When selecting this function, we land by default on the Key Stats tab which shows some important financial data from both market and financial statements. The full statements such as income statement (tab I/S), balance sheet (tab B/S) and cash flow statement (tab C/F) and a various other data can be obtained by using the outlined tabs below.
For example, let us find Research & Development expenses for the company Nvidia Corp and see how their value has developed over the past 10 years. To get this data, we need to open their Income statement. Select the I/S tab:
Keep the Annuals setting (we could for example change it to Quarters), but change the number of periods from 5 to 10 by typing "10" in the amber box and pressing <GO>.
Now find the Research & Development row. If we are not sure what an individual element in the statement represents, we can right click on its name and select Definition, which will open a new box.
To obtain the historical chart of the desired element, click on the chart symbol on its left side.
The chart opens in the GF (Graph Fundamentals) function. The left-side section allows us to include additional elements of the statement for comparison.
To quickly analyze the data in this view, select Annotate on the top of the chart canvas and select the tool from the menu that opens on the left side. For example we can check the percentage changes using the outlined tool:
Back to the income statement; note that the outlined tab (which is also present when using other statements and data in the FA function) allows us to go deeper in details, or in this case to display data according to different accounting standards or in different ways.
Also note the Cur drop-down menu which allows us to switch between reporting/pricing currencies, which is especially useful for companies listed in other currencies.
As previously mentioned, some other data besides financial reports is also available inside function FA.
Let us check what percentage of the company's total revenue is based in United States. To get the data on this select the Segments tab and then By Geography.
We are met with a table, from which we can read that 30.7% of Nvidia's revenues in the last year came from the United States.
To export the data from FA function, click on the red Export button. A drop-down menu will open. By selecting Excel -> Current Template the currently displayed table will get exported to a new Excel file.
Note: the table is exported in the form of functions that retrieve values from Bloomberg. While that is useful for future updates, it will only work on computers with Bloomberg terminal installed. Therefore, copying and pasting the result as values is needed (for example to another sheet) for you to be able to view and modify the data on other computers as well.
By selecting the option Custom Report (after choosing either Excel or PDF) we can select the data we want to export. The screen that appears is shown in the screen capture below.
First select the data you want to have displayed from the list on the left side and then click Add in the middle. After setting preferences such as the currency, the number of periods and frequency (on top) or changing the order of data (at the bottom with Move Up and Move Down or by drag-and-drop) click on Generate in the top left corner. A file with requested data will get downloaded to the computer.
The same warning holds as in the note above regarding the data downloaded in the form of functions instead of values (when downloading an Excel file).
