This table of data is kind of table that you will see when you type a stock or stock symbol into the Yahoo! Finance search tab. The top line shows us that we are looking at information regarding Annaly Capital Management, Inc. Stocks are denoted by symbols that are unique to that stock. For example, AAPL is for Apple Inc., HD is for Home Depot, and in the table above NLY is for Annaly Capital Management, Inc. Along with the quote, there are fifteen different categories of information in every table that you will find on a stock, and also a chart to go along with it. Let’s define the quote and all the categories so we can understand what they say about the stock.
- The Quote
Exchange: You’ll find the exchange the security is traded on (like NYSE, in the case of NLY), to the right of the name of the security.
Price: The last trade price is shown at the top of the quote summary page, below the name of the security.
Price change: The change in price for the day is shown to the right of the last trade price. This is the difference between the last trade and the previous day’s closing price. The change is reported as “0” if the stock hasn’t traded today.
- Data Points
Prev Close (previous close): The closing price for the trading day prior to the last trade reported.
Open: The opening price of the day; the first transaction of the day for that security or commodity.
Bid: The price that buyers (usually market makers or brokers) are willing to pay. The bid size (or number of shares bid) is shown to the right of the bid.
Ask: The sellers’ asked price. The ask size (or number of shares asked) is shown to the right of the bid.
1y Target Est: The 1-year target price estimate represents the median target price as forecast by analysts covering the stock.
Beta: A measure of a security or commodity’s relative volatility in relation to a market index. For a detailed explanation, see the Yahoo Finance Glossary.
Next earnings date: The date of a company’s next earnings announcement.
Day’s range: A price range showing the lowest and highest trade prices of the day.
52wk range: A price range showing the lowest and highest trade prices that occurred during the last 52 weeks.
Volume: The number of shares traded during the current or most recent trading day.
Avg vol (3m): Average Daily Volume is the monthly average of the cumulative trading volume during the last 3 months divided by 22 days.
Market Cap: Market capitalization is a measure of the value of a company, calculated by multiplying the number of outstanding shares by the current price per share.
P/E (ttm): A valuation ratio calculated by dividing the current market price by trailing 12-month (ttm) Earnings Per Share.
EPS (ttm): A valuation ratio calculated by dividing a company’s total earnings by the number of outstanding shares.
Div and yield: The dividend shows the yearly dividend payout (cash payout) amount per share, and the yield is that dividend as a percentage of share price.