Even though in these examples we use functions directly from the command line, the user does not need to know them by heart, since all of them can also be found/accessed through the database menus.
Example: We are interested in the historical dividend payouts by Microsoft Corp.
Company's dividend history can be found using the DVD (Dividend/Split Summary) function.
Note: as we already know, the desired company needs to be selected already or we include its name in front of the function in the command line.
Alternatively, we can for example select the Dividend section in the default Profile tab from company's DES (Security Description) page.
A table appears with data about the historically paid dividends. Some additional data can also be explored, such as dividend growth and a chart of their past value and yield. From the table we can see that Microsoft has been regularly increasing their dividends (every year) and that they are paid out quarterly. A click on an individual dividend opens a page with additional information about it.
Example: For Apple Inc. we need the data about the value and the maturity distribution of outstanding debt, but only the one that is denominated in Euros. Then, we also want to check the biggest holders of the EUR denominated debt.
To do the first part of the exercise, we use the function DDIS (Debt Distribution):
A chart opens with values of debt outstanding by year. On the left side we find the section Currency and select EUR. Then choose the outlined option Table. A table with total and per-year values of debt is shown on the screen. We can observe that the company has around 8.6 billion USD of debt in EUR, out of which the year with the highest value is 2025.
Click on an individual year to display the list of all bonds with maturity in that year with some additional details.
Display in EUR instead of conversion into USD can be done from the Curr drop-down menu:
Now, let us check the biggest holders of Euro denominated debt. This can be done by using function AGGD (Aggregated Debt) or HDS DEBT (Security Ownership: Debt).
Now we need to change the settings again to display only the debt denominated in EUR. This can be done from the Issue Currency box by typing EUR and pressing <GO>. Again, the values of EUR-denominated debt are presented in US Dollars by default, so selecting EUR from the Currency drop-down will convert the numbers to original Euros.
The top 10 holders of Apple's EUR-denominated debt and their held amounts in Euros can now be read from the table:
Example: For company Saudi Arabian Oil we want to find the ESG score. Moreover, we need individual environmental, social and governance scores and then specifically Air Emissions rating.
The home page for ESG related data can be accessed using the function ESG (ESG Analysis).
To research the methodology used in determining the scores, use the Methodology option from the red bar and navigate to your desired category.
ESG Score, Environmental, Social and Governance scores can be found in the default Overview tab. The maximum value of ratings is 10, so the scores for this company are not the highest, the lowest being Environmental score, which is of no surprise for an oil company.
However, to get more elaborate date by categories, we need to use the ESG Scores tab. To get the desired Air Emissions score we have to find Air Quality in the Environmental section and then click on it. Two sub-categories will open and one of them is Air Emissions, for which we can read the 3.55 rating out of 10.
Example: we want to Export annual EPS data for McDonald's Corporation from 2020 onward including estimates for the next 4 quarters.
The most appropriate function to do this is ERN (Earnings History). We would be able to obtain the same results (albeit in a more impractical way) by using for example function EM (Earnings Trends) as well.
The default setting for Periodicity is Quarters, so we change it to Annuals (outlined).
Using the drop-down measure Measure we can change the displayed indicator, but in this case we are satisfied with adjusted EPS.
Now just use the red Export button to receive an Excel file with data from the displayed table. On the other hand, the Settings button allows us for example to change the consolidation basis of the reports.
As mentioned above, we would be able to obtain the same results (albeit in a more impractical way) by using for example function EM (Earnings Trends) as well, while EEG (Earnings Estimates Graph) allows us to visualize the movements of the stock price and the earnings estimates in the same chart.
Example: we want to compare the movement of earnings per share, share price and price to earnings ratio for companies Pfizer and Microsoft, side by side.
Function GF (Graph Fundamentals) is used to visually analyze and compare a company's fundamentals, such as revenue, earnings, liabilities and more.
