An informed and aware investor should always follow the results of the stocks invested in very thoroughly by having a look at the stock table quotes in the business section of newspapers or on the Internet.
A stock quote table is a very powerful indicator of how well a particular stock is doing in the market and what is its current valuation.
Stock quote tables have a similar structure, which comprises columns with the following headers: 52W high, 52 W low, Stock, Ticker, Dividend, Yield %, P/E, Vol 00s, High, Low, Close, and Net Change.
Now, let us explain each column properties in detail.
52W high: This expresses the highest price that was paid by investors for a particular stock over the previous 52 weeks or 1 year.
However, it does not include the previous day's price listing for the stock.
52W low: This similarly represents the lowest price for the stock.
Stock: This expresses the name of the company and also provides information about whether it is a common stock, preferred stock, or of any other type.
For example, while a common stock is followed by no special symbol, a preferred stock is followed by "pf.
" Ticker: Ticker symbols or stock symbols are unique codes or identifiers assigned to the stocks traded on exchanges for the purpose of identification and simplification of the process of trading.
Ticker or stock symbols help us to identify a security anywhere, in exchanges or in TV or newspapers.
Ticker symbols are assigned for traded companies on a first-come, first-served basis.
A symbol once chosen for a company cannot be used by another company even in a different exchange.
Dividend: This is an indicator of whether a company pays out annual dividends for its share to investors.
If it does, that is expressed in the column and if it does not the space remains blank.
Yield %: This gives a measure of the percentage return on the dividends measured as the annual dividends per share divided by the price per share.
For companies that do not pay out regular dividends, the yield percentage is decided upon by the company's board of directors.
It is paid out to investors then on a quarterly basis.
P/E: This represents the price-to-earnings ratio for a company.
The P/E ratio looks at the relationship of the valuation of a stock with its company's earnings.
It is actually a quantification of the price paid for a share in relation to the annual net income or profit earned by the company per share.
Therefore, P/E Ratio = Price per Share/Annual Earning per Share.
A higher P/E ratio signifies that the investors are willing to pay more for each unit of net income of the company and its value is high.
Vol 00s: This depicts the trading volume for a stock or the total number of shares traded for the day.
The number listed in the table has to be multiplied by 100 to get the actual volume.
High: This represents the highest price that has been paid for the stock during that trading day.
Low: This column similarly represents the lowest price for that day.
Close: This indicates the final price at which the stock was traded at the end of the day.
If this closing price fluctuates by more than 5% over the last figure, the stock listing is provided in bold.
However, even this may not remain constant as stock prices keep on changing even after the trading hours of the exchange.
Net Change: This represents the difference between the previous and the present closing value in terms of dollar.
If this is positive, it indicates that the stock has performed well in the market that day and vice versa.