Business 245: Stock Market Assignment: Stock performance

Use Yahoo Finance to track stock prices for one year (Basic Chart) and the date/volume/closing price (Historical Prices) for six weeks. The historical prices can be downloaded to Excel, where you can easily calculate net change.

When tracking a stock online, check the listing after 1:00 PM for today's closing price, because the New York Stock Exchange closes at 4:00 pm EST (1:00 pm PST).

Also check the press releases, income statement, and balance sheet using Google Finance.

Google Finance has the same basic information as Yahoo Finance. The summary section has one-year price tracking and a list of company officers. Historical prices has downloadable six weeks of date/volume/closing price. Financials defaults to quarterly data, so switch it to yearly data

If your company is one of the Dow 30, you can access Value Line Investment Survey reports for them free at https://research.valueline.com/research?=#list=dow30&sec=list. These reports include current, detailed financial information, ratings and recommendations.

Value Line reports for all other stocks are available online to County of San Luis Obispo County Public Libraries card holders (except for those who have Paso Robles City library cards only). Full Value Line reports are updated every three months. These reports may look daunting at first, but the simple guide linked below will help you understand them. There are also YouTube videos on the topic.

If you have a SLO County Libraries card, follow these steps to access Value Line reports:

• Go to www.slolibrary.org.
• Click on Reference>Online Learning.
• Scroll down to Financial.
• Click on Value Line: Library Pro Elite.
• Enter your library card’s barcode number and click Login.
• In the top right corner where it says Quote, type in the name or stock symbol for the company.
• Do NOT hit enter at this point.
• Wait until the company name and its symbol populate below the search field and click on the hyperlink.
• Peruse the page that appears.
• On that page, be sure to find the box titled “Value Line PDF Reports.”
• Click on the most recent report for the company. PDF reports are updated every 3 months.

County of SLO Public Libraries also provide free reports on stocks via Morningstar Investment Research Center. If you have a SLO County library card (for all cities in the county except Paso Robles): 

• Go to www.slolibrary.org.
• Click on Reference>Online Learning.
• Scroll down to Financial.
• Click on Morningstar.
• Enter your library card’s barcode number and click Login.
• Near the top right-hand corner, find the search field in front of the word “Go.”
• Type in your company name or symbol.
• Wait until the company name and its symbol populate below the search field and click on the hyperlink.
• Peruse the page that appears.