Annual Report analysis tools -- for Manufacturer and Retail companies
If you want to read my article on analyzing the annual report, published in BetterInvesting magazine, click here.
If you do not have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer you might install a free copy of OpenOffice. See Recommended Reading.
However, I strongly recommend the Student version of Microsoft Office, available at a reasonable cost, which contains Excel, It's available at www.Amazon.com and other retailers, sometimes for under $100. There are two methods of analyzing the Annual Report -- using a computerized form, or a manual form. Each is described below--as well as the "Ratio Analyzer" on StockCentral.com, which is derived from my spreadsheet.
NOTE: Download the appropriate form for the spreadsheet program you have on your computer -- Excel, OpenOffice, or Works. Excel is recommended.
NOTE: Select the form that matches the version of Excel on your computer. "Save" it to your computer. It will not function if your choose to "Open" it during the download process.
Annual Report Analysis form version 4.0.6updated 10-28-09 SAVE the form to your computer
This tool will retrieve data from the Internet automatically. Enter a company ticker symbol and the Internet will be searched for the data and inserted into the spreadsheet automatically. The automatic insertion of data does not work with Open Office or the Mac--except for the newest Mac operating system and running Windows.
A version of this tool, which runs on the Mac as well as the PC is available on StockCentral.com. When on the site, click on "Tools" then "Ratio Analyzer". (This is a subscription site--a free trial period is offered.)
The forms below require data to be typed in manually
Manual Data entry form version 2.7.2 updated 6-6-07 (Will work with older versions of Excel) Click here to download (Enter data manually) On this form you'll find a link to Yahoo data, which is the method I recommend when filling in the data manually. Use this version if you are using a Mac that doesn't run Windows.
NOTE: The Student & Teacher version of MS Office, which includes Excel is available at a reasonable cost at Amazon.com and other stores. I recommend that version, which will allow all the features of these spreadsheets to operate using the automatic fill of data features. OpenOffice version version 2.7 (Requires OpenOffice)
Click here to see information on OpenOffice. The OpenOffice spreadsheet file is in the Zip format. It will be necessary to double click on the file once it's been downloaded to extract it. Then double click on the extracted file and it will load automatically into OpenOffice.
MS Works version (Requires MS Works) -- Because of the limitations of MS Works, some of the analysis information, when compared to the Excel version is missing in this file. The missing functions are:
Cell and text colors do not change colors to act as helps when analyzing the data. Old data must be deleted manually and all data entered manually.
These forms are primarily for use in analyzing manufacturing and retail companies. A form for analyzing the Banking Industry is available.
Click here to see a discussion of that form.