TICKER SYMBOL the short code an exchange uses to identify a stockBID the highest price a buyer will payASK the lowest price a seller will acceptP/E RATIO price per share ÷ earnings per shareVOLUME shares traded so far today52-WEEK RANGE the stock's low and high over the past yearSESSION 04 Identifying Symbols and Interpreting Stock QuotesTICKER SYMBOL the short code an exchange uses to identify a stockBID the highest price a buyer will payASK the lowest price a seller will acceptP/E RATIO price per share ÷ earnings per share
Every stock has a nickname. Every quote is a story in numbers. Learn to read both before you place a trade.
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Reading
Background
To enter transactions in the Stock Market Game (SMG), you must enter the ticker symbol of the company or mutual fund you wish to buy or sell. Ticker symbols are what stock exchanges use to identify listed companies. Typically, companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) have one to three letters in their ticker symbols. The NASDAQ Stock Market identifies companies and funds with symbols that may be as long as five letters.
Most financial news and stock market websites have ticker symbol lookup and quote searches built in.
Key Terms
Vocabulary
Tap a card to flip it and reveal the definition.
Dividend
Part of a company's profits (earnings) paid periodically to stockholders.
P/E Ratio
Price-to-earnings ratio. The relationship between a company's earnings and its share price, calculated by dividing the current price per share by the earnings per share.
Share
A unit of ownership in a corporation or mutual fund.
Stock
A type of security that signifies ownership in a corporation and represents a claim to part of the company's profits or losses.
Volume
The number of shares traded in a company's stock. Unusual activity, higher or lower than average, is typically the result of some external event.
Goals
Performance Objectives
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
Define the term "ticker symbol."
Look up ticker symbols online.
Enter a trade in an online portfolio.
Demonstrate the ability to use each of the following terms: share or stock, dividend, P/E ratio, volume or sales, change.
Materials: Activity Sheet 1: Reading a Stock Quote Table.
Warm-Up
Springboard Activity
List a few popular products: Coke, Nike, Apple.
Would you consider buying stock in the companies that make these products? Why, or why not?
Companies that make products like these use a special kind of nickname called a ticker symbol to identify themselves on the exchanges where they are listed. Discuss with the class how an investor might locate the ticker symbol for a company they want to purchase.
Guided Practice
Procedure: Finding a Ticker Symbol
Ticker symbols for some companies are easy to figure out. For example, the symbol for IBM is IBM (the actual company name is International Business Machines).
What do you think the symbol for General Electric might be? General Motors? Apple Inc.?
Make an educated guess on which of these is the correct ticker symbol for the Coca-Cola Company, then reveal the answer below.
CCLAYCCLAFKOKOFCCHOFCCHCCHBFCOKECCE
KOKO is the ticker symbol for The Coca-Cola Company. Two tips help narrow the choices before you even look it up:
Symbols with more than four letters are usually foreign stocks, which eliminates CCLAY, CCLAF, CCHOF, and CCHBF.
Sometimes the company name listed right next to a symbol rules out a look-alike, for example the Hellenic Bottling Company would rule itself out if it appeared alongside one of these codes.
Next, consider parent companies and subsidiaries. Banana Republic and Old Navy are subsidiaries of the Gap. Frito-Lay and Gatorade are subsidiaries of PepsiCo. This means they are companies owned by another company. Are you familiar with YUM! Brands? Visit the company's website or search online to find its subsidiaries. Do you recognize any of the names?
Try it: Assume a hypothetical situation where you mistakenly enter COKE as the ticker symbol for the Coca-Cola Company (the owner of familiar beverage brands like Minute Maid juices, Powerade sports drink, and Dasani water). Visit a finance site, enter COKE in the symbol box, and see what comes up.
What company did the search bring up?
Is it related to the Coca-Cola Company? If yes, how?
What does it produce?
What might be a more accurate way of looking up the Coca-Cola Company?
CHECK BEFORE CLASS
The ticker symbol for The Coca-Cola Company itself is KO. Historically, COKE has been the ticker for Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc., a separate, publicly traded company that is one of Coca-Cola's largest bottlers and distributors, related to but distinct from The Coca-Cola Company. I am moderately confident in this, since it reflects how the two tickers have long been assigned, but ticker assignments can change and this activity depends on live lookup results, so please verify on a current finance site before presenting it as fact in class. The broader teaching point holds regardless: typing a company's official name into a ticker lookup box, rather than a nickname or guess, is the reliable way to find the correct symbol.
