Every stock in the ISN universe can be reviewed using the Search Stocks menu item. This brief will describe how to use the Search Stocks menu and the results of the search.
The ‘Stock Search’ appears on all of the pages under the ‘Client Service’ menu item. The picture below shows the ‘Stock Search’ item circled in yellow highlighter from the Welcome page.
When the Search Stocks menu item is selected a search box will open.
The search box can locate any stock by ticker or common name. In this case, we will be using IBM as an example.
The list that appears will be all of the stocks that have a match of the letters you entered. This will include matches in name and ticker. There usually are several possible matches that can range from a single chart, multiple charts and any related informational articles such as a valuable link to information related to the stock or company. In the example above, IBM has two available charts. The first chart is identified after the name as “-GC”. The second chart is identified in the same place as “-AC”. The GC chart is a discussion on key fundamental information. The AC chart is focused on related stock data such as fair value and relative positioning within the market. When you select the desired link the chart will open on the screen. In the next example, we have selected the GC chart.
In the upper portion, you will find important descriptive data. The name of the company will appear directly below the numeric identifier along with a brief description of the company.
Moving to the upper right you will find important descriptive data that includes:
- Country where the corporate headquarters is located
- Important market identifier groupings such as the sector, industry group, and classification
- The corporate web address
- ISIN, SEDOL, Ticker identifier
- Market capitalization
- If an ADR is available
The chart and table area includes information on important key data. The first chart on the right graphically displays three key factors: Revenue, earnings, and dividends over the most previous 10 years. The data is indexed for easy comparison. This can be very revealing as in the case of IBM, sales are declining, earnings have experienced a gain until 2012 then declined while dividends have increased consistently for the period.
The table to the right displays all of the data in the chart on a year by year basis in absolute values, indexed as in the chart and percent change year-over-year.
The three charts in the bottom third of the page display specific stock data.
The chart to the left displays the share price since 2000 in local currency.
The middle chart shows the individual stock compared to the MSCI All Country Index.
The chart to the right next to the table is a candlestick chart …
The table on the lower right includes return data for the last month, quarter, half-year, last 12 months and year-to-date. As well as price-earnings ratio for the last 5 years and dividend yield.
If the -AC option is selected a different series of charts and tables are presented.
The table in the upper left provides general descriptive information for the company such as: ticker, common name, sector, industry group and a brief description of the company’s activities.
The middle upper table displays information about the stock and relative position within the stock universe.
The first two blocks show the respective index that includes the stock and current yield.
Directly below this block is a section related to fair value. The dark gold block displays the stocks current fair value as determined by the ISN evaluation formula. The three blocks above fair value (Fv) are the price level when the stock should be considered approaching an overvalued position. It is labeled Caution (CFv). The next block above is a price level where the stock is considered overvalued (OFv). For an easy comparison, the current price is provided directly above the OFv price.
Directly below the current price are a series of blocks that display the price level where we believe the stock is undervalued (UFv). Followed by the current ISN consideration recommendation.
There are five recommended considerations.
Hold – the stock is trading within the fair value range.
Buy Watch – the stock has become undervalued and we are waiting for a meaningful turn back in the direction of fair value.
Buy – the stock is undervalued and has made a meaningful turn back to fair value.
Sell Watch – the stock has become overvalued and we are waiting for a meaningful turn back in the direction of fair value.
Sell – the stock is overvalued and has made a meaningful turn back to fair value.
The last block of data items is a combination of fundamental data points and ISN unique calculations. Starting on the upper left-hand corner the current Price Earnings ratio is stated along with the year-to-date return for the individual stock and current dividend. On the next line is the stock’s % of fair value. In this example, IBM has a fair value (Fv) of 89.3% at the current price of $153.03. Just below the %, Fv is the % rank Fv. In the IBM example, the stock is currently at the 21.8 decile ranking. Continuing downward in the same column the MAB Score is shown as B. MAB stands for Merger, Acquisition Buyout. This is the probability that the company will be involved in one of these activities. There are five scores available.
A+ is the highest probability, followed by A, then B+, B and finally C. The highest ranking stocks in the A+ category can be found in the Hunters & Hunted Brief available under the menu item Mergers.
The center column in the table is performance oriented with returns for Year-to-date, last 12 months, the most recent quarter and the last week.
Dividend information is located in the last column with the current dividend on top, dividend for the prior year for comparison in the next block below, the percent change that the previous blocks represent and finally the dividend growth over the past 3 years.
The final row in this block is a CMA rating. Traditionally, investment management has assumed small-cap stocks are more volatile than large-cap stocks. This is true as a group. However, there are many small cap stocks that actually are more stable than larger cap stocks. To meet the criteria of a client of providing pricing stability versus a more robust pricing pattern, we have also classified stocks in one of three categories. First, are the most stable and they are labeled “Core”. The next instability is a “Market” label which means they fluctuate in a similar pattern to the market overall. And then there are the “Aspirational” stocks that have a pricing history that is more active than the market and will exhibit higher degrees of pricing fluctuations.
The chart to the immediate right graphically displays the stock price (blue) and the market index (yellow) indexed back to January 1, 2014. The values for overvaluation (red), fair value (grey) and undervaluation (green) are shown on the chart as well.
There are two bar charts directly below the valuation chart. The one on the left shows the relative valuation ranking of the displayed stock within the large cap universe. A higher ranking, higher number, and higher bar indicates the stock is at a higher valuation. The highest valuation stock would be 500 and the least valuation stock would be 1. The bar chart on the right shows the stock’s relative valuation in the Allcap universe within the USA. The same valuation is true in this table. The highest valuation stock is 1500.
Moving full circle to the tower charts in the lower left side of the page. Each of these towers displays the individual stocks relative position within the stock universe. The first tower is the percentile ranking based on fair value. IBM is in the middle of the universe. Stocks that are at the highest valuation, overvalued relative to all other stocks, will be at the top of the tower. Stocks that are at the lower end of valuation relative to all other stocks, will be near the bottom.
The second tower shows the individual stocks relative decile position within the universe based on the ISN CMA score. The CMA score was described earlier.
The third tower displays the stocks decile ranking based on dividend yield. The highest dividend paying stocks will appear near the top and stocks not paying a dividend will appear at the bottom of the tower.
The fourth tower in from the left shows the individual stocks decile ranking based on market capitalization. Larger cap stocks are near the top and smaller capitalization stocks are nearer the bottom.
The second chart in from the right shows the decile ranking for the individual stock on the MAB score. The MAB score was described earlier in the discussion.
The last tower on the far right is the stock decile ranking based on the P/E Ratio.