Company Information

http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks

You can look up a ticker and you can click "financial statements" to see a few recent years/quarters worth of financial data. Ultimately, though, you'll probably have to get your hands dirty with EDGAR and grab some quarterly/annual reports.

Thanks for the information Duck Conference.

I use stockhouse.ca and yahoo historical information. If you are a dividend investor, dividendinvestors.ca is a useful tool.

10 years of financial statements:

http://quicktake.morningstar.com/StockNet/Income10.aspx?Symbol=BKE&Country=USA

Frugal Trader,

I am looking at becoming a dividend investor. I have a few dividend blogs that I follow and have started to try and do my own analysis on what I consider to be important information and now I am trying to find out where I can get historical information.

Thanks,

Rocky

Rickson9,

Thank you very much. That is what I am looking for.

Thanks,

ROcky

Reading 10 years of financial statements would be time wasted. I go back 2 years for most sectors. Read all the press releases for your company about 3 years. Remember look for those overly wordy say nothing word smithing. That's bad, anything that's good will very strait forward.

For 10 year info earnings/share, div. would be about all.

Oldroe said:

Reading 10 years of financial statements would be time wasted.

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I disagree.

I think that looking over 10 year old financial information can reveal some information about changes and trends. Things that a company is doing well, but also lets you see where they may have made changes to improve the company's future.

Rocky

It's just not practical to go back 10 years on every stock that I look at. If they make my cut I will look back threw the last Biz cycle for that sector. What is more important is were they will be in the next cycle and there competitors.

Oldroe said:

It's just not practical to go back 10 years on every stock that I look at. If they make my cut I will look back threw the last Biz cycle for that sector. What is more important is were they will be in the next cycle and there competitors.

Click to expand...

I disagree.

Oldroe said:

It's just not practical to go back 10 years on every stock that I look at. If they make my cut I will look back threw the last Biz cycle for that sector. What is more important is were they will be in the next cycle and there competitors.

Click to expand...

I disagree as well.

As an income investor , I like to look back a quite few years and see what the company was paying out during the good times , especially with REIT's.

I want a company that pays out a high percentage of share price , some REIT's that are paying out 10 or 12% with share prices now at new lows after this last finacial crisis , were only paying out 4 or 5% when share prices were much higher and times were good.

That tells me that they will probably not increase their distributions as share price doubles or triples , these are companies I don't want to invest in , or if I do it will be only until I figure the capital gain is good enough and sell , I won't hold them waiting for a distribution hike that may not come to be.

Especially with REIT's , past performance can be a very good indicator of future performance when it comes to payouts.

Looking at simple div. yield and reit price is very different than reading a complete financial statement.

There are 10 year things I look at Revenue and EPS and p/e. I normally get this from shareowner and verify the #'s on other sites. If the 10 year chart shows any events that are not easily explained "2008 crash" then in depth research or move to next stock.

Oldroe said:

Reading 10 years of financial statements would be time wasted. .

Click to expand...

Any ammount of due dilligence that an investor chooses to perform is never time wasted , in my opinion.

That I agree with due diligence.

Oldroe said:

That I agree with due diligence.

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If you agree with due diligence then part of that process is looking through historical reports. If memory serves, Ben Graham liked to see at least ten years of operating history as a public company before considering an investment. You may be good, but I ain't arguing with the grand-daddy of value investing and the guy that mentored Buffett.

But aside from that, don't you think it's relevant to see how a company's revenues, costs, debt levels, cash flows, etc. have responded to different economic shocks in the past?

If you're reading about management's expectations today, wouldn't reading through past statements of expectations (i.e. MD&A) add at least a bit of insight into whether management tends to be too optimistic or more on the conservative side?

Even still, you won't know everything about a company - you never will - but by being familiar with a company's past you can be in a better position to judge its future.

If you read the thread I look at 10 years stuff what I'm not doing is reading 10 years of financial statements dragging the #'s out cross checking ect.

God before internet I read them not now.

I don't think he knows how to read.

Did you read and agree with the rules of this forum. I believe you just broke them.

It's ok just apology and I will forgive.