Patience is key while Investing in equities. Build a diversified portfolio of small and mid caps by Investing in Hidden Gems and Value Picks. Click here for details.

SARAL GYAN HOLI DHAMAKA OFFER 2024

SERVICES:        HIDDEN GEMS    |    VALUE PICKS    |    15% @ 90 DAYS    |    WEALTH-BUILDER

NANO CHAMPS (DEEPLY UNDERVALUED & UNDISCOVERED MICRO CAPS)

PAST PERFORMANCE >>> HIDDEN GEMS, VALUE PICKS & WEALTH-BUILDER >>>  VIEW / DOWNLOAD

SARAL GYAN ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES

Saturday, July 14, 2018

6 Steps to Explore Best Stocks for Investment

Below are the 6 Important Steps to Explore Best Stocks for Investment

Step-1: Find out how the company makes money
Step-2: Do a Sector Analysis of the Company
Step-3: Examine the recent & historical performance of the Stock
Step-4: Perform competitive analysis of the firm with its Competitors
Step-5: Read and evaluate company’s Financial statements
Step-6: Buy or Sell

Step-1: Find out how the company makes money

Before you decide to invest in a company’s stock, find out how the company makes money. This is probably the easiest of all the steps. Read company’s annual and quarterly reports, newspapers and business magazines to understand the various revenue streams of the firm. Stock price reflects the firm’s ability to generate consistent or above expectation profits/earnings from its ongoing/core operations. Any income from unrelated activities should not affect the stock price. Investors will pay for its earnings from its core operations, which is its strength and stable operation, and not from unrelated activities. Thus, you need to find out which operations of the firm are generating revenues and profits. If you do not know that you are bound to get a hit in future.

Warren Buffet once said that “if you do not understand how a company makes money, do not buy its stock- you will always end up loosing money”. He never invested even a single penny in technology stocks and yet made billions and billions of dollars both during tech bubble and bust.

Step-2: Do a Sector Analysis of the Company

First is to figure out which sector the stock is in. Then, figure out what all factors affect the performance of the sector. For example, Infosys is in IT services sector, NTPC is in Power sector and DLF is in Real Estate sector. Half of what a stock does is totally dependent on its sector. Simple rule-Good factors help stocks while bad factors hurt stocks.

Let’s take an example of airlines industry. The factors that affect it are fuel prices, growth in air traffic and competition. If fuel prices are high, tickets would be expensive and hence fewer people will fly. This will hurt the airlines sectors and firms equally. This would make the sector less attractive because there would be less scope for growth of the firms.

The idea is to find out the good and bad factors for the sectors and figure out how much they will affect the stock and how. What we are really looking at are reasons that will make stock price good or bad or a company look more or less valuable, even though nothing about the company changes. This will give you a broader view whether the stocks will do well or poorly in the future.

Step-3: Examine the recent & historical performance of the Stock

By performance we mean both operational and financial performance of the company. Take out some time to find out how the company has done in its business over the years. Were there issues with its operations such as labor strike, frequent breakdowns, higher attrition or lagging deadlines? If any company has a history of serious problems, it does not make a good buy because chances are high it may have similar problems again. History is a good predictor of future! It is also extremely important to find out the historical financial performance of the company – growth in revenues, profits (earnings), profit margins, stock price movements etc.

Step-4: Perform competitive analysis of the firm with its Competitors

This is most important step in analyzing a stock. Unfortunately, most of the retail investors do not bother to do this. It takes time to do this step but it worth trying if you don’t want to loose your money. Many investors buy a stock because they have heard about the company or used the products or think companies have excellent technologies. However, if you do not evaluate or compare those features of the company with other similar firms, how will you figure out whether the firm is utilizing them effectively or is better/worse than others? We also need to find out whether company is growing rapidly or slowly or has no growth. We would like to cover couple of financial ratios here in brief and explain how to use them to figure out a good stock.

P/E: Price-to-earnings ratio is the most widely used ratio in stock valuation. It means how much investors are paying more for each unit of income. It is calculated as Market Price of Stock / Earnings per share. A stock with a high P/E ratio suggests that investors are expecting higher earnings growth in the future compared to the overall market, as investors are paying more for today's earnings in anticipation of future earnings growth. Hence, as a generalization, stocks with this characteristic are considered to be growth stocks. However, P/E alone may not tell you the whole story as you see it varies from one company to another because of different growth rates. Hence, another ratio, PEG (P/E divided by Earnings Growth rate) gives a better comparative understanding of the stock.