Activity Sheet 1
Reading a Stock Quote
Every field in a stock quote tells you something different. Here is the full glossary.
NAMEThe name of the company.
LAST PRICEThe price of the stock when it was last traded.
TRADE TIMEThe time the stock was last traded.
TRADE DATEThe date the stock was last traded.
NET CHANGEThe increase or decrease in the stock's price between today's last price and the previous trading day's close.
% CHANGEThe percentage increase or decrease between today's last price and the previous close.
VOLUMEThe total number of shares traded so far today.
BIDThe highest price a buyer is willing to pay for the stock.
BID SIZEThe number of shares offered for sale.
ASKThe price the seller is willing to accept.
ASK SIZEThe number of shares available to buy.
OPENING PRICEThe price of the stock when it first traded today.
DAILY HIGHThe highest price the stock has traded at so far today.
DAILY LOWThe lowest price the stock has traded at so far today.
PREVIOUS CLOSEThe stock's price at the end of the previous trading day.
HIST CLOSE DATEThe date of the stock's previous trading day.
CURRENCYIn the US, the currency is US Dollars.
EXCHANGEThe exchange the stock trades on.
YIELDCalculated as (Annual Dividend ÷ Previous Day Close Price) × 100.
EARNINGSA company's profit or earnings divided equally among all the shares investors own.
DIVIDENDPayments to shareholders that some stocks provide. Not all stocks offer dividends.
DIVIDEND DATEThe payment date of the dividend.
EX DIV DATEThe date on which the shareholder must own the stock to receive a dividend payment.
P.E.A company's closing price divided by its latest annual earnings per share.
YEAR'S HIGHThe highest price of the stock within the past 52 weeks.
YEAR'S LOWThe lowest price of the stock within the past 52 weeks.
Activity Sheet 1, continued
Two Real Quotes: CVS Health vs. Revlon
These screenshots were captured from Yahoo! Finance on September 13, 2018. They are for educational use only and do not reflect current stock prices.
CVS Health Corporation (CVS)
NYSE · Nasdaq Real Time Price · USD
77.69+0.37 (+0.48%)
PREVIOUS CLOSE77.32
MARKET CAP79.093B
OPEN77.97
BETA0.94
BID77.51 x 800
PE RATIO (TTM)26.45
ASK77.55 x 800
EPS (TTM)2.94
DAY'S RANGE77.20 – 78.50
EARNINGS DATENov 6, 2018
52 WEEK RANGE60.14 – 84.00
FWD DIVIDEND & YIELD2.00 (2.63%)
VOLUME2,432,372
EX-DIVIDEND DATE2018-07-24
AVG VOLUME7,582,339
1Y TARGET EST86.10
Revlon, Inc. (REV)
NYSE · Nasdaq Real Time Price · USD
20.50−0.25 (−1.20%)
PREVIOUS CLOSE20.75
MARKET CAP1.093B
OPEN20.70
BETA0.28
BID20.35 x 1100
PE RATIO (TTM)N/A
ASK20.50 x 800
EPS (TTM)−6.11
DAY'S RANGE20.35 – 20.70
EARNINGS DATENov 1 – Nov 5, 2018
52 WEEK RANGE14.00 – 27.90
FWD DIVIDEND & YIELDN/A (N/A)
VOLUME50,901
EX-DIVIDEND DATEN/A
AVG VOLUME133,454
1Y TARGET EST18.00
Use the quotes above to answer the following questions.
Q1
What are the stock ticker symbols for Revlon and CVS? Are you surprised? Explain.
The ticker symbol for Revlon is REV. The symbol for CVS is CVS. Yahoo! Finance shows the ticker symbol in parentheses right after the company name. Whether you're surprised is a personal reaction; some students expect a more abbreviated or unrelated code, so seeing a symbol that closely matches the company name (like CVS) can feel almost too obvious compared to a symbol like REV.
Q2
Is Revlon performing better or worse than it was the previous day? How do you know?
Worse. Revlon is trading at $20.50, below its previous close of $20.75, a net change of −$0.25 (−1.20%).
Q3
Is CVS nearer to its yearly high or low? Would this be a good time to purchase the stock? Explain.
