Stocks — Doing Your Homework

Radio Transcript, 60 seconds, for use during week of October 8.

This is an Invest Wisely minute brought to you by Iowa State University Extension.

When you include stocks in your investment portfolio, it pays to do your homework. To find out about a stock’s basic value, check out its financial statements.  These are free and contain a wealth of information.

Use these financial statements to calculate financial ratios, such as price-to-earnings, dividend yield, and return on equity.  Or look these up on the Internet.

It’s all in the numbers. These ratios can tell you a lot about a company’s financial health and if buying its stock will fit your investment needs.

Invest Wisely comes from Iowa State University Extension through a grant from the Investor Protection Trust providing investor education on the web at investorprotection.org.