Need help digging further into Fundamentals

[stevenmac2]

Hi Everyone,

Since I started investing late Feb 2007, I have been basing many of my decisions to enter into a particular stock on technical indicators and whether the EPS was rising from past numbers and gained estimates.

I do my investing/trading through a Scott Trade account which has a Fudamental and Financials section that provides a detailed analysis on a company.

Is there anyone here who is more of a Fundamental Investor who could take me through the numbers of detailed profile (comparing values to others) to determine suitable favorable/unfavorable values on what makes a company good or not to buy.

If someone is willing to help, please contact me at stevenmac2@hotmail.com

Thanks,
Steven Mac

[aquaswim47]

Well, in general, I'd suggest taking a look at operating cash flows, capital expenditures, borrowing, and issuance (redemption) of common stock. From there, you can finalize your decision.

[Airelon]

A bit of reading in the right direction might help? Look at what aquaswim mentioned, as well as key fundamental ratios - wikipedia is a source I direct some of my friends to. You can find all sorts of information regarding specific fundamental analysis types.

I have a pretty standard screen setup for my long term investing.

Goes something like this, and consider much of the following "fundamental" analysis, rather than technical chart analysis:



1) Current P/E, or just the P/E is at 12 to 17
2) Forward P/E is under 13
3) PEG Ratio from .9 to 2
4) Trading with the overall (overall) chart trend, but buy it when the price is historically cheap. Not when it's near it's lifetime highs. When I first invest in a company, I like it to be bouncing slightly higher than the 52 week lows.
5) Profit Margin greater than 8%
6) Dividend Yield >= 3%
7) Volume is adequately high
8) Buy during seasonal times of the Year. I do consider this a 'fundamental' outlook, as seasonal tendencies tend to work due to fundamental factors (Christmas rallies, etc) From January 1st to March 15th. From April 1st, to June 1st. From June 30th to July 15th. From November 1st to December 30th.

And of course, that's somewhat flexible. Especially things like the Profit Margin and the PEG ratio. My screen for reinvesting in companies that I already am invested in, is a lot more loose.

[Fredledingue]

I don't think dividend is that important unless you play the divy play (in which case you will want to look for higher than 4.5% ones).But stocks with no divy have sometimes pretty good fundamentals.It's more a question of mqnqgement decision than real performance.What i look more and more is the debt and the debt/cash ration and the debt/BV ratio as it gives a good idea of the debt exposure and their interrest expenses.

[Airelon]

I do both. I have stocks that I plan on never selling. Companies like FRO, F, etc. Ford just cut the dividend, but other than that . . . I own those companies for long term growth. But I also trade stocks on a more speculative basis.

And true, while dividend isn't as important when trading, it's still a factor that I at least consider. Because if I want that stock to raise, I have to figure who else is going to be looking at it? And dividend investors (such as myself) are attracted to nice divy's. So even if it's a modest one such as 3%, then there is still some amount of dividend attraction, which makes the stock look better all around, and thus, although a stock trader won't benefit from it? He can take advantage of others benefiting from it.