Financial Markets For The Rest Of Us An Easy Guide To Money, Bonds, Futures, Stocks, Options, And Mutual Funds |
Page 228 quarter measurement. The EPS for a company with losses is a negative value, but if this narrows on a year over year basis, it may point to improving conditions for the company. As an example, in 1999 the EPS value for Intel was $2.09 meaning that Intel earned $2.09 per each share in the that year, while Amazon.com's EPS was -$1.37, meaning that it lost $1.37 per each share. The EPS in and of itself is not a conclusive assessment to value a stock. The P/E ratio is generally used for that purpose. Sales Per Share - This is the company's revenues divided by its number of shares, and just like the EPS it can be considered on a quarterly or annual basis. It represents the company's revenues per each share and it can be used to determine the company's sales growth or decline. Unlike EPS, the sales per share can never be negative. At worst it would be 0 indicating that the company had no revenues for the specified period (definitely not a good sign if the company wants to stay in business). Cash Per Share - The amount of cash (liquid assets) the company has on hand per each share. The more cash a company has available, the more it can expand, and in times of difficulty continue its operations without interruption. Too much cash however may indicate the company's ineffective use of its money to grow its business. Instead, the company is letting its money lie around. Dividend Information |
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