Research Information Sites

I am updating my entry on Research Information Sites as there were some I did not include when I did the original post in 2012.

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 their site at Products and Service.

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. (On this site, TTM means trailing 12 months and MRQ means most recent quarter.)

I also get information from 4-Traders. Just input the TSX symbol and your stock should come up. You can get consensus financial information here and also analysts' recommendations, including the 12 month consensus stock price.

The Morningstar Canada site is also an interesting one. Put in the name of the stock or the symbol to get information. One extra thing about this site is that it provides old annual statements for a lot of Canadian stocks. Click on the tab that says "Filings".

I still use Globe and Mail investor site, but not as much as I used to. 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.

Another site is the TSX site. Here you can find out what stocks are in what TSX indexes. This is where the S&P/TSX Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index is located.

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 site gives 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 also use the site Market Watch to get stock information. This site also provides historical prices here. To get Canadian Stock, preface the symbol with "CA:". For example to get Ag Growth, use "CA:AFN".

On my other blog I am today writing about SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. (TSX-SNC, OTC-SNCAF) ...continue...

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.