PEG = Stocks P/E / Growth Rate
We do not want to go into the calculation part as values for P/E are available on internet for most of the companies.
A PEG of less than 1 makes an excellent buy if the company is fundamentally strong. If it is above 2, it is a sell. If PEG for all the stocks are not very different, one with lowest P/E value would be a great BUY.

Step-5: Read and evaluate company’s Financial statements

This is the most difficult part of this process. It is generally used by sophisticated finance professionals, mostly fund managers who can understand different financial statements. However, there are few things that even you should keep in mind. There are three different financial statement- balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. You should focus only on balance sheet and cash flow statement.

Balance Sheet: It summarizes a company’s assets, liabilities (debt) and shareholders’ equity at a specific point in time. A typical Indian firm’s balance sheet has following line items:

• Gross block
• Capital work in progress
• Investments
• Inventory
• Other current assets
• Equity Share capital
• Reserves
• Total debt

Gross block: Gross block is the sum total of all assets of the company valued at their cost of acquisition. This is inclusive of the depreciation that is to be charged on each asset.

Net block is the gross block less accumulated depreciation on assets. Net block is actually what the asset is worth to the company.

Capital work in progress: Capital work in progress sometimes at the end of the financial year, there is some construction or installation going on in the company, which is not complete, such installation is recorded in the books as capital work in progress because it is asset for the business.

Investments: If the company has made some investments out of its free cash, it is recorded under it.

Inventory: Inventory is the stock of goods that a company has at any point of time.

Receivables include the debtors of the company, i.e., it includes all those accounts which are to give money back to the company.

Other current assets: Other current assets include all the assets, which can be converted into cash within a very short period of time like cash in bank etc.

Equity Share capital: Equity Share capital is the owner\'s equity. It is the most permanent source of finance for the company.

Reserves: Reserves include the free reserves of the company which are built out of the genuine profits of the company. Together they are known as net worth of the company.

Total debt: Total debt includes the long term and the short debt of the company. Long term is for a longer duration, usually for a period more than 3 years like debentures. Short term debt is for a lesser duration, usually for less than a year like bank finance for working capital.

One need to ask-How much debt does the company have? How much debt does it have the current year? Find out debt to equity ratio. If this ratio is greater than 2, the company has a high risk of default on the interest payments. Also, find out whether the firm is generating enough cash to pay for its working capital or debt. If total liabilities are greater than total assets, sell the stock as the firm is heading for disaster. This debt to equity ratio is extremely important for a company to survive in bad economy. What is happening now-a-days should make this extremely important. Companies having higher debt ratio have got hammered in the stock market. Look at real estate companies- their stocks are down by almost 90% from all time highs made in 2007 - 2008. This is because they have high debt level which means higher interest payments. In case of liquidity crisis and global slowdown, it would be extremely difficult for such companies to survive. Remember, a weak balance sheet makes a company vulnerable to bankruptcy!

Step-6: Buy or Sell

Follow all the steps from 1 to 5 religiously. It will take time but worth doing it. If you do it, you won’t have to see a situation where you loose more than 50% of stock value in a week! Buying or selling will depend on how your stock(s) perform on the above analysis.

Wish you happy & safe Investing. 

Regards, 
Team - Saral Gyan

Thursday, November 9, 2017

ASBA Full Form & How It Works While Applying For IPOs?

What is ASBA?

ASBA full form and its process in IPO
Do you know ASBA full form is Application Supported by Blocked Amount, ASBA is a new investor-friendly way to apply for initial public offerings (IPOs). It is an interface for banks to participate in the process of IPO payments as proposed by the capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The objective of introducing ASBA is to ensure an investor's funds leave his bank account only on allotment of shares in public issues.

The ASBA process also ensures that only the required amount of funds is debited to the investor's bank account on allotment of shares. In this mechanism, the need for refunds is completely obviated. The banks participating in an IPO process can upload the bids with respect to their customers into the electronic books of BSE and NSE. The interface facilitates not only the controlling branch but also the designated branches of the banks to directly upload the bids into the electronic books.

Also Read: Potential Multibagger Stock 2019 Report - Free Download

ASBA provides an alternative mode of payment in issues whereby the application money remains in the investor's account till finalisation of basis of allotment in the issue. The process facilitates individual investors bidding at cut-off, with single option, to apply through self-certified syndicate banks (SCSBs), in which the investors have accounts. SCSBs are banks that meet the conditions laid down by SEBI.