We are transferred to the function's landing page with currently Revenue and Basic Earnings per share shown in the chart. Let us add the stock price to the chart first. To add a new metric to the chart, open the Fields/Securities section and type it in the outlined orange field and select it (in this case, the metric is Last Price).
Now, let us include the P/E ratio as well. This time click on the Fields button, which opens a window with possible indicators to include. If our desired indicator is not listed, there is the option All Fields, where you can explore all the possible metrics to include sorted by categories. Because we see our Price Earnings Ratio (P/E), we click on it and then choose close the window by clicking on Close.
Now remove Revenue line from the chart by clicking on the red encircled X next to its name. Then, change the color for the Price line by right-clicking the chart and selecting Edit Color and Style for the indicator, which opens a new mini window with preference settings.
To compare charted indicators of the currently selected company with indicators of another company, go to the Fields/Securities section again and either type it in the amber box Add a Security or find it via Browse button.
The charts get displayed one above the other. Use the outlined symbol (below) to include relative values of indicators compared to a benchmark of your choice.
To mark relevant events in the chart, you can right-click on the chart and then choose Events. Select the one you need and it will appear in the chart.
Changing the time frame, saving the chart, changing the view to Table and then exporting it all work in the same manner as with other charts. Tutorials for them can be found here. To load a previously saved chart, choose Load -> My Charts.
Many equity indices, S&P 500 included, do not account for the dividends paid by the constituents. We want to see the difference between the index returns for the past 30 years in case they are accounted for and in case they are not.
Total returns can be explored using the TRA (Total Return Analysis) function. The function is not limited to indices, but also works for individual companies.
Set the Range to the desired period. From the table in the Holding Strategy section we can observe that reinvesting dividends during the period yielded 9.93% average returns compared to 7.84% average returns in case of not reinvesting them. In total, the difference in returns is very significant, namely 1617% vs 864%.
The chart below presents the difference visually as well:
Example: we want to find credit ratings from different credit agencies for Ford and also observe the company's historical creditworthiness according to Fitch's Long Term Issuer Default Rating.
We will use function CRPR (Credit Profile).
Various credit ratings from the main agencies are displayed. To get the historical data about the Fitch's LT Issuer Default Rating, we simply click on the rating.
A new window opens with a list of the past ratings:
Credit rating scales, definitions and their comparisons from different providers can be found by using the RATD (Ratings Definitions) function.
As an addition, not necessarily related to this example, an interesting function when dealing with credit ratings is RATT (Credit Rating Trends).
This function allows us to determine the trends of credit ratings over time.
Example: We want to see the analysts' opinions about the valuations of the Tesla Inc. stock, namely whether more of them advise to buy the stock or sell it.
To access this data, we use the function ANR (Analyst Recommendations).
The page that opens can be seen below. On the top-left side we can see that 21 analysts' current rating is "Buy", 20 of them recommend to hold the stock and 9 think that the price is too high and therefore advise to sell it. On the top-right side we can see a visual representation of this ratio both currently and historically. Individual ratings are also listed in the table on the bottom of the page.
Example: we want to export to Excel a table of historical values for the German DAX index, namely weekly data for years 2018-2022.
To obtain a table of historical prices, use function HP (Historical Price Table).
We land on the page with historical data for DAX. Using the below shown amber boxes we set the desired Range (note that the dates get automatically updated to the first trading day after the selected date and the last trading day before the selected end date) and Period to Weekly.
To export the data to Excel, use the red Export button. Upon clicking, an Excel file gets downloaded. Do not worry, the data in the Excel file is formulated in an easier way to read and analyze than on the HP function page.
Example: Corporate finance pays a lot of attention to the companies' average cost of capital from all sources, i.e., the company's WACC. Let us check the value of WACC for Microsoft Corp.
To get this data we simply use the function WACC (Weighted Average Cost of Capital) for the selected company.
We are met with the following interface.
