In: Accounting
Financial Accounting, Ch. 11: Reporting and Analyzing Stockholders’ Equity
How can companies control the value of their stock?
What are some methods that investors can use to determine if a corporation is worth investing in?
| The value of the company is measured by its market cap. Market cap is the product of the share price and the number of shares outstanding. |
| Although, both the creterias are to be determined by the company, there are many factors that go for determining these. |
| The share price is decided by many factors : |
| 1. Demand and supply - determined by buyers and sellers in the market (similar to law of economics) |
| 2. Sudden change or temporary change in price - political events, dividend declaration, earnings report etc. |
| 3. Performance - measured by numbers example- EPS, ROA, ROE, Financial statements, Liquidity ratios, Leverage ratios etc. |
| 4. Beyond numbers is the "herd instinct"- also known as behavioural instict to follow the peers in society. |
| In each of the points mentioned above, the company can pro-actively act and be a market leader and take it to its stride. |
| Like-wise, every prudent investor analyses the company before investing in it. |
| It may be done systematically as follows : |
| 1. Fundamental Stock Analysis : Using the financials, evaluate its EPS, growth rate, potential earnings, hidden weakness if any. |
| 2. Market Analysis : The health of the industry concerned and its volatality |
| 3. Technical stock Analysis : Using the daily, weekly, monthly reports and using the statistical tools. |
| 4. Historical Preceedent Analysis |
| 5. Recent trends in stock market |
| 6. Further study if needed- using the statistical measures like NPV , Pay back period etc., |
| After all these routine checks, one has to be cautious in investing in those companies in which the investor has not understood them well. |