Role of SCSB
  • Accept application
  • Verify application
  • Block funds to the extent of bid payment amount
  • Upload the details on the web-based bidding system of the exchange
  • Unblock once the basis of allotment is finalised
  • Transfer the amount for allotted shares to the issuer
This will co-exist with the current procedure of investors applying through sub-syndicate and syndicate members, with a cheque as a payment instrument. The ASBA is an application containing an authorisation to block the application money in the bank account to subscribe to an issue. If an investor is applying through ASBA, his application money will be debited from the bank account only if his application is selected for allotment after the basis of allotment is finalised, or the issue is withdrawn.

Under the ASBA facility, investors can apply to any public or rights issues by using their bank account. Investor have to submit the ASBA form (available at the designated branches of banks acting as SCSB) after filling in details such as name, PAN number, demat account number, bid quantity, bid price and other relevant details to the branch with an instruction to block the amount in their account. In turn, the bank will upload the details of the application in the bidding platform. The investor should ensure the details that are filled in the ASBA form are correct. Otherwise, the form is liable to be rejected.

In case if you applied in IPO of recently listed Coal India through ICICI direct or any other SCSBs, you might experienced that applied amount was always visible in your available balance but was not available to withdraw (blocked amount)because it could not be used by you untill the IPO allotment process is over. This is possible only because of ASBA facility.

Advantages of applying through ASBA facility

1. No need for cheque payment: The investor need not pay the application money through a cheque. He has to submit the ASBA which accompanies an authorisation to block the amount in the bank account - to the extent of the application money.

2. Refunds don't arise: The investor does not have to bother about refund, as in ASBA only that much money - to the extent required for allotment of securities - is taken from the bank account, only when his application is selected for allotment after the basis of allotment is finalised.

3. Interest ensured: The investor continues to earn interest on the application money as it remains in the bank account, which is not the case in other modes of payment.

4. Simple form: The application form is simpler. The investor deals with a known intermediary - his own bank. An investor who is eligible for ASBA has the option of making an application through the ASBA, or through the existing facility of applying with a cheque.

Become a Smart Investor in 2 Minutes!
Sign Up for FREE Articles providing Insight to Equity Market

What is ASBA & how ASBA process works?  You can subscribe to Saral Gyan to  receive regular updates, stock tips &  stock market news.

 Subscribe by email by providing your  email below and all updates will direct  to your inbox:


Rss Feed Saral Gyan Rss Twitter Feed rss feed Twitter Facebook Google

Frequently Asked Questions on ASBA (Source: NSE)

1. What is “ASBA”?

ASBA means “Application Supported by Blocked Amount”. ASBA is an application containing an authorization to block the application money in the bank account, for subscribing to an issue. If an investor is applying through ASBA, his application money shall be debited from the bank account only if his/her application is selected for allotment after the basis of allotment is finalized, or the issue is withdrawn/failed.

2. Detailed procedure of applying in IPO through ASBA.

Under ASBA facility, investors can apply in any public/ rights issues by using their bank account. Investor submits the ASBA form (available at the designated branches of the banks acting as SCSB) after filling the details like name of the applicant, PAN number, demat account number, bid quantity, bid price and other relevant details, to their banking branch by giving an instruction to block the amount in their account. In turn, the bank will upload the details of the application in the bidding platform. Investors shall ensure that the details that are filled in the ASBA form are correct otherwise the form is liable to be rejected.

3. Who can apply through ASBA facility?

SEBI has been specifying the investors who can apply through ASBA. In public issues w.e.f. May 1, 2010 all the investors can apply through ASBA. In rights issues, all shareholders of the company as on record date are permitted to use ASBA for making applications provided he/she/it: _ is holding shares in dematerialized form and has applied for entitlements or additional shares in the issue in dematerialised form; _ has not renounced its entitlements in full or in part; _ is not a renouncee; _ who is applying through blocking of funds in a bank account with the SCSB

4. Where can the investors get the ASBA forms for any issue?

The investor can generate e-form from NSE website for any issue. The same link is also available on BRLM’s (Book running lead manager) website also.