We can observe from the table in the top-left corner that the company's WACC currently equals 10.4%. We can also see that Equity contributes by far the most to this value, and the reason for that can be observed from the table in the top-right corner that the company has less than 80 billion USD of debt while having over 2.1 trillion USD of market capitalization.
Example: we want to access a list of currently most traded stock options.
Access the list using function MOSO (Most Active Options).
To select the exchange(s) from which you want to analyze options, use the outlined drop-down menus and hit <GO>.
Right-clicking on the name of an option from the table will show us a plethora of relevant functions that we can use for its further analysis. For example:
Displaying the results for a single security is possible by choosing Single Security instead of default Single Exchange and then selecting the desired security from the amber box. Press <GO> to update the results.
Set various filters for display from the section above the table. For example, by selecting an individual sector from the Sector drop-down menu, only options with underlying instruments from this sector will be shown in the table. Other settings include:
Export to Excel using the red button.
Additional filters can be applied using the Option Filter section and then hitting <GO>:
To save the selected settings for later use, choose Settings and then Save in the window that appears. The next time that we use the MOSO function, those settings will be applied by default.
Example: let us find the current ask price for Tesla's 240 USD call and put option with maturity of December 15th, 2023.
To analyze the outstanding options for a selected security, use function OMON (Option Monitor). This function offers a plethora of different ways to analyze the data, but let us limit to just what we need for this example.
There are 6 tabs available, each with a different standard template for displaying the option data. The default tab Center Strike will be all right for the purposes of this example.
We first need to locate the listed options with expiry on Dec 15th, 2023.
We can observe that the searched option (TSLA 12/15/23 C240) is currently not displayed (we can also see from the Strike column in the middle that there is no 240 value for December 15). We can increase the number of different strikes shown for this maturity in the following way:
Now observe the Ask price for the option that we are interested in (table Calls). We can read the value of 41.45 USD from the table.
We do the same for puts from the Puts table on the right and observe the price of 12.90 USD.
If we wanted to display data for all option strikes for a certain maturity (when dealing with either deep in the money or deep out of the money options), we need to do this through Settings -> Edit Columns. In window that opens, open the Settings tab and set the preference for Strikes to All and then click Update.
Example: we would like to determine the beta value for the company Nike Inc. relative to S&P 500 Index as the benchmark using linear regression. The data used for returns needs to be weekly and for the past 5 years.
We will perform the linear regression using the HRA (Regression Analysis) function, which will also visually map benchmark (S&P 500 Index) returns on one axis and the corresponding returns of Nike Inc. on another axis.
On the function page, we first need to select the independent and dependent security, which can be done from the amber boxes in the red bar. Set the dependent equity to Nike Inc. and the independent one to the S&P 500 Index.
We leave the Last Price setting for both assets first, but if we wanted to analyze other indicators we could set them here.
To set the returns to weekly, select Weekly option from the drop-down menu instead of Monthly. This means that in the regression, weekly returns will be used for both securities, which will map a point for every week in the chart as well.
Let us set the period to the past 5 years. When satisfied with settings, press <GO>.
We can see the graphical representation of individual dots that show weekly returns of the dependent security returns on the vertical axis and the independent security returns on the horizontal axis. By moving the cursor over a dot, we can see the date and both returns. The regression line is shown in red, while its formula can also be read from the top-left part of the graph canvas. Distribution histograms of both dependent and independent security returns are also displayed on the axes.
To see various regression parameters and coefficients, observe the section on the right side of the page. Beta value is one of the values we can find from there — Raw BETA is the historical sensitivity measure, while Adjusted BETA is an estimate of the security's future beta.
To save your chart, use Actions -> Save As... To access it in the future, use Open Saved Regression Chart below it in Actions or generally by using function G (My Graphs and Maps).
Under Actions we can also find detailed statistics and data table.
Some chart modifications can also be accessed via the outlined bar. Using the Copy option, we can copy the image to clipboard and then paste it elsewhere.
