Where to Get Investment Data to Analyze Dividend Stocks

Written by The Dividend Guy on May 16, 2008

Value Line Investment Survey

The hardest thing that investors face when analyzing stocks is to obtain the data that is required to make a well-informed decision on whether to buy the stock, and at what price. I am often asked on this blog where I get the data that I use to analyze the dividend stocks I look at. I thought I would address this question by providing my suggestions for data gathering. I really get the data from three separate sources.

Value Line Investment Survey

Value Line is bar-none the most comprehensive and complete repository for data on individual stocks that I have been able to find. The thing that takes the longest when analyzing stocks is getting all your data from multiple sources. For example, not all websites provide both the dividend growth rate AND the price-to-sales ratio. Therefore, an investor often needs to search for the data from multiple areas, which can be time consuming and tedious. One resource that certainly helps with this is the Value Line Investment Survey.

Value Line basically provides all the financial data and ratios on one easy to read page. They also provide some analytical comments as well as some ranking on things like timeliness (how well the stock is performing), however this is something I do not generally use. The true benefit is in the one-page summaries.

The only issue with Value Line is it is not free - actually it is quite expensive. Most library have copies you can access for free. You can also share a subscription with a friend and split the cost, however I am not sure if that is conducive with their terms of service. That being said, Value line does offer a 13- week trial to test it out. If you are interested in stock analysis, then it might be something to try. Click here to sign up for Value Line Investment Survey’s 13-week Trial

Canadian Shareowner’s Association

The second resource I use comes from the CSA, and actually incorporates two products. The first is a software version of the Stock Selection Guide, which is an easy way to graph revenues and EPS, see divided growth, and most importantly apply a valuation model to the stock. It is not totally inclusive in its analysis and I find I need to use other resources such as Value Line to make my decisions, however it does provide me with a good analytical framework.

To use the Stock Selection Guide software, a user must download data files that contain the company data for your analysis. This data includes 10-years of history on all metrics. With this data, the software allows you to make assumptions as to what the EPS and revenue growth rates are going to be and to determine a projected P/E. With this data the software determines a buy range, a maybe range, and a sell range.

Another type of software package such as the CSA’s is available through Better Investing.

Other Websites

Of course, the third resource I use to get investment data for analysis is from other freely available websites. I would actually prefer to use these free resources, however the fact that not one website contains all the data I need makes it difficult. Therefore I need to jump around from site to site to get the data I need. That being said, I do think that the Motley Fool Caps service has excellent data as does Morningstar, and MSN Money. Between the three you can get most of the data you need, however it does take some more time.

I hope that provides you with some idea of where I get the data to do my own analysis on stocks. If you have other resources that you use, please be sure to use the comments to let me know.


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12 Comments so far

  1. David May 16, 2008 12:27 pm

    Thanks for these good sources! Just wanted to point out, there are a few too many grammatical errors in this post. For example, “It does totally inclusive in its analysis” and “data files that contains the company data”. Might want to do a proof read.

  2. Dividend Growth Investor May 16, 2008 5:32 pm

    Another useful site is advfn.com

  3. The Dividend Guy May 16, 2008 8:14 pm

    David - thanks for the heads up. I have had another read and I apologize for the errors - tried to post it too quickly this morning!

    TDG

  4. Amateur Investor May 17, 2008 5:24 am

    I find stockhouse.ca very useful for canadian stocks, and marketwatch.com for general north american stocks. I also find yahoo finance to be a very good tool, specially if you are looking for charts and trends on individual stocks.
    It would have been a lot easier if value line were free!! wishful thinking!! :D but oh well there is ‘no free lunch’.

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  7. yielder May 19, 2008 6:12 am

    Value Line is not worth the money in light of equal/better options albeit not all in one place. Better Investing gives you access to S&P data doing back decades. In some cases that means to the 50s. It is far more comprehensive than the data provided by CSA and cheaper. S&P does have problems with interlisted Canadian companies - it mixes C$ and US$ data together. This can be cleaned up by obtaining data from http://www.adviceforinvestors.com . Quarterly and annual data is available with some data going back to the 70s.

    If you want one page summaries, then using TD Waterhouse as a brokerage will give you access to Standard & Poor’s Stock Report and Standard & Poor’s Industry Outlook, more detailed reports from Argus, summary statistical reports from Ford Investor, comparative statistical reports from Ford Investor, Reuters ProVestor Plus Report, Vickers Insider Trading Chronologies, First Call Earnings Valuation Report .

    I use this data only when I’m looking at a stock for the first time since too much data can be worse that too little as long as one focuses on quality rather than quantity. After that I use only the Better Investing data.

  8. Cash Canuck May 20, 2008 11:40 pm

    Great post. I just checked my library and they don’t have value line They do have a subscription to fpinfomart.ca. I’m playing around with it right now and it has a lot to offer.

  9. Coto May 21, 2008 10:27 pm

    The link posted for Value Line is poorly chosen. Better:
    https://www.ec-server.valueline.com/products/elect2.html

    This at the very least gives you the actual prices for all the separate options.

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