CVS's 52-week range is $60.14 to $84.00, and it is currently at $77.69. That is $6.31 below the yearly high and $17.55 above the yearly low, so CVS is nearer to its yearly high. Whether that makes it a good time to buy is genuinely open to interpretation: being near a 52-week high can mean strong momentum, but it can also mean less room to grow and more room to fall if sentiment shifts. A thoughtful answer should use the actual distances above, not just "it's high so don't buy" or "it's high so buy," and should acknowledge this single data point isn't enough on its own to decide.
Q4
Did either Revlon or CVS pay a dividend? What does that suggest about the company?
Revlon did not (its Forward Dividend & Yield shows N/A). CVS did, at $2.00 per share (a 2.63% yield). There are a variety of reasons a company might not pay a dividend, for example reinvesting profits into growth, or, in Revlon's case, negative EPS ($−6.11 TTM) meaning the company was not currently profitable. Not paying a dividend is not by itself a sign that a company is a worse investment than one that does pay one.
Q5
What is P.E.?
P.E. (price-to-earnings ratio) is a company's closing price divided by its latest annual earnings per share.
Q6
Which two pieces of information shown on this stock chart would you consider most important for someone to find out before purchasing the stock of a company? Explain.
This is an open discussion question with no single correct pair. Strong candidates worth debating: P/E ratio (how expensive the stock is relative to earnings), 52-week range (where the current price sits historically), EPS (whether the company is even profitable), and dividend yield (whether you're being paid to hold it). Ask students to defend their choice rather than just naming fields.
Q7
Would the same information be the most important for people who already own stock in these companies? Explain.
Likely not entirely. A prospective buyer cares most about whether the current price is a good entry point. An existing shareholder may care more about net change, volume (is something unusual happening today?), earnings date (an upcoming catalyst), and dividend/ex-dividend dates (when they'll get paid), since their decision is whether to hold, add, or sell rather than whether to enter.
Q8
Based on the numbers in the charts and what you know about the companies, in which company would you invest, Revlon or CVS? Explain what information led you to this conclusion.
Answers will vary and should be judged on reasoning, not on which company is picked. Points in CVS's favor from this data: positive EPS, a reasonable P/E ratio, and a dividend. Points against Revlon from this data: negative EPS, no dividend, and a stock trading closer to the bottom third of its 52-week range on this particular day. A strong answer cites the specific numbers used to reach the conclusion rather than general impressions of either brand.
Mathematical Strand
Thinking Algebraically: Share Price After Splits
Apple Inc.'s stock appeared to drop from about $90 per share to about $45 per share in late February. This was not a real loss: Apple split its stock, doubling the number of outstanding shares on the market while cutting the price per share in half.
A stock split changes the price and the share count, but never the total value of your holding. Price × Shares = Value, before and after.
Complete the table below (values shown are the worked answers).
Split
Price Before
Shares Before
Value Before
Price After
Shares After
Value After
2 for 1
$110.00
475
$52,250.00
$55.00
950
$52,250.00
2 for 1
$388.00
6,378
$2,474,664.00
$194.00
12,756
$2,474,664.00
2 for 1
$78.42
590
$46,267.80
$39.21
1,180
$46,267.80
2 for 1
$52.48
475
$24,928.00
$26.24
950
$24,928.00
2 for 1
$35.64
1,335
$47,579.40
$17.82
2,670
$47,579.40
2 for 1
$64.32
3,611
$232,259.52
$32.16
7,222
$232,259.52
2 for 1
$52.96
1,559
$82,564.64
$26.48
3,118
$82,564.64
3 for 2
$48.00
200
$9,600.00
$32.00
300
$9,600.00
3 for 2
$60.00
300
$18,000.00
$40.00
450
$18,000.00
3 for 2
$120.48
800
$96,384.00
$80.32
1,200
$96,384.00
3 for 2
$64.41
327.33
$21,083.54
$42.94
491.06
$21,083.54
A Brief Algebraic Proof Prove that the value of the stock before a split equals the value after, using P for the price before the split and N for the number of shares held before the split.
V₁ = value before split = PN
V₂ = value after split = (Pafter)(Nafter)
For a 2-for-1 split: Pafter = ½P, Nafter = 2N
V₂ = (½P)(2N) = PN = V₁ ✓
Mathematical Strand
Interpreting Statistics
This is a six-month graph of closing prices of SIFFA Bank Group stock, running from roughly July through December, with the price climbing sharply in early August, drifting down through the fall, rallying briefly in October, then settling lower into December.
