How to Read Stock Price Lists
By SOFIA of Adsenselover.com
Many newspapers and websites publish lists of stock prices, to help keep investors
up to date with their holdings and allow them to make decisions about purchases and sales.
However, these price lists often include a number of confusing figures, ratios and percentages.
This can be quite overwhelming to the novice investor, and can be a significant barrier to entry
for potential investors. However, they are usually quite simple, and often very useful.
This guide will help you to decipher stock price lists and extract the information you need from
them:
52 Week Range
This provides information about the highest and lowest share prices over the last 52 weeks.
This allows you to see where the current price lies in the last year's range, helping you to
decide whether you think it is fairly prices, overvalued or undervalued.
Last Trade
This is the last price that this share traded at. This is essentially the 'current' price, and
is a good indicator of what you would have to pay to buy this share, or what you would receive
if you sold it. This is often accompanied by the time of the last trade.
Change
This shows how the share price has changed since the end of the last day of trading. It is
typically listed in two ways - the first is the absolute price change (either positive for an
increase or negative for a decrease), and the percentage that this equates to.
Day's Range
Similar to the 52 Week Range, but for the previous day only. This gives you an idea of how much
the share price fluctuated during the course of the day's trading.
Open
This line lists the day's opening price for this share. Note that this will often change
rapidly as the day progresses, because overnight news and events may create conditions which
affect the share price immediately upon the market opening.
Volume
The number of shares that were traded during yesterday's trading, or the number which have been
traded so far today. This number is often listed in hundreds to save space, so 90 would actually
mean 9,000.
P/E Ratio
The Price/Earnings Ratio is an indicative measure of the company's share price in comparison to
its profits. It is found by dividing the share price by the company's profits. A high P/E
indicates a very popular stock, whereas a low P/E may indicate that a company is undervalued or
in trouble.
Market Capitalization
This tells you the company's total value at the current market price. It is calculated simply by
multiplying the share price by the number of shares. Because share prices vary all the time, so
does the market capitalization.
Dividends/Share
This shows the amount of dividend that the company pays out each year for every share. For
example, if the Dividend/Share is $0.60 and you own 1,000 shares, you can expect to receive
$600 in dividends across the year. This is usually paid in 4 amounts at 3 month intervals.
Yield
This is a percentage measure which indicates the proportion of the share price that each share
will receive in dividends each year. For example, if the Dividend/Share is $0.60 and the share
price is $5, the yield would be 12%.
Reading financial stock quotes is actually very simple once you know the lingo, and understand
how the various ratios and percentages are calculated. By using the information found in stock
price lists you can make informed decisions about which stocks to buy, and which to avoid.
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