5. What advantage an investor has in applying through ASBA?

Applying through ASBA facility has the following advantages: (i) The investor continues to earn interest on the application money as the same remains in the bank account. (ii) The investor does not have to bother about refunds, as in ASBA only that much money to the extent required for allotment of securities, is taken from the bank account only when his application is selected for allotment after the basis of allotment is finalized.

6. Is it mandatory to apply through ASBA only? 

It is mandatory for all public issues opening on or after January 01, 2016.

7. Where should I submit my Application Supported by Blocked Amount (ASBA)? 

Investor may submit application form to his trading member or to a SCSB.List of Self Certified Syndicate Banks (SCSBs) and their designed branches i.e. branches where ASBA application form can be submitted, is available on the NSE website and on the website of SEBI (www.sebi.gov.in). The list of SCSB would also be given in the ASBA application form.

8. What is Self certified Syndicate Bank (SCSB)? 

SCSB is a bank which is recognized as a bank capable of providing ASBA services to its customers. Names of such banks would appear in the list available on the website of SEBI and the same is also available on NSE website.

9. Can I submit ASBA in any of the banks specified in the list of SCSBs? 

No, ASBA can be submitted to the SCSB with which the investor is holding the bank account.

10. How many applications can be made from a bank account? 

Five (5) applications can be made from a bank account per issue.

11. Am I required to submit ASBA only physically?

No, you can either fill up the physical form and submit the same to the SCSB/Trading member or apply electronically/online through the internet banking facility/online facility (if provided by your SCSB/Trading member).

12. Who should I approach if I find that I had given all correct details in the ASBA form, but application has been rejected stating wrong data?

You have to approach the concerned SCSB for any complaints regarding your ASBA applications. SCSB is required to give reply within 15 days. In case, you are not satisfied, you may write to SEBI thereafter at the following address:
Investor Grievance Cell, Office of Investor Assistance and Education,
Securities and Exchange Board of India
Plot No.C4‐A,'G' Block, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra(East), Mumbai: 400051
Tel: +91‐22‐26449000 / 40459000 Fax: +91‐22‐26449016‐20 / 40459016‐20

13. Whether my bank account will be blocked or only the amount to the extent of application money is blocked? 

No. the entire bank account will not be blocked. Only the amount to the extent of application money authorized in the ASBA will be blocked in the bank account. The balance money, if any, in the account can still be used for other purposes.

14. If I withdraw my bid made through ASBA, will the bank account be unblocked immediately?

If the withdrawal is made during the bidding period, the SCSB deletes the bid and unblocks the application money in the bank account. If the withdrawal is made after the bid closure date, the SCSB will unblock the application money only after getting appropriate instruction from the Registrar, which is after the finalization of basis of allotment in the issue.

15. Do I necessarily need to have a DP account with the SCSB where I intend to submit the ASBA application?

No. Investors need not necessarily have their DP account with the SCSB, where they are submitting the form.

16. Can I submit my ASBA application to a broker?

Yes. You can submit the ASBA application to your broker.

17. Who is responsible for errors in the data uploaded in the electronic bidding system in case of public issue?

In case there is an error in the data furnished in the application form submitted by investor, the investor shall be responsible. In case there is an error by SCSB/Trading member in entering the data in the electronic bidding system of the stock exchanges, the SCSB/Trading member shall be responsible.

18. Will I get the acknowledgement of receipt for applications submitted through ASBA?

Yes. The SCSB/Trading member shall give a counterfoil as an acknowledgement at the time of submission of ASBA and also the order number, generated at the time of uploading the application details, if sought by the investors in case of need.

19. What happens when the issue fails/is withdrawn?

In case the issue fails/withdrawn the SCSB shall unblock the application money from the bank accounts upon receiving instructions from the Registrar.

20. In case of any complaints regarding ASBA application whom can I approach?

In case of any complaints the investor shall approach the bank, where the application form was submitted or the Registrars to the issue.

21. In case a person is having bank account with a branch, for example, at Kolkata can he submit IPO application through ASBA at a branch of the bank in Guwahati.

Yes, this can be done provided that your bank have core banking facility and the ASBA form is submitted at a branch which is identified as designated branch by the bank.

Saturday, October 28, 2017

Look at High Debt while Evaluating Stocks

Dear Reader,
Should you invest in companies that carry large amounts of debt? That is a question every investor should ask when evaluating stocks.

Unfortunately, the answer isn’t as easy as “yes or no.” The correct answer is “it depends.” The problem is that some industries typically require more debt than others do.