Q1
If an investor bought the stock at the beginning of August, about how much did they pay?
Between $19.00 and $19.50.
Q2
If they sold the stock at the beginning of December, about how much did they sell it for?
Between $17.00 and $17.50.
Q3
How much profit or loss was incurred between August and December?
A loss of between $2.00 and $2.50 per share (bought around $19.00–$19.50, sold around $17.00–$17.50).
Q4
If they had held onto the stock until the beginning of January, how much would they have sold it for?
About $17.60.
Q5
How much profit or loss was incurred over that longer holding period?
A loss of about $2.00 per share.
Q6
Over which one-month period did the stock experience the biggest realized loss?
From the end of August through the end of September, a drop of about $3.45.
Q7
Over which one-month period did the stock experience the biggest realized gain?
July had the greatest realized gain, about $3.50.
Q8
About when would you have wanted to buy the stock if you had to hold onto it for ten weeks?
The beginning of July.
Below is a five-day graph of closing prices and a five-year graph of closing prices for the same stock. The answer key identifies this stock as Pfizer; I'm passing that along as stated in the source material rather than confirming it independently, so treat the identification itself as unverified.
Q1
If you were considering buying this stock, would you buy it based on the five-day graph?
Probably not, because a 5-day graph is not enough information (time) to decide if it's the right time to buy this stock.
Q2
Would you buy the stock based on the five-year graph?
Possibly. The price is low enough on the five-year chart to make this look like a "buy low" opportunity, appearing to be on the rebound with some steady increase since mid-2018.
Q3
Using the information in both graphs, would you recommend buying the stock?
More research would have to be done to determine whether or not it is the right time to buy. Neither graph alone is sufficient for a confident decision.
Mathematical Strand
Communicating Quantitative Information
This is a list of closing prices for App Inc. (APP) from October 26, 2017 to November 24, 2017. Make a graph that displays the one-month trend. Their 52-week high was $123.82 and the low was $89.47; note those on your graph. Then, using the trend, make an argument about whether your team should buy the stock on November 24.
Date
Close
10/26/17
$115.28
10/27/17
$114.55
10/28/17
$119.27
10/29/17
$120.53
10/30/17
$119.50
11/2/17
$121.18
11/3/17
$122.57
11/4/17
$122.00
11/5/17
$120.92
11/6/17
$121.06
11/9/17
$120.57
11/10/17
$116.71
11/11/17
$116.11
11/12/17
$115.72
11/13/17
$112.34
11/16/17
$114.17
11/17/17
$113.69
11/18/17
$117.29
11/19/17
$118.78
11/20/17
$119.30
11/23/17
$117.75
11/24/17
$118.88
Using the trend visible in the graph: the stock rose from about $115 in late October to a peak near $122–123 in early November, then declined to a low near $112 by mid-November, before recovering back up to about $118.88 by November 24. The answer key's stated conclusion is that, based on the recent uptick from the mid-November low, the stock appears to be trending up again as of November 24, which would support a case for buying. A fair-minded answer should also note the counter-argument: the same graph shows the stock already fell roughly $10 from its early-November peak once this cycle, so the recovery could just as easily be a short bounce inside a larger downtrend. Both readings are defensible from this one month of data.
Mathematical Strand
Tackling Complex Problems: Ticker Symbols and Commission
Suzanne's group decided to buy 9 shares of Company A for $2,070 per share. Angel's group decided to buy 2,025 shares of Company B for $9.20 per share. Include a 2% commission fee on every transaction.
Q1a
How much money did each group spend on their investment, including commission?
Suzanne's group: 9 × $2,070.00 = $18,630.00, plus 2% commission ($372.60) = $19,002.60.
Angel's group: 2,025 × $9.20 = $18,630.00, plus 2% commission ($372.60) = $19,002.60.
Both groups spent exactly the same amount, since 9 × $2,070 and 2,025 × $9.20 both equal $18,630.00 before commission.
Q1b
Company B's stock had increased to $9.32 per share when Angel's group decided to sell it. How much did the group gain, taking commission into account?
FLAGGING A DISCREPANCY
Sale value: 2,025 × $9.32 = $18,873.00.
