAGR
=SalesOneYearGrowth(ticker)           → 1Y sales growth
=ReturnOnEquity(ticker)               → ROE (TTM)
=ReturnOnInvestedCapitalOneYear(t)    → ROIC (TTM)
=OperatingMargin(ticker)              → Operating margin %
=ProfitMargin(ticker)                 → Net margin %
=GrossMargin(ticker)                  → Gross margin %
=TotalDebtToEquity(ticker)            → D/E
=Beta(ticker)                         → Beta vs market
=DividendYield(ticker)                → Annual dividend yield %
=MarketCapitalization(ticker)         → Market cap (USD)
=EPSEstimateNextY(ticker)             → Next-year EPS estimate
=Price_EPSEstimateNextYear(ticker)    → Forward P/E (next year)
=FreeCashFlowPerShare(ticker)         → FCF per share

Drop a ticker in column A and these functions populate the rest of the row automatically. The composite score and pass flag are vanilla Excel formulas that reference the MarketXLS-driven cells. No macros, no plugins beyond MarketXLS itself, no manual data entry.

For a deeper walk-through of the underlying functions, see the MarketXLS function reference and the related templates: Forward Earnings Yield Dashboard, Earnings Quality Screener, and the Defensive Sector Rotation Model.

Strategy framework - turning the screen into a decision

A screen on its own is a list of names, not a portfolio. The Strategy sheet in the template applies the same thresholds to a six-stage decision framework:

1. Watchlist - PEG between 1.5 and 1.8, growth approaching 7%. The name is close but not over the line. Add it to a watchlist and re-check next quarter.
2. Entry - Passes all GARP gates: PEG ≤ 1.5, growth ≥ 8%, ROE ≥ 15%. Initiate a position at the score-weighted size proposed by the Portfolio Allocation sheet.
3. Strong Entry - Outlier on the composite score, PEG ≤ 1.0 with growth ≥ 12%. Initiate at full position size up to the Inputs cap.
4. Hold - Already-owned position that still passes the screen. Hold and review quarterly.
5. Trim - PEG drifting up to 1.8-2.5, growth slowing to 5-7%. Trim 30-50% and reallocate to better-scoring names.
6. Exit - PEG > 2.5 or 5Y EPS growth < 5% or ROE < 10%. Close the position. The original GARP thesis no longer holds.

These thresholds are illustrative starting points. A long-term holder might tolerate higher PEG drift before trimming; a tactical investor might exit faster. The point of the template is that you make those choices once on the Inputs sheet and the rest of the workbook flows from them.

Common pitfalls and how the template handles them

GARP screening has well-known failure modes. The template addresses each.

Pitfall 1 - Cyclicals at the top of their cycle. A commodity or industrial cyclical at peak earnings will show low PEG and high ROE just before earnings collapse. The template includes a 5Y revenue CAGR floor as a sanity check - if the company has not grown the top line over a full cycle, the trailing earnings number is suspect. The Sector Comparison sheet also surfaces sector concentration so you can see when energy or materials cyclicals are clustering at the top of the rank.

Pitfall 2 - High ROE driven by leverage. A company can manufacture high ROE by buying back stock with debt. The template flags this two ways: ROIC is included alongside ROE (ROIC strips out the leverage effect), and Debt/Equity is a hard cap in the pass gate. A name with 50% ROE but 4.0x D/E will not pass.

Pitfall 3 - PEG hostile to one-off events. A divestiture, an acquisition, or an accounting change can distort trailing PEG. The template uses 5Y EPS CAGR rather than 1Y growth as the denominator input concept, smoothing single-year noise. Forward P/E is also reported alongside trailing PEG as a sanity check on consensus expectations.

Pitfall 4 - Survivorship bias in the universe. The template ships with a 60-name slice of large-cap US equities. To run on the full S&P 500, replace column A with the full constituent list (available via the MarketXLS index lookup tools and other MarketXLS data functions). The composite score and pass logic propagate automatically.

FAQ - questions GARP investors ask

Q: What is the difference between GARP and value investing?

Value investing buys cheap stocks regardless of growth - the goal is mean reversion in valuation. GARP requires both reasonable price and a reasonable growth profile - the goal is to ride a quality compounder for years. Value can hold money-losing turnarounds; GARP excludes them. A pure value screen would buy XOM at 5x P/E even with flat growth; a GARP screen looks for 8%+ growth before considering the multiple.

Q: Is PEG below 1 always a buy signal?

No. PEG below 1 means the multiple is low relative to the growth, but it does not tell you whether the growth itself is durable. Cyclicals at peak earnings frequently show PEG below 1 just before a downturn. The composite score in this template adds ROIC and revenue-growth checks specifically to filter out names that look cheap on PEG but are running out of runway.

Q: How often should I re-run the screen?

Quarterly is enough for most investors. Earnings season delivers the biggest changes to PEG and forward P/E - if you re-run the screen after each earnings cycle, you capture all the meaningful repricing. Re-running daily creates noise without adding signal.

Q: Can I customise the composite score weights?

Yes. The score formula lives in the Dashboard sheet's GARP Score column. The default weights are 35% growth / 25% value / 25% quality / 15% safety. To weight quality more heavily for long-term compounders, raise the Quality weight to 0.35 and lower the Value weight to 0.15. The weights are vanilla cell references - change them in one place and the rank order updates automatically.

Q: Why exclude companies with negative earnings?

PEG is mathematically undefined when earnings are negative or zero. The template excludes negative-earnings names from the pass gate. This biases the screen against turnarounds and early-stage growth - a known limitation. If you want to track turnaround candidates, build a parallel screen using forward P/E only and the Strategy sheet's Watchlist stage.

Q: How does this handle non-US revenue exposure?

The template uses USD-denominated earnings and growth metrics. A multinational with significant non-US revenue (think NESN, ASML, TSM) will show growth that depends partly on FX moves. For names with > 50% non-USD revenue, cross-check the constant-currency growth rate before relying on the PEG number. The Sector Comparison sheet flags multinational concentration via the GICS sector tags.

Download the templates

Download the templates:

• - Pre-filled with current data, every cell carries a comment showing the MarketXLS formula behind the value. Open without a license.
• - Live MarketXLS formulas across all 60 tickers. Refreshes on open. Requires the MarketXLS add-in.

Both files include the full 11-sheet structure: Cover, How To Use, Inputs, Dashboard, Scenario Analysis, Strategy, Portfolio Allocation, Sector Comparison, Methodology, Glossary, and Disclaimer. Both are designed to be presentation-ready - the kind of dashboard you can put in front of a colleague or client without explaining the formatting.

The bottom line

GARP screening was Peter Lynch's contribution to the discipline of investing without overpaying. In May 2026 - with the Fed in pause mode, earnings dispersion wide, and index multiples already extended - the discipline is more useful than at any time in the past five years. A composite score that combines five-year EPS growth, PEG, forward P/E, ROIC, and balance-sheet leverage in a single rank does the work that a watchlist alone cannot.

The premium template above gives you the full apparatus: yellow input cells, scenario presets, a colour-coded dashboard, a sector heatmap, and a position-sizing calculator. Set your thresholds once, then let MarketXLS do the data refresh. The names that pass are starting points for your own diligence, not buy recommendations - but they are starting points based on the same metrics quality-growth managers have used for forty years.

For more on the underlying functions and how to extend the screener to the full S&P 500, visit marketxls.com or book a live demo. The MarketXLS team can walk through the template, the formula library, and the integration with your existing Excel workflow.