Investment information sources for research

[johnhemming]

I have put this topic into How Do I Invest because it is relevant to all investment although I was previously discussing it in HYP. I am reviewing sources of information and am interested in other people's experiences. All of the secondary sources seem to have problems from time to time so it is always important to be able to go back to source.

This is my current list
1. ADVFN - I have had a paid for account on this for decades and it is my primary tool for managing investments.
2. Sharecast - this has come on from Digital Look and provides useful forecasts of future earnings etc. I think these are generated by various brokers, it would be nice to know where to get the original stuff from.
3. FT - which I think also allows searches from Investors Chronicle
4. Investors Chronicle, although I have invested in the markets since the 1980s I have never really looked at this although I have been quite impressed recently and have now subscribed. I am aware, however, that any tips in here can cause some price movement in illiquid stocks.
5. HYPTUSS - I am going to look at this, but have not done so yet. I particularly want to be able to look at price movements over periods longer than a day (Ie price movements from a base point, for a week or for a month (or 4 weeks). I was thinking of writing this (for those that don't know I am a computer programmer), but actually it would be better for me to add to HYPTUSS if this is missing from it.
6. Stockopedia- this is a paid for service that has a trial period. I will try it out some time later this month when I have the time to look at it, but it could be quite good.
7. Target Prices - I can normally find the research target prices either on the FT or on Hargreaves Lansdown's site. I find this useful as guide to whether I am missing something.
8. http://www.dividenddata.co.uk these people offer some dividend data, but they don't give as far as I can tell lists of dividends (which makes reconciling discrepancies difficult).

I am the sort of investor who does not want to spend too much time on research or monitoring investments. Hence I need to have tools that enable me to keep track of things without having to be on the ball every minute of the day.

I think it would be helpful to develop an exhaustive list of secondary data sources that are useful. Hence this topic.

[monabri]

8. http://www.dividenddata.co.uk these people offer some dividend data, but they don't give as far as I can tell lists of dividends (which makes reconciling discrepancies difficult).

Not sure what you mean here as I find the "dividenddata" site to be one of the best for info on dividends - it is a source that I refer to very frequently.
The extent of info they offer on dividends is the best I've come across. It's a free service but it is one that I would actually pay for.

The site lists out

- forthcoming XD dates for shares along with the amounts ..for shares in the month
- forthcoming Pay dates for shares along with the amounts ...for shares in the month.

- Historical dividends for a company in tabulated form back to year 2000...with an option to include/exclude special dividends.
- Calculated dividend growth rates over 5, 10 , 15 years
- The dividends take into account share splits. There is an option to look at the "raw" data with the option switched off.

- Graphical presentation of historical yields for a company over different time periods

- Year end, announcement dates, type of dividend Q1/Q4/interim/ final, XD date, pay date, sum.

- Current yield

- Dividend Pedigrees (check if "continuous dividends", Dividend Grown/Held, Years of consecutive divi growth)

[Itsallaguess]

8. http://www.dividenddata.co.uk these people offer some dividend data, but they don't give as far as I can tell lists of dividends (which makes reconciling discrepancies difficult).

The site lists out

- Historical dividends for a company in tabulated form back to year 2000...with an option to include/exclude special dividends.

As an example of this, here is the dividenddata page for Vodafone, which clearly lists the dividends back to 2000 -

https://www.dividenddata.co.uk/dividend-history.py?epic=VOD

I suspect that John may have been missing it purely as a site-navigation issue?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[SalvorHardin]

People who are into American and Canadian shares should consider Seeking Alpha and The Motley Fool.

That's the original Motley Fool, fool.com, which is more extensive than TMF UK ever was. They have the old TMF boards' structure.

I've been using TMF USA since the late 1990s, a year before discovering TMF UK. Their boards and tipsheets generate ideas. I've subscribed to Stock Adviser for many years, mostly because they have a good news service on the premium boards which covers three of my four largest holdings (Disney, Berkshire Hathaway and Union Pacific).

Seeking Alpha has lots of articles, written by all sorts of investors, so the quality is quite variable. I use the free service. One thing that I find particularly useful is that they often have transcripts of company presentations and Question and Answer sessions with analysts.

[scrumpyjack]

I also think it is well worth looking at a company's published accounts. As a retired accountant I always do that before buying a company's shares.

I too have subscribed for many years to the Investors Chronicle (part of the FT) whose comments are a lot more carefully considered than the press. But they too sometimes get things badly wrong. The worst I can recall was that they were taken in by Naibu (a Chinese scam) in spite of many private investors having flagged it as a probable scam on TMF.

In the end you must look at things sceptically yourself (hence no substitute for looking at the latest full set of accounts), and make your own decisions.

[monabri]

I suspect that John may have been missing it purely as a site-navigation issue?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Yes, that's probably the solution - nicely put.

[johnhemming]

I suspect that John may have been missing it purely as a site-navigation issue?

As I read it those are totals for the year. Obviously it is not impossible to reconcile totals to lists and make a stab at why there are any differences, but it is much easier when you have two lists.

[johnhemming]

I also think it is well worth looking at a company's published accounts.

I agree with you about that, but that I consider to be a primary source rather than a secondary source.

[Itsallaguess]

As I read it [the dividenddata list] those are totals for the year.

Obviously it is not impossible to reconcile totals to lists and make a stab at why there are any differences, but it is much easier when you have two lists.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'totals for the year' there John - there's four separate columns of dividend information available -

• Interim
• Final
• Special
• Total

https://www.dividenddata.co.uk/dividend-history.py?epic=VOD



Can you say what specific dividend information you're looking for that isn't delivered with the above information?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[monabri]

maybe this view (using VOD as an example) to identify the dates/amounts ?

https://www.dividenddata.co.uk/dividend ... y?epic=VOD

[johnhemming]

Having started looking at HYPTUSS I note this list of sites:
http://lemonfoolfinancialsoftware.weebl ... sites.html

Oddly enough I had never looked at the AJ Bell data which seems quite good.

[johnhemming]

maybe this view (using VOD as an example) to identify the dates/amounts ?

https://www.dividenddata.co.uk/dividend ... y?epic=VOD

Looking at RDSB (because it is one with 4 dividends a year)
https://www.dividenddata.co.uk/dividend ... ?epic=RDSB

I have found the dividend history which lists each of them (as a different type of Q1-Q4). I wonder what happens if you have more than one interim dividend. I tried Santander (BNC), but I presume it is not in the 100 or 250.

What I would like as a reconciliation source is each dividend ideally with the date. However, it does appear that where a company pays dividends quarterly that each dividend appears, but only be defining them as different types of dividend. It is not clear whether it is doing a subtotal at a type of dividend and financial year or defining each dividend as a different type.

[johnhemming]

I have found also:

MarketScreener
https://www.marketscreener.com/BANCO-SA ... S-A-69308/

Business insider markets
https://markets.businessinsider.com/ana ... ral-677458

Neither of which are (currently) on the weebly list above.