I am a guide over in the Fool One service. I just discovered this board a few days ago from a link in another post. I read the Knowledgebase link (before the recent update), and went through a number of posts.
This is a great community, and Saul’s principles are eerily similar to the way I have learned to invest. So I may be hanging out here for a while.
One question for the board: I was building my own spreadsheet to run a Saul-type analysis on my portfolio. I am at a loss trying to find a place to find the last eight quarters of financial data (or at least, EPS numbers) to use for my analysis. I am loathe to go back to the 10Qs and 10Ks to dig those numbers out, so I wondered where others get the quarterly EPS numbers (non-GAAP preferred, GAAP would do in a pinch) going back that far?
Typical answer here is to go to the company’s page for investors and get their press releases. Those usually have GAAP and non-GAAP (preferred) EPS numbers and any one quarter will typically refer to last year, same quarter, so 4 press releases should be sufficient.
Tiptree,
I’ve not seen a better way espoused on this board yet. The general consensus is to use the company’s IR web page, go to the press releases and locate the non-GAAP earnings for each quarter.
Take care,
AJ
it doesn’t sound like this was the answer you were hoping for
so I wondered where others get the quarterly EPS numbers (non-GAAP preferred, GAAP would do in a pinch) going back that far?
Right now you pretty much have to go back to the press releases. There are places out there that offer “adjusted EPS” but it’s based on their own criteria and isn’t what management actually reports, so don’t be fooled by that.
I’m currently working on building a comprehensive data source to make this all much simpler. But it’s going to take me some time.
Hi Trip,
It is pretty much like everyone says. Saul put it succinctly, just google the company investor relations. So Amba investor relations will bring up their investor relations and then just go to press releases. Look for each quarterly report. After a few it should only take you 10 minutes to find all that you need for each company.
As a data professional and investor, I have long found it frustrating that we get a taste of data, free, and almost everywhere, but substantial datastores, going back sufficient amount of time to make them relevant, are rare. Rarer still are good data visualization tools for the common investor.
I guess I will just have to get out my graph paper, pour a dram or two of scotch, and start slogging away.
I usually use Fidelity which usually comes out to pretty close to Saul’s. Ever since I noticed how closely Fidleity aligns with Sauls earnings I’ll go there for quick numbers.
Of course getting from the actual source is the best but Fidelity works well for me when I need a quick context.
Well, there are lots of data sources, but the problem is the data you really want. Getting today’s data can come from multiple places with reasonable ease, automatically downloaded to your spreadsheet. But, hmmmm, that historical data, that’s a little trickier. Yes, there is some historical data available, but often without the slick interface that facilitates the instant download to spreadsheet. And, what is there is often quite limited in type, often to things that are easy to suck from data sources like exchanges where highs, lows, closes, and volume, for example, are published … but those aren’t the numbers we are looking for here.
No, the essence of the problem is that we want non-GAAP figures for an individual company. If anything, a general source is going to suck up GAAP figures, because that is the “standard”. And, that is fine for big established companies that are doing the same thing year after year … well, at least mostly … but it isn’t the number we want for fast growing or young companies which are likely to have multiple adjustments that are important for understanding how the business is going.
If there is a real problem here it is the companies who decide to make their own adjustments and publish that without telling us what the company’s own adjustments said. Presumably, they have some rationale for what adjustments they think are “right”, but unless one found such a source and convinced oneself of the rightness … irrespective of what the company itself said, it is just a magic number. I suppose it could be interesting to collect GAAP, non-GAAP, and so-and-so’s adjusted and note when the three were telling a very different story so one could dig deeper … but this thread is about minimizing work, not making more.
The good news is, once one takes the time it takes to pull up four press releases and copy in this year and last year numbers for each quarter, all it takes to update it is one more press release access per quarter. That’s not really a huge investment, if one thinks this is a valuable tool.
Ohhhhh you wanted a short cut. Why didn’t you say you had scotch. Ok you give me the tickers you need the numbers on, and the scotch, and I will get you the non-gaap EPS for each ticker. Also, in order to earn my keep, I will give you the Revenues, Net Income, and 1YPEG all for free. Only good for a limited time and only for you Trip. Or anyone else who happens to have some great scotch.
While I do recommend completing your own research for any company you’re truly interested in, there is a community-contributed spreadsheet that has the EPS and Revenue figures for a few hundred commonly held tickers across the Fooldom.
When you scan through the spreadsheet you’ll see an EPS growth rate and 1YPEG column that gets auto-calculated for each of the rows where there are EPS entries. This makes it real easy to stay focused on pulling the research figures together and letting the machine do the math work. Flipping over to the second tab you’ll see the same set of rows used for revenue. This is used to calculate the revenue growth rate, another critical piece to the puzzle.
Finally, you’ll also notice an indicator column on the first tab labeled “candidate stock”. A stock becomes a candidate when the EPS growth rate is greater than 30, the 1YPEG is less than 1 and the revenue growth is greater than 20. These are the general first-pass criteria that can make a stock a “Saul stock”. But please be forewarned, these are starting ideas only. More due diligence is required for stock selection and those additional considerations are covered in Saul’s Knowledgebase.
Please feel free to use the sheet(s) as a starting place for analysis, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. One of these days I’ll put together a formal write up on all of these notes and how to maintain your data going forward.
I’ll second the recommendation for Fidelity when it comes to a shortcut for non-GAAP earnings. not perfect, but pretty consistent with company reporting.
Also, as for visualization tools, another contributor to this board (Steve Wagner) built a really neat little application that pretty much provides the same graphic information that Saul does manually, also allows for tracking trades.
One question for the board: I was building my own spreadsheet to run a Saul-type analysis on my portfolio. I am at a loss trying to find a place to find the last eight quarters of financial data (or at least, EPS numbers) to use for my analysis. I am loathe to go back to the 10Qs and 10Ks to dig those numbers out, so I wondered where others get the quarterly EPS numbers (non-GAAP preferred, GAAP would do in a pinch) going back that far?
Hi Tiptree, Welcome to the board!
I’d second all the good advice you’ve received about this: You are looking for a shortcut. Believe me, googling the company’s investor relations, clicking on press releases, and scrolling down to the last four press releases, IS a shortcut. They usually give revenue and adjusted earnings in the headline or at least in the first paragraph or two. And they usually give the values for the year before, so often you only need the last four press releases.
If you are just doing a screen, you can look at Yahoo, or Fidelity, or wherever, but those values are collected by a computer (and who knows what Yahoo’s computer collects), or by a clerk entering or mis-entering what the clerk thinks is the right info. If you are actually considering investing your own money in a company, it’s really worth spending the ten minutes required to get the right figures. Just my opinion.
The only way to be sure to get accurate numbers is from the investor relations site for each company, as several have said already. However, I’ve found that cnbc.com has a nice chart with earnings numbers that I like to use for a quick reference. The few I’ve cross-checked matched the desired numbers, but there is no guarantee they always will.
Just go to cnbc.com and put in the ticker you want to check, then click on earnings on the next page.
Saul,
I just want to wish you and your family a HAPPY JULY 4th
I am so glad I found you when you started this board and now you are close to 10000 posts, who would have thought
Saul, I just want to wish you and your family a HAPPY JULY 4th I am so glad I found you when you started this board and now you are close to 10000 posts, who would have thought. All the best, Erik
Thanks Eric, the best to you and your family too, and I hope all of you had a fun 4th of July!
Saul
