This article defines and explains common data ratios and terms, which are found on the quote summary, key statistics, and analyst estimates pages for securities.

The following notes should help you make sense out of the data reported by Yahoo! Finance. With the exception of Market Capitalization and Average Volume (from Reuters) and Target Price Est, EPS Est, and PEG (from Thomson Financial), the quote data fields are provided by independent providers identified on the Yahoo! Finance partner page and updated continuously throughout market hours. When looking at your portfolio, you can control which of the available data points show up by changing views.

1y Target Est
The 1-year target price estimate represents the median target price as forecast by analysts covering the stock. Data is provided by Thomsonfn.com. More detailed target estimate data can be found by clicking a company's "research" link.

Avg Vol
Average Daily Volume is the monthly average of the cumulative trading volume during the last 3 months divided by 22 days. It is updated weekly and is provided by Market Guide.

Bid / Ask
The Bid price is the price you get if you sell your stock, and the Ask price is the price you have to pay to buy a stock. Note that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) does not permit Bid and Ask prices to be reported for delayed quotes, so this field is always reported as "N/A" (Not Available) for NYSE stocks.

Bid Size / Ask Size
Represents the number of shares a buyer is willing to purchase for the bid or ask price.

Change
The change in price for the day. This is the difference between the last trade and the previous day's closing price (Prev Close). The change is reported as "0" if the stock hasn't traded today.

Div Date
Dividend Pay Date. The date on which the dividend was last paid, or the date on which the next one will be paid.

Dividend (ttm)
All dividends paid out in the last twelve months are added together to create a "Dividend(ttm)". The trailing dividend is then divided by the most recent closing price to derive the Yield (see Yield). Depending on the dividend history of a particular company, the dividend(ttm) and yield could produce different results compared to the company's forward dividend that is calculated by multiplying the payment frequency by the most recent dividend.

EPS Est
Current year analyst consensus EPS estimate from Thomson/First Call. More detailed analyst estimates and consensus data can be found by clicking the "research" link for a symbol.

EPS (ttm)
Earnings Per Share (EPS) is stated for the most recent 12 months (ttm, trailing 12 months). It represents primary earnings from continuing operations attributable to each share of common stock outstanding, and is calculated by dividing the income from continuing operations by the average number of shares outstanding during the period (in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, GAAP). The income is the income or loss that remains after excluding income or loss from discontinued operations and extraordinary charges or credits that are reported separately (again, per GAAP). Earnings Per Share is adjusted for stock splits and stock dividends. If data is not available for 12 months or more, "N/A" is displayed for EPS.
Daily updates are received on quarterly EPS data. Most earnings information is received within 48 hours of the company's earnings announcement. Every time a company declares their earnings, a record is sent for that particular earning figure along with a 12-month rolling EPS.

Ex-Div
The Ex-Dividend Date (without dividend). You need to purchase the stock before this date to receive the current quarter's dividend or stock split.

Exchanges
With detailed quotes, the stock exchange is listed along with the stock, such as (Nasdaq:YHOO). These abbreviations are used for the exchanges:

•  NYSE - New York Stock Exchange
• AMEX - American Stock Exchange
• Nasdaq - National Association of Securities Dealers Automatic Quotation System
• OTC BB - OTC (Over the Counter) Bulletin Board Market.
• Toronto - Toronto Stock Exchange
• Alberta - Alberta Stock Exchange
• Vancouver - Vancouver Stock Exchange

Last Trade
The time and price of the last trade made for the stock. The date is reported in place of the time if the stock hasn't traded today.

Mkt Cap
The Market Capitalization is calculated by multiplying the Last Trade by the current number of shares outstanding. Shares outstanding are updated weekly and are provided by Market Guide.

Open
Opening price for the day; first trade of the day. This is not always close to the previous day's closing price, especially when company news is released after the stock market closed the previous day.

P/E
Price to Earnings Ratio. This number is the previous closing stock price (see Prev Close) divided by the earnings per share, and reflects the value the market has placed on a stock.

PEG
PEG stands for price/earnings growth and is calculated by dividing the trailing P/E by the projected earnings growth rate (in this case, the 5 year annualized growth rate). The idea behind the PEG Ratio is to relate price to growth.

P/S
Price to Sales Ratio. This number is the previous closing stock price (see Prev Close) divided by the revenue per share.

Prev Close
The closing price for the trading day prior to the last trade reported.

Yield
The dividend(ttm) per share divided by the previous closing stock price (see Prev Close), as a percentage (multiplied by 100).

In the event you are in need of assistance with financial terminology, go to Yahoo!'s financial glossary.

On Yahoo! Finance, we provide data from a large number of exchanges around the world. Visit our help page on exchanges for a complete list.