What Is In A Stock Report?

A Stock Report

Many people can read a newspaper or look online and simply obtain the amount a current stock is trading at per share.  It is usually in plain sight and easily understandable to even the most novice investor.  The information contained in the stock price is helpful if you are just sitting on an investment, but there is much more to be known about a stock.  A stock report is a standardized list of relevant stock data that tells a lot more about a stock than its current close price for the day.  Investors use all of this data in an effort to better educate themselves on what a stock is doing, going, where it has been, and a lot more.  Now there exist many online stockbrokers that take this information a step further offering the financial information of publicly traded companies, news, and much more that pertains to a given stock.  Combined with the stock report information it is a lot of stock data to digest.  However all this information combined gives the real picture of what a stock is doing, and learning all you can about a stock report can be the path to smarter investment.

Understanding The Numbers: Stock Report Information

Included in a stock report is a lot of data.  Most of this data is in the form of numbers, both positive and negative, and percentages.  Also included are many industry terms and acronyms that explain the real data contained in a stock report.  Below are the standard stock report details and what each ones means to the investor and company reported:

YTD % CHG: this means year-to-date percentage change for a given stock.  Meaning how much did this stock gain or lose in value in a calendar year from the date of the report.

52 Week HI LO: this represents the highest price the stock has been trading in the last 52 weeks, or year, and the lowest it has traded at.

DIV: this means dividend, the amount paid out to shareholders at the last scheduled payout based on company performance.

Yield %: this represents the percentage of the dividends given out to stockholders over the stock price.

PE: A very important and frequently overlooked part of the stock report is the Price to Earnings ration.  This is the actual per share earnings of a given stock divided by the stock price.

VOL: this represents the sales volume.  The last two zero digits are omitted due to volume.  This amount represents how many shares of the stock were sold in the previous trading day.

Close:  this is the final sale price of a given stock for a given trading day when the bell rings.

Net Change: this is just the difference in value change of a stock from the previous day’s close.

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4. What Is A Blue Chip Stock?
5. What Is A High Stock?