The source answer key's method: adds the 2% commission ($377.46) to the sale value: $18,873.00 + $377.46 = $19,250.46, then subtracts the original cost ($19,002.60), for a stated gain of $247.86.
My concern: commission is normally a cost the broker takes out of what you receive when you sell, not an amount added on top, which is exactly how it was treated on the buy side of this same problem (added to what you paid). Applying that same convention consistently to the sale: $18,873.00 − $377.46 (commission) = $18,495.54 net proceeds. $18,495.54 − $19,002.60 (original cost) = −$507.06, a loss, not a gain.
I'm confident in the arithmetic on both versions; what I'm not certain of is which convention your course intends for this problem. I'd lean toward the loss of $507.06 as the mathematically consistent answer, but I'm flagging both so you can decide which to teach, since it changes the answer to part (c) below as well.
Q1c
How much would Company A's stock have had to increase in the same period for Suzanne's group to make the same amount of money?
If using the source key's $247.86 gain: $247.86 ÷ 9 shares = $27.54 increase per share needed.
If using the corrected −$507.06 loss (see the flag on part b above): the question as worded assumes Angel's group made money, so it would need to be reframed. Company A's stock would need to fall by an amount producing the same-size loss for a true apples-to-apples comparison, specifically a drop of $507.06 ÷ 9 = $56.34 per share, rather than an increase.
In a past Stock Market Game round, two groups of students disagreed about whether to invest $20,000 by purchasing shares of Company A ($2,070.00 per share) or the same amount in shares of Company B ($9.20 per share).
Q2a
Would they be able to buy more shares of the first stock or the second? Explain, using mathematics.
More shares of the second (Company B). $20,000 ÷ $2,070 = 9.66 shares of Company A. $20,000 ÷ $9.20 = 2,173.91 shares of Company B.
Q2b
Without looking at any stock quotes, what reasons might there be for investing the money in a few shares of a high-priced stock?
A high per-share price by itself doesn't make a stock a better or worse value; it's important to compare a stock's price against others in the same industry, since $15 might be high for one company and low for another. If both a $9.20 stock and a $2,070 stock are good companies and both rise 10% over a year, neither has an inherent advantage: a $20,000 account in either one grows by the same $2,000, because the account's total value, not the per-share price, is what determines the dollar gain.
Q2c
What reasons might there be for investing the money in a few shares of a low-priced stock?
A lower-priced stock lets you spread $20,000 across several companies to diversify your portfolio, rather than concentrating it all in one position. If all $20,000 went into the lower-priced stock anyway, there would be no diversification advantage over buying the higher-priced stock; the benefit only shows up if the lower price is used to split the investment across multiple holdings.
Leveled Practice
Assessment, Application & Enrichment
These activities are designed for four ability levels. They are open-ended and meant to be completed using live research, so no fixed answers are provided; a few are annotated with guidance below.
NOVICE & APPRENTICE
Assessment: Create up to five rules for determining whether a particular stock is a good investment, based only on information available in its stock quote. Provide the reasoning behind each rule.
MASTER & GRAND MASTER
Assessment: List several stocks you are considering for your portfolio, and explain the performance of each and why each is a good investment.
NOVICE & APPRENTICE
Application: Consider adding The Coca-Cola Company to your portfolio. Prepare a brief report on whether or not it is a good investment. Your report should answer:
What services or products does the company provide?
Do they own any subsidiaries?
Who are their competitors? Name two.
How does their stock performance compare against their competitors?
MASTER & GRAND MASTER
Application: Develop a diversified portfolio and justify your purchases based on the information in each stock's quote.
NOVICE
Enrichment: Construct a bar graph showing how the stock prices of three different companies have changed over a three-month period. Use companies already in your portfolio, or ones you wish to include.
APPRENTICE
Enrichment: Compare two stocks in your portfolio, or ones you wish to include, to determine which has a higher percentage growth over three months.
MASTER
Enrichment: Using a company's news section in your portfolio's Investor Research tool, explain why a stock in your portfolio (or one you wish to include) moved in a certain direction over the past three months.
GRAND MASTER
Enrichment: Identify the sector represented by most of your portfolio's investments. Determine whether that sector went up or down, then explain what you believe caused the move over the past three months. For example, a portfolio holding Apple and IBM should report on why the Technology sector moved the way it did.