If you are like me, you are always looking for good resources to help you in your stock market research. I have a few trusted resources that are my trusted go to sites and today I wanted to share those with you in hopes that they may make your research process a little easier!
Yahoo! Finance – One of my favorite sights is Yahoo! Finance. In Yahoo, investors can research individual stocks by entering in the ticker of the company they are interested in. One of the features I use often is the historical prices and dividends. I like to pull in all historical dividend data to see the growth trend of a companies dividend rate. Yahoo also has all the usual current data, some summarized financial statements and stock charts. One nice thing about Yahoo! Finance is you can set up a watch list to keep track of the companies you are interested in.
Google Finance – Google Finance is very similar to Yahoo! Finance with many of the same features available to investors. Out of personal preference, I usually stick with Yahoo! Finance but I think users should use whatever interface you are most comfortable with.
Nasdaq – Nasdaq is one of my recent favorites that I have been using a lot. Users can enter stock tickers and pull in all of the usual current quotes and data, charts, company news and press releases. I’m a big fan of looking over pages such as dividend history, financial statements and the EPS/Revenues page. They have quite a bit of historical data which is what I truly like to see.
Motley Fool – The Motley Fool offers quite a bit of data and articles for investors to comb through. One cool feature is you can click through to see the Community Scorecard which shows how many of the sites users rate a given company. Personally, I like to make my own decisions so I rarely give this tool much credence but I still sometimes will look over what others have to say about a company.
Morningstar – While a membership to Morningstar can be pretty expensive (in my opinion), investors can use the free tools available to get quite a bit of research done. Morningstar includes much of the same data as other financial sites.
GuruFocus – One of my favorite features of GuruFocus is when you enter a stock ticker, in the upper left side under the company name they will show if there are any severe or medium warning signs as well as if there are any good signs. I like to check here in case there is something I may be missing in my research so that I am not blindsided by something I was unaware of that could negatively affect my investment.
Wikinvest – I like using Wikinvest to review historical data of companies. They have lots of historical data that you can go through, however the site is not very user friendly. Basically for each financial metric you want to review, you have to load a new page for each year you want to also review. This can make you go through quite a few screens just to get all the information wanted. But the information is certainly there and available to find if there is ever some old financial data you are looking for.
Zacks Investment Research – Zacks is another good site to use when researching companies. My favorite feature of the Zacks site is the stock screeners. Although if you don’t have a premium membership, it can get frustrated as certain metrics are unavailable for free users.
SEC EDGAR – The best site if you are looking for financial filings. EDGAR is the Security and Exchange Commission’s site where you can search any company and their require financial filings. Look for filings such as the company’s 10-K which is their annual report and their 10-Q which is their quarterly reports. When researching companies, it is imperative that you review their financial reports to make sure they are a good company worth your investment. Never settle for someone else recommendation. Make your own decisions.
Value Line – Value Line is very expensive for a subscription but their investment reports are some of the best available in my opinion. Check out your local library to see if they have a subscription available. I review the Value Line reports at my local library for free. Before investing in any company, I make sure to go to my library and read the most recent Value Line Report on the company available.
Your Broker – Last I list your broker. I use Scottrade as my broker and I have access to much of the same information that is accessed at many of the above sites. Scottrade also gives me access to the Standard & Poor’s research reports on any given company. These are very helpful for me. Check out your broker and see if they offer access to any kind of research reports. At the minimum they should provide some of the basic financial data.
There is my list of 11 sites or places you can use to do your own investment research. This list certainly isn’t all inclusive. It is just a list of some of the sites I have found to be most helpful in my own research.
I’m currently working on a premium membership section for this site that I believe will make research easier for investors. Find out more about how you can become a Dividend Growth Insider here.
Are there any good research sites available that I have missed? Share where you do your investment research in the comments section below!
