Every investor wants to find stocks that are going to go up. The hard reality is that stock prices go up, down, and sideways. Stocks that go up always come down. Stocks that go down sometimes go back up. Analysts spend all their time trying to analyze stock data and forecasts to try to find stocks that are going to perform well.
Most analysts use pretty much of the same data that can be found on the internet to study companies.
These include but are not limited to things like PE ratio, past earnings, projected earnings, price in relation to the 52-week high and low, etc. And most analysts only follow a few specific companies. Some investigate these stocks by doing their own analysis and then decide to buy. Some of the smaller, soundly run, and growing companies are not mentioned. The investor can be conservative or risky in establishing their parameters.