Research Information Sites

I am doing this blog entry due to a question on what are some of the sites I get my information from.

The main place I get information is the annual statements of the companies I investigate for investing purposes. It is very rare to find any company with shares on the TSX not to provide its annual statements on their web site. So my main source of information is the financial statements and notes.

To understand financial statements, it would be helpful to take a course in bookkeeping or accounting. Sometimes I review financial records at Google (the Financials for Alimentation Couche-Tard at Google are here) and G&M (the Financial for Alimentation Couche-Tard at G&M are here).

Another great source of information on what to invest in and for stocks reviews is your brokerage firm. I use TD Waterhouse and they have a good selection on-line of Analysts Reports, Reuter Reports, Insider Trading, etc. What I especially like about TD is their weekly video. Go to Products and Service site and click on Weekly Webcast.

Another web site I like is Reuters. For Canadian stock you have to follow the stock symbol by ".TO". The above Alimentation Couche-Tard (TSX-ATD.B) stock symbol for Reuters would be "ATDb.TO". Canadian Pacific (TSX-CP) symbol would be "CP.TO". This site has a lot of great information such as details on Key Personnel, analysts' estimates and recommendations, and institutional investing.

If you are looking at an older stock report from me you can pick up current earnings and sales estimates, trailing P/E Ratio, Price to Book, Price to Sales, Price to Cash Flow and Dividend yield. (TTM means trailing 12 months and MRQ means most recent quarter.)

I use Globe and Mail investor site a lot. I like to check more than one site for such things as stock prices, dividends, estimates and analysts' recommendations. Their summary tab also gives good information on P/E Ratios, the annual dividend and dividend yield. If you are looking at an older stock report of mine, you can pick up current and forward P/E Ratios and current Dividend yield from this site.

I use the site of Stock Chase to see what some analysts are saying about a stock. For a good write up on the use of this site, see Passive Income Earner site.

The Financial Times sitegives information on Canadian Stocks. For a Canadian company follow the Canadian Symbol by ":TOR". For example, for Ag Growth International Inc., use "AFN:TOR" in the search for quote box. This site gives forecasts on stocks.

Yahoo Finance site gives a lot of good information. On a lot of stocks you can find past dividend payments and stock prices. For dividends, note that this site, as most sites do, use the ex-dividend date for dividends. The ex-dividend date is 2 business days before the dividend record date. To start getting information on a company, go to Yahoo markets and type in the stock's symbol. Canadian Stock Symbols are followed by "TO". So on this site for Ag Growth International Inc., use "AFN.TO".

I get a weekly Advice Hotline Email from MPL Communications. You can go to their site to sign up for this email. They also have an email called Daily Buy/Sell Advisor. Go to their site to sign up. You can click on past issued at the bottom of the page and see what they have talked about recently.

I often check what other bloggers are saying about stocks. Google gives you the option of searching blogs. After you do a search on a company, look to the left of the page and click "more". One of the options to search is Blogs.

On my Investment Talk blog I am today writing about Johnson and Johnson (NYSE-JNJ). Today, I am discussing this stock's current price. To read about this stock go here....

This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my website for stocks followed and investment notes. Follow me on twitter.