For these industries, a higher debt load is normal. For example, utilities often borrow large sums of money when building new power plants. It may take several years to build the plant, which means no revenue and lots of debt.

Cash Cow

However, the useful life of power plants spans many years and when the debt on the plant is repaid the facility can become a real cash cow for the utility.

For other industries, a large debt load may signal something seriously wrong. Of course, any company might pickup a big note if it just bought a building or a competitor.

There are several tools you can use to determine whether a company is exposing itself to too much debt.

The first is the Debt to Equity Ratio. This ratio tells you what portion of debt and equity is used to finance a company’s assets.

Formula

The formula is: Total Liabilities / Shareholder Equity = Debt to Equity Ratio.

A ratio of 1 or more indicates the company is using more debt than equity to finance assets. A high number (when compared to peers in the same industry) may mean the company is at risk in a market where interest rates are on the rise.

If a company has debt, it has interest expenses. There is a metric called Interest Coverage that will give you a good idea if a company is having trouble paying the interest charges on its debt.

The formula is: EBITDA / Interest Expense = Interest Coverage.

EBITDA is Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization and measures the operating performance of a company before accounting conventions and non-operational charges (such as taxes and interest).

Ratio

The resulting ratio tells you whether a company is having trouble producing enough cash to meet its interest expense. A ratio of 1.5 or higher is where companies want to be. A lower ratio may indicate that the company has trouble covering interest expenses as well as other costs.

Debt is not a bad thing when used responsibly. It can help businesses grow and expand. However, misuse of debt can result in a burden that drags down a company’s earnings. 

We learnt from the great crisis of 2011 that companies with high debt on their books simply get slaughtered. While debt per se is not bad (if the company is able to borrow at a lower rate and deploy it in its business at a higher rate, the operating leverage works in its favour), excessive debt with high interest and repayment obligations can crunch the stock in times of downturn. So, as a long-term investment philosophy, it is best to steer clear of high-debt companies. 

Avoid Investing in Companies with High Capex Requirement 

We know the demerits of investing in stocks like Suzlon & GMR which have an insatiable appetite for more and more capital. To feed their perennial hunger, these companies dilute their equity by making FPOs, GDRs & FCCBs resulting in total destruction of shareholders wealth. Companies should be lean and mean requiring minimal capital but generating huge returns there from.

Do write to us in case of any queries, we will be delighted to assist you.

Wish you happy & safe Investing!


Regards,

Team - Saral Gyan

Monday, October 16, 2017

Peter Lynch: Making Money by Investing in "Fast Growers"

“The investor of today does not profit from yesterday’s growth.” Warren Buffett

Most of us have relatives who like to fashion themselves as ‘stock-gurus’, with their stories revolving around how they ‘could have been’ millionaires now, if only they had held their nerves. The stock that comes up frequently in these conversations is Infosys. If you had invested Rs. 9,500 to buy 100 shares of Infosys in the IPO (that went undersubscribed in 1993), 51,200 shares (adjusted for bonus issues) worth sum of Rs. 4,80,92,160 would be in your kitty.

Infy has given CAGR returns of whopping 42.7% to investors during last 24 years (that too after keeping dividend payouts aside). Infosys got listed in June 1993 at price of Rs. 145 per share and investment of Rs. 9,500 in June 1993 is valued at 4.81 crores today. But, is Infosys still the key to riches? As often repeated, past performance is no guarantee of future results. So, how does one find out the next ‘Infy’?

A Fast Grower is a small yet aggressive & nimble firm, which grows roughly at 20-25% a year. This is an investment category which can give investors a return of 10 to as much as 200 times the investment made by them. No doubt, it remains a favourite of Peter Lynch!

In 1950s, the Utility & Power Sector were the fast growers with twice the growth rates to that of the US GDP. As people got more power-hungry gadgets for themselves, the power bills ran through the roof & the power sector surged with booming demand. Post the Oil Shock in 70’s, cost of power generation became high with power tariffs going up; people learnt to conserve electricity. Demand, thus, fell and power sector witnessed a slowdown. Prior to it, similar decline was observed in the Steel Sector & Railroads. First, it was the Automobile Sector, and then the Steel, followed by Chemicals & Power Utility & now the IT Sector is showing signs of slowing down. Every time, people thought, rally in the fast growers of the age would never end, but it did end, with people losing money as well as their jobs. Those who thought differently like Walter Chrysler (founder of Chrysler Corporation), who took a pay cut and left the railroads to build new cars in the turn of the last century, became the next millionaires.

