Time for me to break out my Legendary Stocks to Watch Worksheet.  The market’s incredibly low, and there’s still many sound companies out there. Time to get in while the gettin’s good.

To justify playing the market at all - aka rolling the dice - I’ve stopped drinking coffee at work.  That two dollars a day goes into a can.  When I have $50 or $100, I allow myself to spend it on whatever I choose.  One of the things I buy sometimes is stocks.

“Hey, Big Spender,” you may be thinking.

This is a lot of money in my book.  That’s because I’m not the gambling type.  I’m a tightwad when it comes to stock investing.  I don’t like to lose.  I haven’t bought shares lately. The market is nuts lately, and I haven’t taken the time to do the proper research.

But with dips like last week’s plunge, there has to be a lot of good buys out there.

My definition of a good buy:  value companies with sound financials and a high dividend.

Here’s my original post describing my version of the worksheet - adapted from Jason Kelly’s version.  If you’d like a copy, please leave a comment with your request on this post, or e-mail me at lisa dot spinelli at comcast dot net.  I’ve already sent out about 25 copies.

In the first 7 articles of this series, I covered basic definitions of investing, and free internet resources for stock analysis. If any of the information in this post feels unfamiliar to you, I encourage you to review these previous entries.

In this article I present a classic stock analysis technique. I outline Jason Kelly’s Stocks to Watch Worksheet defined in Chapter Seven of his book The Neatest Little Guide to Stock Market Investing. This is how Kelly describes this sheet:

“ This is the legendary system for picking winners, thoroughly explained in the book and revered around the world. You will not find analysis this complete in such a small space anywhere else. Entire investment clubs have sprung up around this remarkable approach. A must-have!”

You can download a free PDF of this worksheet from Kelly’s website. I have created my own version on Microsoft Excel. I prefer excel because I can manipulate the data more easily. On my version, I have also added Kelly’s definitions, required/ideal criteria, and “where to find it” information for each statistic. Until I feel comfortable with these many terms, I want to have the explanations right in front of me. If you would like a copy,e-mail me [or leave a comment on this post].

About the Stocks to Watch Worksheet
Purpose: To allow you to look at key evaluative statistics of each stock on one page. Here you can easily compare each company’s strengths and weaknesses before determining the best stocks for your portfolio.

Lay-out: There are thirty two columns for entering the information you’ll collect for each stock. Each column is put into one of five categories: Basic Information, Company Health, Past Performance, Projected Performance, and Stock Ratios. Here’s how they’re broken up.

Basic Information:
Company Name, Symbol, and Phone
Current Price
52 wk Hi/lo
Market Cap
Daily Dollar Volume
Sales

Company Health:
Net Profit Margin
Cash
Total Debt
Sales per Share
Cash Flow per Share
Earnings per Share (EPS)
Dividend Yield (dollar/%)
Return on Equity (ROE)
Insider Buys
Insider Ownership
Stock Buyback

Past Performance:
EPS Rank
Relative Price Strength Rank
5-Year Sales and Earnings Gain
5-Year Price Appreciation

Projected Performance:
Projected Sales and Earnings in the Next 5 Years
Projected Stock Hi/Low
Valueline Timeliness/Safety
S&P Stars/Fair Value

Stock Ratios:
Current Price-to-Earnings (PE)
Average Price-to-Earnings
Price-to-Sale
Price-to-Book
Current Ratio
Quick Ratio
Max and Min

The goal is to have twenty potential stocks to purchase on your list. In my Stocks 101 #9 entry, I’ll discuss the stocks I’ve found so far. I’ll also discuss the ease/difficulties I have finding the information.

Related Posts

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• May 29, 2008 -- Target-Date Retirement Funds - Driving Into Retirement on Cruise Control (3)
• February 27, 2008 -- Stock Market Investing Tips 101: #8- A Legendary Stock Watch Worksheet (0)