Historical Graph

Graph Area

The Historical Graph is where FAST Graphs comes to life. This graph is where you view valuations on the company of your choosing utilizing up to 9 different valuation metrics and timeframes to get a better picture of the selected company.  The data is displayed in an easy-to-view way, so you can see things like earnings year-over-year growth, dividend payout ratios and growth, and even debt all in one place.

The graphs are color-coded in a specific way to display the data easily and understandable. The black line represents the month-end closing price of the stock you are looking at, with the most recent point (the far right) being the last day’s closing price.

Green Shaded Area

The most important series on the graph is the dark green shaded area. This area represents the earnings of the company and has the color of “money green” just to drive that point home.

Orange Line

In addition, you’ll notice an orange line sitting on top of the green shaded area. This represents the fair valuation multiple that is applied to the earnings, so you can determine overvaluation and undervaluation in an instant. The valuation ratio drawn is dependent on the growth rate of the company during the selected timeframe. In short, when the black line (stock price) is below the orange line the stock is undervalued, and when it is above the orange line the stock is overvalued.

Click here to learn more about the valuation ratios.

Blue Line

The blue line on the graph represents the Normal P/E of the stock over the timeframe that is selected. This is essentially an average P/E over the specified timeframe to give you a better understanding what the market has generally valued the stock price at regardless of the Valuation Ratio. There will be many cases where you will see the blue line above, below, and even exactly the same as the orange line. If the stock price has been generally above the orange line, the blue line will be above too. If the stock price has been generally below the orange line, the blue line will be below as well.

You need to understand that it does not necessarily mean that the stock is fairly valued if it trades on this line. In other words, it’s simply a piece of information telling you how the market normally prices the stock. On cases when the normal P/E ratio (the blue line) is way above fair value, it represents an indication that the market normally applies a premium valuation, and vice-versa. It does not necessarily indicate that the stock is fairly valued or undervalued, instead, it provides information regarding how the market had most commonly valued the stock over the timeframe being graphed.

Dividends

If a company pays dividends, FAST Graphs represents them in three different ways:

• There is a Dividend Payout Ratio Line (a honeydew green line that looks white)
• A Dividend Yield Line (a maroon line)
• A light green shaded area above the orange line to represent dividends paid out to shareholders

The Dividend Payout Ratio Line gives you an easy visual that represents the dividend payout ratio according to the selected metric. If the honeydew line is half of the green shaded area, the payout ratio is 50%. You can also hover over any dot on the Dividend Payout Ratio line to view the exact payout ratio for that Fiscal Year in the form of a pop-up. In the case of General Dynamics (NYS:GD) shown below, the line looks to be about 1/3 of the green shaded area in 2017, and the pop-up shows the payout ratio being 33.8%.

Note: All the data points on the graphs give even more detail when you hover over them!

The Dividend Yield line will show what the dividend yield of the stock was at the specific Fiscal Year that you are looking at. Notice that the yield is higher when the stock price is undervalued, and lower when the stock is overvalued (only more of a reason to invest in companies when they are undervalued!).

The Light Green Shaded Area above the orange line gives you a picture of the percentage of total earnings paid out to the shareholder (payout ratio). It represents the earnings in addition to the dividends paid to shareholders. In the case of General Dynamics (NYS:GD), earnings were $11.22 per share in 2018 (represented by the orange line), and dividends were $3.72 per share. The Light Green Shaded Area represents the earnings per share plus the dividends per share ($11.22 + $3.72), giving a representation of total return (Growth + Dividends).

Estimates

The Historical Graph mostly shows historical data, but we included estimates on the Historical Graph to help give you a better picture of where the company is headed. This area is on the very right side of the graph and is a lighter shaded color with dashed lines to help distinguish between historical data and estimate data.

When doing research on how a company may perform in the future, we recommend using the Forecasting Calculators to do the work. The Historical Graph will give a general idea, but the calculators will let you test many theories (including custom theories of your own) in an extremely easy fashion.

Click here to learn more about the Forecasting Calculators.

Gray Shaded Areas

Another thing you may notice are the gray shaded areas on the graph. These represent recessions.

Performance Calculations

The Historical Graph also allows you to do performance calculations. First, click on any point on the black line, and then click anywhere on the black line, blue line or orange line to the right of that to perform a performance calculation. This will give you a pop-up showing you the return on an investment over that specific time, breaking it down and essentially giving you annualized performance.

Data Numbers

FAST Graphs strives to give you as much information as possible without being confusing. We believe the graphs show you the picture, but notice the numbers below and above the graph. Above the graph you will find stock price highs and lows for the year. Below the graph you will find the Fiscal Year, the per share numbers of the selected metric, year-over-year growth, and the dividends paid during that fiscal year.

Changing Timeframes

Changing timeframes is a powerful feature that FAST Graphs offers. It allows you to look at snapshots of the selected Fair Valuation Ratio based on the Compound Annual Growth Rate for that time and the Normal PE during the selected time, so you can see fair valuation and how the market valued the stock during that time period as shown in the FAST FACTS to the right of the graph.

Click here to learn more about FAST FACTS.

There are two ways to change timeframes in FAST Graphs:

• The orange bars above the graph
• The slider below the graph

The orange bars make it easy to quickly change the timeframe ranging from 3 years to 20 years. The slider is also an easy way to change timeframes but gives you a more custom range selection so you can look at different snapshots of the company. Simply click and grab either end of the slider and move it where you want.

The orange boxes and the slider both work together to quickly change how you are viewing the company.

FAST FACTS

The FAST FACTS contain important company information and is located to the right of the graphs. Above the FAST FACTS you will find a Help On/Off switch that will enable pop-ups on the FAST FACTS to help describe what each row is.

There are three sections in the FAST FACTS:

• Current Stock information (orange box)
• Graph key (yellow box): the numbers in the color-coded section can and will change every time you change timeframes
• Company information (purple box)

Stock Information

The Stock Information section of FAST FACTS shows relevant information regarding the stock. In this section you will find:

• Close date of the last trading day
• Closing price on the last trading day
• Share type
• Blended P/E (or whatever metric you are looking at)
• Blended Metric Yield
• Dividend Yield

Click here to learn more about the Blended P/E.

This section does not update when you change timeframes.

Graph Key

The Graph Key (color-coded section) gives you information on the graph itself and will update when you change timeframes (this is the only FAST FACTS section that updates when you change timeframes). In this section, you will find what the colors represent on the graphs, but more importantly:

• The Compound Annual Growth Rate of the selected metric during the chosen timeframe
• The Normal P/E of stock during the chosen timeframe
• The Fair Value Ratio applied to the orange line based on the growth of the company

Company Information

The Company Information section gives a snapshot of relevant company information. In this section you will find important stats like:

• Subsector
• Market Cap
• Total Enterprise Value
• Credit Rating
• Debt to Capital

This section does not update when you change timeframes.

Buy and Sell Dots

When looking at a portfolio you can easily plot your Buys and Sells on the graph, so you can easily see performance. The Buys will show up as green dots, and the Sells will show up as red dots. Whatever Buys and Sells you input into your portfolio for each stock will display on the Historical Graph, along with the calculated Average Cost you have in the stock.

Click here to learn more about adding Buys and Sells into a portfolio.

Your Buys and Sells will also be depicted in the Transactions Tab and will even show you the amount of money you have at risk.

Click here to learn more about transactions.

Adding and Removing Series

All of the data series on the Historical, Forecasting, Analyst Scorecard, P/E Interest Rate and Price/Sales graphs are removable. To do so, simply click the series in the Series Key located below the graphs to add or remove the series giving you a more customizable view of what you want to see.