Three phases involved in their life cycles, are:

1. The Start-Up Phase: Majority of the companies either burn up all the cash or run out of ideas by the end of this phase. Maximum casualties have been observed here, making it one of the riskiest phases. However, maximum returns can be made from them, if one enters near the end of this phase.

2. Rapid Expansion Phase: The Company’s core proposition has worked now, with the strategy being replicated by expansion of product/service portfolio or consumer touch points.

3. Mature Phase: Growth slows down, either due to high debt or low cash, owing to the massive expansion witnessed in early stage. Fall in demand or legal restrictions might also contribute to faltering growth.

The trick is to track, which phase the organization is in, at the moment. If the firm is in late start-up phase with possibility of moving to rapid expansion phase, buy the stock when it is still cheap. Once firm’s earnings start falling with its products witnessing poor demand, it’s time to bid goodbye to the stock.

The key parameters involved in Peter Lynch’s ‘two minute drill’ are:

1. P/E Ratio: avoid stocks with excessively high P/E
2. Debt/Equity Ratio: should be low
3. Net Cash per Share: should be high
4. Dividend & Payout Ratio: should be adequate
5. Inventory levels: lower the better

Stay away from companies which are being actively tracked, followed & invested in by large institutional investors. News about buy back of shares or internal stakeholders increasing their stakes should be construed as positive.

Checks specific to Fast Growers:

1. The star product forms a majority of the company’s business.
2. Company’s success in more than one places to prove that expansion will work.
3. Still opportunity for penetration.
4. Stock is selling at its P/E ratio or near the growth rate.
5. Expansion is speeding up Or stable

One must judiciously walk the tightrope between the unquestioning belief that made the stock to be held for so long and the fear of the end from nose-diving prices due to a one-off bad year. The key is to always keep revisiting the story & ask some pertinent questions like ‘What would really keep them growing?’, ‘What is their next offering? or ‘Are their products & services still in vogue?’ It is here, that one must track the point of time when the phase 2 of the firm’s expansion comes to an end. This is usually the dead-end for organizations as success is difficult to be replicated. Unless, innovation happens, downfall is imminent & thus, an exit is necessary. P/E of these stocks is drummed up to unrealistically high levels by the madness of crowd towards the end. One must keep one’s eyes & ears open to signs, which mark the end of the road for these fast growers. A great case in point is Polaroid which had its P/E bid up to 50, only to be rendered obsolete later by new technologies.

A sure shot sign of a decline is a company which is everywhere! Such a company would simply find no place to expand any further. Sooner, rather than later, such a company would see its ‘Manhattans’ of earnings reduced to ‘plateaus’ of little or no growth, simply because no space is left to expand further.

1.The quarterly sales decline for existing stores.
2. New stores opening, though results are disappointing: weakening demand, over supply.
3. High level of attrition at the top level.
4. Company pitching heavily to institutional investors talking about what Peter Lynch calls ‘diversification’.
5. Stock trading at a P/E of 30 or more, when most optimistic estimates of earning growth are lower than 15-20%, thus, unable to justify the high price.

Fast Growers, which pay, are ephemeral & one misses them more often than not. It is a High Risk & High Gain Category of Stocks. One must remember along the classic risk & return principle, that when one loses, one loses big! So, if you are in the quest for magnificent returns, a Fast Grower can be your bet provided you know when to bid Goodbye!

If you feel its difficult for you to identify Fast Growers stocks at early stage, you can subscribe to our Hidden Gems and Value Picks subscription services. We put best of our efforts to identify companies having potential to give exponential returns in medium to long term. Its our mission to ensure that you reap the best returns on your investment, our objective is not only to grow your investments at a healthy rate but also to protect your capital during market downturns. 

If you have patience and want to add extra power in your portfolio, start investing some portion of your savings in fundamentally strong small and mid cap companies - Hidden Gems & Value Picks.

Wish you happy & safe Investing. 

