Page 568 - Introduction to Business

542 PART 5 Finance

Case in Point

Financial Information Available to Investors on the Web
Regarding Sony Corporation

Stock Market Symbol: SNE Earnings Per Share: $1.122
Last Trade: $34.93 Dividend & Yield: $0.2258 (0.65%)
Trade Time: 4:00 PM ET Source: Yahoo! Finance, http://finance.yahoo.com, August 24, 2004.
Change: +0.33
Prev Close: $34.60
Questions
Open: $35.00
1. What is Sony’s P/E ratio?
1y Target Est: $37.00
2. How many years will it take for current earnings
Day’s Range: $34.77 – 35.14
per share to equal the current stock price?
52wk Range: $31.86 – 43.67
3. Relatively speaking, does that seem like a long
Volume: 520,100 shares time or short time?
Avg Vol (3m): 433,681 shares 4. What might this imply about the average
Market Capitalization: $32.27 Billion investor’s expectations as to whether Sony’s
P/E Ratio: 31.13 earnings will increase or decrease in the future?

on daily stock prices, although most major newspapers also publish daily highs,
daily lows, closing prices, and net change from the previous closing price for indi-
vidual stocks. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times stock market listings
also provide the highest and lowest price of each stock during the past 52 weeks, the
dividend amount (with corresponding yield percentage), and volume of shares
traded.
A number of websites, such as Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com), pro-
vide stock quotes. Many websites that allow you to maintain a personalized page
will also allow you to track a personalized portfolio of stocks on your page. For
example, Yahoo! will allow quotes to be maintained for several stocks and for sev-
eral indexes of your choosing on a “My Yahoo!” page, along with other personalized
news and services. Stock price services such as these are usually delayed from 15
minutes to an hour and are provided by various news sources. Many sites will also
allow you to review historical charts and graphs of these stocks.
Stock market investments range from very high risk to very low risk. Some
stocks provide relatively high dividend yields (dividend amount divided by market
growth stocks Stocks that provide low, price of the stock), while others provide no dividends. Growth stocks are those that
if any, dividends, but do offer potential provide low, if any, dividends, but do offer long-term capital appreciation. In other
long-term capital appreciation
words, the price of the stock is expected to increase over time. Wal-Mart has been
an example of a growth stock.
income stocks Stocks that offer little Income stocks are those that offer little opportunity for capital appreciation but
opportunity for capital appreciation but provide relatively high dividends. Most utility companies, such as Philadelphia
provide relatively high dividends
Electric or Texas Utilities, are considered income stocks. Many companies provide
some dividends and are considered combination growth and income stocks. Stocks
of automobile manufacturing companies, for example, provide both substantial
dividends and opportunities for capital appreciation. A company’s board of direc-
tors typically sets the dividend policy on the basis of the desires of the manage-
value stocks Stocks of companies that ment, the stockholders, and applicable laws and regulations. Value stocks include
are considered relatively low risk, have
expected but limited growth potential, stodgy old utilities and industrial firms such as Allstate, John Deere, Alcoa, Duke
and generally pay modest dividends Power, Philip Morris, and Caterpillar. Value stocks represent companies that are

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