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Introduce yourself to Stock Research

So you chose a stock to invest in, but do you know anything about what the company does, its short-term or long-term prospects, or how it stacks up to the competition?

This quest will hopefully give you some insight into your selection…

First, make certain you know what investments your group has made. List them here:

Get together with the members of your group and decide who will conduct research on each of the investments you have purchased (or plan to purchase) in your portfolio. Write the name of the investment you are charged with researching below:

What is its trading symbol?

There are several ways to conduct research, but basically it depends upon determining whether a company will do well! Typically, a company will do well if it is profitable and growing, has a unique position within an industry, is a leader in its field, has strong seasoned management, or has something that no other company has…but things change! The economy can contract, or a competitor can come from nowhere to take the lead so you must be diligent! Let's start with a basic search of the company you selected above.

Go to http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/research/wizards/SRW.asp this site should open in a separate window so that you can record information on this page as you work through the information provided by the Stock Research Wizard. Caution--do not close this window until you have completed the activity.

You should be at the MSN Money Stock Research Wizard.

1. At the top of the page, enter the trading symbol for your investment…
   • This site describes the company's Fundamentals ,
   • Price History
   • Analysts price target
   • Catalysts , and
   • Comparison to other companies in its industry.
     
2. Describe briefly what the company does so you can speak fluently to your group members…
   
   Enter description here
3. What are the company's sales and earnings?
   
   Sales ($)
   
   Earnings ($)
   
   How does it compare to the industry Average?
   
   Industry Average Sales
   Industry Average Earnings
   Higher or Lower
   
   
4. Is the company Growing? How so?
   
   Describe its growth prospects...does it have a unique position or new product?
5. Is the Company profitable?
   
   
   What has been its earnings history? Is it recovering? Is it continuing to lead?
6. What is the company's debt/equity ratio?
   
   Debt to Equity Ratio
   ...is this good or bad? What might carrying a significant amount of debt mean for a company's future prospects?
   
7. How has the stock performed? What has been the return for the investment over the past 12 months? Caution: Past performance does not guarantee future performance!
   

• Where is the stock's support and resistance (technical measures).
  
  Resistance (52 week high)
  Support (50 day moving average)
  Second Support (200 day moving average)

8. What's the best guess for the price of the stock in the next 1-2 years?

9. How do analysts feel about the stock? Is the there consensus up or down? is the projection unanimous?

What do the analysts say, more importantly, write down what you believe to be the case...

10. What will change investor opinion?

• Check out the company news...describe for your group what some of the recent news has been:

What's newsworthy? Is the company trying to hide something? What's important?

• What are current insider trades? (Typically insider SALES do not bode well for the stock, whereas purchases say management thinks the company will do well) .
• Are there any alerts?
  Insider trading? Investor Alerts?
  

• How does the stock stack up? (If you are unsure what to compare it to, select “Display all companies in same industry”

What did you find? Are you ready to make a recommendation now? What will you urge your group to do with this investment? Buy more? Sell or Hold? Explain...

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