Tools And Information Sources

In this fast-paced digital world, investors are constantly bombarded with truckloads of information from a tremendous number of sources. As such, knowing where to look for information can make the research process a lot easier. Daily news reports and company websites are certainly invaluable resources that investors should be already aware of. On top of that, investors can also make use of the following tools to help them make more informed decisions on their stock investments.

Annual Reports And Financial Statements

The annual report is an important document that is published every year, and provides investors with valuable information on a publicly traded company, including a detailed overview of the company's fiscal year, financial statements, as well as a discussion of the company's results by the management team. While annual reports are typically lengthy (and sometimes boring) to most people, ignoring them completely can be a huge mistake, as they help investors understand more about the business of a company than the average investor, and make better investment decisions. The chairman's statement is usually a good starting point when reading an annual report, as it gives investors a gist of a company's core business, performance over the past year and future plans. Investors should also scrutinise the financial statements in an annual report for clues on the company's profitability, financial strength and cash management capabilities. Investors may also sometimes uncover hidden surprises lurking in the supplementary notes that accompany the financial statements, such as loss contingencies, legal proceedings, or changes in accounting practices. If investors are still unsure of how a company derives its revenues even after reading through its annual report, it may be a good idea to pass up on this particular stock investment and move on to the next.

Brokerage Reports And Fundsupermart Articles

Brokerage reports are a good source of information for investors who are seeking informed opinions about stocks. These reports are produced by the research analysts employed at brokerage firms and they usually have at their disposal a tremendous amount of information and historical data that they can use to make objective assessments of companies. The deep insights and thorough analysis contained in these brokerage reports make them a good starting point for any investor doing their own due diligence and research on a company. At Fundsupermart, we have an experienced team of in-house research analysts providing independent coverage on stocks spanning various geographical markets, including Singapore and Hong Kong. Our views and analysis of various companies are translated into research articles, which can be found easily on our website at no additional cost!

Fundsupermart Research Tools

Fundsupermart offers a plethora of tools to help investors make more informed decisions when selecting the next stock for their investment portfolios. The intrinsic value calculator is an easy-to-use tool that calculates the actual value of a stock, taking into consideration certain assumptions about the fundamentals of a company, such as its earnings growth, forecasted cash flows, and expected future dividends. The calculator utilises three different valuation models to arrive at a stock's intrinsic value: the discounted future earnings model, the discounted cash flow model, as well as the Gordon growth model, each using different data inputs in their calculations. While these models have their own share of shortcomings, they give investors a rough gauge of whether a stock is overvalued or undervalued compared to its current market price. The intrinsic values obtained from this calculator can be complemented using relative valuation measures, such as that of the price-to-equity (PE) and the price-to-book (PB) ratios, in order to have a better picture of a stock's valuation.

The sheer number of stocks that are available to invest in can be overwhelming, especially for the untrained eye, presenting a challenge for investors to find and select good stocks for their portfolios. This is where the stock screener comes in handy. Available on the Fundsupermart website, the stock screener helps investors to narrow down the number of available stocks by focusing on certain fundamental or technical criteria. This way, they can zoom in on the stocks that can potentially fit into their investment portfolios. Investors can filter stocks based on profitability, financial strength, growth rates or valuations. Meanwhile, traders can make use of technical filters to find stocks that fit their technical trading style.

Annual General Meetings

An annual general meeting (commonly abbreviated as AGM) is a yearly meeting of a company's management team and shareholders. All shareholders are entitled to attend the AGM, either personally or through the appointment of a proxy. In a typical AGM, the management team presents to shareholders detailed information on the company's performance over the past fiscal year, discusses future plans ahead, and puts to the vote certain resolutions that include the appointment of auditors and company directors. During the AGM, shareholders can also pose to the management team questions regarding the financial position of the company, the answers to which are not only insightful at times, but also give shareholders a grasp of whether the management team is aligned with their interests. Furthermore, networking opportunities are abound as the AGM is a great occasion for shareholders to meet other like-minded investors, allowing them to learn about a company from different perspectives.

Scuttlebutt

Popularised by one of the greatest investment gurus of all time, Philip Fisher, the 'scuttlebutt' method of conducting stock research means gathering company information from different groups of stakeholders, including management, customers, suppliers and employees. In the modern day context, scuttlebutt also involves tapping into our own personal experiences and observations of a company's products and services. Even in the absence of direct experience, online product reviews and word-of-mouth can reveal an abundance of information about a company's products and services. While it may be unwise to base investment decisions solely on the information gathered through scuttlebutt, it helps investors to assemble a more complete understanding of a business that a pure quantitative analysis cannot reveal.