Regards, 
Team - Saral Gyan

Thursday, August 17, 2017

6 Steps to Explore Best Stocks for Investment

Below are the 6 Important Steps to Explore Best Stocks for Investment

Step-1: Find out how the company makes money
Step-2: Do a Sector Analysis of the Company
Step-3: Examine the recent & historical performance of the Stock
Step-4: Perform competitive analysis of the firm with its Competitors
Step-5: Read and evaluate company’s Financial statements
Step-6: Buy or Sell

Step-1: Find out how the company makes money

Before you decide to invest in a company’s stock, find out how the company makes money. This is probably the easiest of all the steps. Read company’s annual and quarterly reports, newspapers and business magazines to understand the various revenue streams of the firm. Stock price reflects the firm’s ability to generate consistent or above expectation profits/earnings from its ongoing/core operations. Any income from unrelated activities should not affect the stock price. Investors will pay for its earnings from its core operations, which is its strength and stable operation, and not from unrelated activities. Thus, you need to find out which operations of the firm are generating revenues and profits. If you do not know that you are bound to get a hit in future.

Warren Buffet once said that “if you do not understand how a company makes money, do not buy its stock- you will always end up loosing money”. He never invested even a single penny in technology stocks and yet made billions and billions of dollars both during tech bubble and bust.

Step-2: Do a Sector Analysis of the Company

First is to figure out which sector the stock is in. Then, figure out what all factors affect the performance of the sector. For example, Infosys is in IT services sector, NTPC is in Power sector and DLF is in Real Estate sector. Half of what a stock does is totally dependent on its sector. Simple rule-Good factors help stocks while bad factors hurt stocks.

Let’s take an example of airlines industry. The factors that affect it are fuel prices, growth in air traffic and competition. If fuel prices are high, tickets would be expensive and hence fewer people will fly. This will hurt the airlines sectors and firms equally. This would make the sector less attractive because there would be less scope for growth of the firms.

The idea is to find out the good and bad factors for the sectors and figure out how much they will affect the stock and how. What we are really looking at are reasons that will make stock price good or bad or a company look more or less valuable, even though nothing about the company changes. This will give you a broader view whether the stocks will do well or poorly in the future.

Step-3: Examine the recent & historical performance of the Stock

By performance we mean both operational and financial performance of the company. Take out some time to find out how the company has done in its business over the years. Were there issues with its operations such as labor strike, frequent breakdowns, higher attrition or lagging deadlines? If any company has a history of serious problems, it does not make a good buy because chances are high it may have similar problems again. History is a good predictor of future! It is also extremely important to find out the historical financial performance of the company – growth in revenues, profits (earnings), profit margins, stock price movements etc.

Step-4: Perform competitive analysis of the firm with its Competitors

This is most important step in analyzing a stock. Unfortunately, most of the retail investors do not bother to do this. It takes time to do this step but it worth trying if you don’t want to loose your money. Many investors buy a stock because they have heard about the company or used the products or think companies have excellent technologies. However, if you do not evaluate or compare those features of the company with other similar firms, how will you figure out whether the firm is utilizing them effectively or is better/worse than others? We also need to find out whether company is growing rapidly or slowly or has no growth. We would like to cover couple of financial ratios here in brief and explain how to use them to figure out a good stock.

P/E: Price-to-earnings ratio is the most widely used ratio in stock valuation. It means how much investors are paying more for each unit of income. It is calculated as Market Price of Stock / Earnings per share. A stock with a high P/E ratio suggests that investors are expecting higher earnings growth in the future compared to the overall market, as investors are paying more for today's earnings in anticipation of future earnings growth. Hence, as a generalization, stocks with this characteristic are considered to be growth stocks. However, P/E alone may not tell you the whole story as you see it varies from one company to another because of different growth rates. Hence, another ratio, PEG (P/E divided by Earnings Growth rate) gives a better comparative understanding of the stock.

PEG = Stocks P/E / Growth Rate
We do not want to go into the calculation part as values for P/E are available on internet for most of the companies.
A PEG of less than 1 makes an excellent buy if the company is fundamentally strong. If it is above 2, it is a sell. If PEG for all the stocks are not very different, one with lowest P/E value would be a great BUY.

Step-5: Read and evaluate company’s Financial statements

This is the most difficult part of this process. It is generally used by sophisticated finance professionals, mostly fund managers who can understand different financial statements. However, there are few things that even you should keep in mind. There are three different financial statement- balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement. You should focus only on balance sheet and cash flow statement.

