The position of the stock among the 7,000+ stocks in the main database, based on its score
calculated using the default formula. A rank of '1' means that the stock has
the highest score.
This rank is displayed in
dark orange.
The stock's ticker symbol, as traded on an american-based stock exchange.
Clicking on the symbol will display more financial data for the company,
and a link to other sources.
If the symbol is marked by a
*, it means that the quarterly or annual
data for this stock is definitely out of date. Usually, it is because of
customary delays in updating financial databases used by stock-comparator.
Note that even if the stock symbol is not marked by a
*, you must review
the latest news and SEC filings, in case the company filed before the
SEC deadline and the database hasn't been updated yet. In other cases,
the company may have not filed on time (such as NASDAQ-traded stocks whose
symbol is 5 letters long and the last letter is 'D'), or the stock is being phased out.
The symbols for
preferred stocks trading on NYSE or AMEX may be different
on other systems. For example, XXX-A may be defined as XXX.PR.A on other systems.
The price used as a comparison and screening factor is the latest reliable
closing price. Normally, it's the same as the price displayed under 'Close'
in the company details page. In some cases, the price used is from a previous
trading session: when there was no trading in the stock during the last session,
or around the date for a stock split.
The price used also affects the calculation of the 52-week high and low values
for the stock.
A value used to rank the screened companies.
The value is calculated as follows: For each factor in the comparison
formula, mutiply the company's position within the entire database by the
weight assigned to that factor in the comparison formula.
Total revenue for the 12-month period (TTM) ending at the date displayed
for 'ending date' for 'trailing 12 months' on the Company Detail page.
The net income available to shareholders, after payment of preferred
dividends and some other adjustments, for the 12 trailing months (TTM) (see revenue).
| P/E (Price/Earnings ratio) |
This value is calculated as the latest closing price (see 'Price' above) divided by the Earnings
per Share (EPS) for the trailing 12 months (TTM).
If EPS is missing then the value is the market cap divided by profit.
If the company had a profit, then a lower P/E is better than a high P/E,
because it means that the stock is "cheaper".
If the company had a loss, then the P/E will be negative, but now
a higher negative P/E is better then a smaller negative P/E. This relationship
is used by stock-comparator when comparing companies.
This value is calculated as the Market Capitalization divided by revenue for
the trailing 12 months.
Dividend per share (DPS) from the latest annual report, divided by the
latest closing price (see 'Price' above).
Note that this data may refer to a period that is over a year ago,
and you may want to look at the 'Dividend per share' item for the most
recent quarter, dispalyed on the 'Company details' page; However,
many foreign companies do not pay quarterly, and dividends may be
adjusted downward or upward, so the latest reliable data is from the
annual report.
The latest closing price (see 'Price' above) divided by the 52-week highest price,
expressed as a percentage.
This is the ratio between the debt (see below) from the most recent quarterly
report, divided by the shareholders' equity.
This value provides a measure of company leverage.
Note that for financial companies, this value may be set to zero, because the
applicability of this statistic to this kind of companies is unclear.
Also, this statistic may not be as significant for companies with very small equity.
Refer to 'Debt' in the Details page for this stock in order to see the actual amount of debt.
| Inc/empl (income per employee) |
This value is the profit (see above) divided by the number of full-time and
part-time employees from the latest annual report.
This is the ratio between profit and revenue, as a percentage. See above for description of
these two items.
Closed-End Funds have a profit margin of zero, regardless of revenue and profit.
This is the coefficient of correlation between the daily stock closing price
and the Dow Jones Industrial average value
on the same day, over a period of about a year, ending
at the end of last month.
Note that for some companies, e.g new listings, the period used for
claculation is shorter than one year, or the value could not be calculated
yet due to lack of data (in which case, "r" will be displayed as "N/A").
This value is between +1 and -1, where +1 represents perfect correlation
(i.e the stock goes up every day that the DJI went up, and vice versa),
0 means no correlation (i.e the direction of the stock price cannot
be predicted by the direction of the DJI
on the same day), and -1 means totally negative correlation,
i.e it is more likely that the stock will fall each time the DJI goes up, and
vice versa.
For more on this statistic, see the
Overview
This is the coefficient of correlation between the daily stock closing price
and the spot price for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil
on the same day, over a period of about a year, ending
at the end of last month.
This value is between +1 and -1. See r(DJI) above.
r(oil) is useful in determining the influence of oil price changes on stock prices.
It can reveal stocks that behave contrary to common economic ansalysis, for example,
transportation stocks that go up even if oil price goes up.
For more on this statistic, see the
Wikipedia article
and the
Overview
This is the name of the location of the company, as reported to the
SEC. It may differ from the state of incorporation, as many companies
incorporate in Delaware or other convenience locations.
For U.S companies, the state is displayed. For Canadian companies, the
name of the Canadian province is displayed. For other foreign countries,
the name of the country is displayed. Some dependent territories
are considered countries for this purpose (e.g Bermuda, Channel Islands,
Grand Cayman, Hong Kong).
Some foreign companies registered as U.S companies are actually foreign
companies. Conversly, some companies registered as offshore based are
really U.S companies. In both cases, the country displayed is the one
reported to the SEC (i.e the 'convenience' location).
Note that on the stock screeing page, you may screen all U.S or all non-U.S
companies as well.
Stock-comparator uses a unique modified SIC system.
'Specific' is the name of the industry as reported by the company to the SEC.
It uses SIC code (Standard Industry Classification).
In some cases,
the industry codes have been modified by stock-comparator.
'Industry' is the industry group, or sector. This classification is also
based on the SIC code, but has been modified by
stock-comparator to provide
more up to date screening capabilities.
Conglomerate companies which operate in many
different industries, are classified under one of the areas in which they operate.
See also Help for
some hints on mapping industries to SIC values.
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) have an industry and industry group
of their own. Since only price data is available for these
securities, the comparison results ranks them according to their current price
compared to their 52-week high price.
Note that some index-related products are included in this industry.
Closed-End Funds (CEFs) have an industry and industry group of their own.
Preferred stocks (Pfd) have an idustry and industry group of their own.
Note that some structured products and equity-linked notes are included in
this industry.
ETFs, CEFs and Pfd's are also grouped as a "state".
The Ind column heading in the output of the "Industry Best 2" sort
contains a 4-digit modified industry code. When using the 'Alt. Display' option,
you can see both the industry name and industry code.
Displayed as n:m, meaning that n ADR (American Depository Receipts) shares represent m 'original' shares
in the country of issuance.
2:1 means that 2 ADR shares represent 1 original share.
1:500 means that one ADR represents 500 original shares.
Note that for calculating the ratios used by the web site, the ADR share is
used rather then the original share.
The Market Capitalization is computed by multiplying the total number of
outsanding common shares from the latest quarterly report, by the latest
closing price (see 'price' above).
The average daily number of shares traded, for a one year period ending
at the start of the current month.
The stock market where the stock or ADR is listed in the U.S.
This is the net income per common share, from the latest quarterly report,
not including extraordinary items, discontinued operations and accounting
changes.
Total debt from the latest quaterly balance sheet.
This includes some or all of the following items:
- Long-term Debt [LTDT].
- Notes/short-term debt payable [LPCT].
- Current portion of long-term debt [CLTD].
- Long-term portion of capital lease obligations [LCL].
- Current portion of capital lease obligations [CCL].
The last two items typically appear in balance sheets of companies
that have no other debt, but may be present for other companies as well.