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Value Line: Line Investment Survey
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As a matter of fact, Value Line (VALU) was Morningstar Inc. (MORN). Founded in 1931 by Arnold Bernhard, Value Line was one of the premier investment research firms in the country, selling the Value Line Investment Survey and spin-offs to everyone from high-end individual investors to mutual funds and institutions. The flagship product still covers 1,700 stocks every week.
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The Value Line Investment Survey is one of the most widely used independent investment information services in the world. Its up-to-date issues are a comprehensive reference that has useful information for virtually every investor. In breadth of coverage it is encyclopedic, covering some 1,700 equity issues. Every week, about 135 stocks in seven or eight industries are covered.
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Consistent with its proven ability to turn adversity into growth, Value Line did not fail to learn from its mistakes. By tightening investment standards and improving the methodology behind its stock rankings, the company succeeded in doubling subscriptions to the then $365-a-year Value Line Investment Survey between 1978 and 1983, while boosting annual revenues to approximately $40 million. Meanwhile, profits increased more than 80 percent, to $6.7 million, between 1980 and 1983. First, in an attempt to make its forecasts more objective by further removing the "human element," the company ended a three-year "experiment" that allowed the analysts' judgment factor to account for 20 percent of the weight in its stock rankings. The company ... stopped its earlier practice of purchasing unregistered "letter stock" for which there was not yet a public market. In addition to boosting subscriptions, such policies contributed to the strong performance of the flagship Value Line Fund, which demonstrated average annual returns of nearly 33 percent between 1974 and 1981.
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The flagship newsletter, the Value Line Investment Survey tracks 1,700 individual stocks across ninety different industries. Each week, the Value Line staff analysts update a batch of 130 stocks – how you receive the updates depends on whether you choose the web option or the print version. The single sheet reports include a tremendous amount of financial data including sales, gross profits, operating profits, tax rates, shares outstanding, return on equity, return on invested capital, debt-to-equity ratios, average price-to-earnings ratios over time, dividend yields, payout ratios, management ownership, and much, much more. This allows you to get an idea of the trends facing the business – are margins being squeezed? If so, you could try to figure out if the problem is temporary of permanent as that would have a big influence on your valuation.
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Value Line Investment Survey is an expensive service but well worth it. It is probably the best stock evaluation source out there, particularly from a beginner’s standpoint of investing. It reports on about 2000 stocks in 68 industries. There is always a chart showing past and present performance over at least 10 years, with recommendations on timeliness and safety, recent commentary on current operations, and future prospects for each stock. Each page contains name of analyst and date of evaluation. A Small and Mid-Cap Edition adds about another 2200 small and mid-cap stocks to the analysis.
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"The Value Line Investment Survey's main section, "Ratings & Reports," presents full-page, individual stock reports (encapsulating the company's past performance, current status, and outlook) and industry reviews. The "Summary & Index" provides a key to locating the latest quarterly and supplementary reports and cites the most recent data on each of the stocks followed. Finally, "Selection & Opinion," a feature section, gives Value Line's views on the economy and the stock market and on stocks of special interest. It ... provides model portfolios for investors with various objectives and a number of economic and stock-market statistics."
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Line Investment Survey