Balance Sheet: It summarizes a company’s assets, liabilities (debt) and shareholders’ equity at a specific point in time. A typical Indian firm’s balance sheet has following line items:

• Gross block
• Capital work in progress
• Investments
• Inventory
• Other current assets
• Equity Share capital
• Reserves
• Total debt

Gross block: Gross block is the sum total of all assets of the company valued at their cost of acquisition. This is inclusive of the depreciation that is to be charged on each asset.

Net block is the gross block less accumulated depreciation on assets. Net block is actually what the asset is worth to the company.

Capital work in progress: Capital work in progress sometimes at the end of the financial year, there is some construction or installation going on in the company, which is not complete, such installation is recorded in the books as capital work in progress because it is asset for the business.

Investments: If the company has made some investments out of its free cash, it is recorded under it.

Inventory: Inventory is the stock of goods that a company has at any point of time.

Receivables include the debtors of the company, i.e., it includes all those accounts which are to give money back to the company.

Other current assets: Other current assets include all the assets, which can be converted into cash within a very short period of time like cash in bank etc.

Equity Share capital: Equity Share capital is the owner\'s equity. It is the most permanent source of finance for the company.

Reserves: Reserves include the free reserves of the company which are built out of the genuine profits of the company. Together they are known as net worth of the company.

Total debt: Total debt includes the long term and the short debt of the company. Long term is for a longer duration, usually for a period more than 3 years like debentures. Short term debt is for a lesser duration, usually for less than a year like bank finance for working capital.

One need to ask-How much debt does the company have? How much debt does it have the current year? Find out debt to equity ratio. If this ratio is greater than 2, the company has a high risk of default on the interest payments. Also, find out whether the firm is generating enough cash to pay for its working capital or debt. If total liabilities are greater than total assets, sell the stock as the firm is heading for disaster. This debt to equity ratio is extremely important for a company to survive in bad economy. What is happening now-a-days should make this extremely important. Companies having higher debt ratio have got hammered in the stock market. Look at real estate companies- their stocks are down by almost 90% from all time highs made in 2007 - 2008. This is because they have high debt level which means higher interest payments. In case of liquidity crisis and global slowdown, it would be extremely difficult for such companies to survive. Remember, a weak balance sheet makes a company vulnerable to bankruptcy!

Step-6: Buy or Sell

Follow all the steps from 1 to 5 religiously. It will take time but worth doing it. If you do it, you won’t have to see a situation where you loose more than 50% of stock value in a week! Buying or selling will depend on how your stock(s) perform on the above analysis.

If you find it difficult to follow above steps to explore high quality stocks with strong fundamentals, leave it to us. Simply subscribe to Hidden Gems (Unexplored Multibagger Small Cap Stocks) and Value Picks (Mid Caps with Plenty of Upside Potential) and start building your portfolio of high quality small and mid caps to get rewarded in medium to long term.

The stocks we reveal through Hidden Gems & Value Picks are companies that either under-researched or not covered by other stock brokers and research firms. We keep on updating our members on our past recommendation suggesting them whether to hold / buy or sell stocks on the basis of company's performance and future outlook.

Subscribe to Hidden Gems & Value Picks and start investing systematically. 
Avail attractive discounts by subscribing to our combo packsclick here for details.

Do contact us in case of any queries, we will be delighted to assist you.

Wish you happy & safe Investing. 

Regards, 
Team - Saral Gyan

Become a Smart Investor in 2 Minutes!
Sign Up for FREE Articles providing Insight to Equity Market

What is ASBA & how ASBA process works?  You can subscribe to Saral Gyan to  receive regular updates, stock tips &  stock market news.

 Subscribe by email by providing your  email below and all updates will direct  to your inbox:


Rss Feed Saral Gyan Rss Twitter Feed rss feed Twitter Facebook Google

Saral Gyan Annual Subscription Services

Unexplored Multibagger Small Cap Stocks
Hidden Gems:  Indepth & unbiased research reports of unexplored multibagger micro & small companies in terms of market capital. Read More >>> Click Here!

Mid Caps with Plenty of Upside Potential
Value Picks:  Research reports of mid cap companies which offers value with plenty of upside potential in medium to long term. Read More >>> Click Here!

Buy to Sell Stocks for Short Term Gains
15% @ 90 Days:  Stock recommendation for short term profits based on buy to sell & gain strategy. Read More >>> Click Here!

Long Term Wealth Creation Portfolio
Wealth-Builder:  An offline portfolio management service to create wealth by investing in fundamentally strong small and mid cap stocks. Read More >>> Click Here!