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Thursday, December 31, 2009

Picking Good Stocks

By Jeffrey Jackson

When deciding which stocks to pick there are certain things to be considered. Before beginning any research, decide whether or not you would like to employ a long or short-term strategy or a combination of both. Many financial planners would advise their clients to make some long-term stock investments and depending on how much someone likes studying, researching, and looking for good opportunities do some day trading. Included in this article are some very simple and basic yet proven tips for researching stocks.

Tip One: All companies are required to file financial statements with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). You can find all publicly held companies documents filed with the SEC at www.freeedgar.com. Carefully review and pay attention to all quarterly statements from two to three years back. Check all revenue and earnings per share trends during that time. Make sure there is positive increase in earnings per share.

Second tip: Now its time to calculate the company's price-earning ratio (PE). The price earnings ratio is a way to gauge the value of the stocks value. PE is calculated by dividing stock price by annual earnings per share. To make that calculation go to: http://www.webcalc.net/calc/business/1038.php.

A high company PE is sometimes viewed as an overpriced stock but can also be viewed as a stock with a lot of upside potential that has been bid up. Adversely, if a company has a low PE it could be looked at as a "vote of no confidence" or could also be an indicator it is a sleeper stock and been overlooked by the market. It would also be important to study and compare your potential stock with industry norms and the S&P 500 ratio. http://stocks.about.com/od/evaluatingstocks/a/pe.htm.

Tip three: In analyzing balance sheets pay attention to any debt a company may have. Also look at the company's plans for its long-term debt. Make sure to analyze the company's cash flow and make sure it's positive cash flow.

To sum it up here are some simple, basic tips that are important to know before pulling the trigger on any type of stock investment whether large or small. If you plan to invest a large sum take a look at a few more details in the company's financial statement before making that investment. Regardless of whether or not you're planning for long or short-term stock investing, hold onto your money until you've done your research. - 23208

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