Hello, and welcome to the equity session of the Bloomberg Essentials Online Training Program. My name is Rosie Genao, and the goal of this training session is to get you acclimated with our equity functionality so you can quickly and easily navigate through the tools that will be vital for your daily investment analysis.
I will start with key news functions that will keep you up-to-speed with headlines that can affect your investment strategies, as well as the equities markets on the whole. From there, we will walk through functionality that will help you quickly assess the trends of the equities markets. Finally, we will focus on how you can best use Bloomberg for investment idea generation and in-depth security analysis.
Our equities resources fully integrate the very best in real-time data, news and research, providing you with an unmatched level of market data transparency, dynamic monitors, and powerful analytics. With these tools, you can delve into more than 20 years of financial statements, sell-side consensus estimates, extensive technical analysis studies, and idea generation tools for a pool of more than 410,000 equities (ph).
As the Bloomberg Essentials news video outlines, Ngo, which is located in 15 company news, is the main news function and platform for real-time news from tens of thousands of sources, including Bloomberg. It has the most important, most popular, and most recent news across any category. This page will automatically update throughout the day so you can stay abreast of news that impacts the markets and your portfolio.
For the equity space, you can customize this page to display news specific to the equities markets simply by navigating to the left sidebar, which includes an array of topics and securities, and clicking on stocks. When you click on stocks, you will see the right hand side populate with the relevant news for stocks in the Americas or anywhere across the world.
Once you click on stocks on the left hand side, you can select this particular topic as your default simply by clicking on 90 go to save as default at the very top. Notice also that you can use this same sidebar on the left to click into other topics, such as technology or featured news articles that we have on the terminal, such as on European debt. Also note that whenever you see a small B icon next to any article, this means that this is a Bloomberg exclusive story, while the white highlights or indicates that the story has been posted to the system in the last 15 minutes.
Another crucial aspect of news functionality is the ability to mine for news and press releases that directly impact a particular investment strategy. You can run NSEgo at the very top, and you will see a drop-down menu appear which will allow you to select the first function, which is news search. NSE provides unmatched granularity for sector, region, or security-specific news. NSE allows you to search through Bloomberg’s extensive database of news by a simple word search. To make your search within NSE as efficient as possible, the function includes auto complete predictive text, which will come up when typing in your search criteria.
For example, let’s say we’re looking into a search for IBM. If I were to type IBM, you will see that an entire listing will appear in the drop-down menu where the company itself appears first. As you type in your news search topic, the function provides you with a list of relevant results which you then can result from. This saves you time in putting together applicable news searches.
I’d also like to point out that within NSE, you have the option of running a basis or an advanced search, which you can select at the top. With the advanced search, not only can you filter by keywords, but you can also filter on entire ticket lists, topics, people, among other. For example, let’s create a custom news wire that tracks earning news on companies in India. I’ll start with the criteria of earnings.
Using the amber search box at the top of the page, I’ll start by simply typing in the keyword itself, earnings. And when I do that, again, you’ll see that the topic itself appears. When you select on earnings, the bottom part of the screen will allow you to start previewing some of the results that are related to earnings. I’ll go back to my search at the top and input India because I’d like to filter for earnings news within India. And when I do that, again, as you can see, you’ll see India appear at the very top. As you continue to add criteria, the results will continue to update at the bottom under preview results.
There are other ways on the terminal to find what you need specifically with news. There are pre-set news monitors on the terminal that you can use to get stories as they are released within a specific topic. For example, going along with our example of earnings, if you’re interested in news related to earnings in general, you can run NI ERN. And what that will do is select or pull up a scrolling news monitor of news only on earnings.
These pre-set news monitors, as you saw, start with NI and are streaming in real time. The news articles will appear and will flash as the stories come in. As you can see, from here you can further refine the search to meet your specific investment analysis criteria. You can either click on 97 actions at the very top and edit the search, or you can simply add additional keywords in the narrow search box.
Bloomberg also provides direct access to sell side and independent research from over 1,500 sources within our research search engine RSEgo. With RSEgo, you have real-time delivery of reports. That ensures that you are getting the information as soon as it is available. With RSE, you have the option of selecting news research articles by category, sector, or simply all research that is available.
In the top left corner, you can also filter further. You can select all research or you can select specific filters in the – within the drop-down menu that allows you to choose, for example, between an equity index or perhaps a portfolio that you may already have loaded on the terminal.
After exploring the ways in which you can keep up-to-speed with the news and research that affects both the broad markets and your investments, I’d like to move into functionality that will give you a solid grasp of overall market movement and assist you with investment analysis.
We’ll start with EVTS. EVTS is Bloomberg’s corporate event and transcript resource, tracking over 100,000 events and transcribing over 25,000 conference calls a year. Coverage includes earnings releases, earnings calls, sales results, shareholder meetings, investor conferences, M&A calls, and other relevant company events. Coverage also includes live transcription of calls as they happen, corrected PDF versions of the call, summary reports, and links to webcasts and archived audio.
At the top of the screen, you’ll be able to customize a number of things. You’ll be able to select the source from which you want to pull in specific company-related releases. So for example, you can click on source, and let’s select an equity index. For our example, we’ll select the S&P, which is SPX. You’ll see that you have the ability to customize the data range. You can select it to now, next seven days, or you can customize further.
Once you’re done customizing, at the very top you can press the go key and you will see a list populate at the bottom with the relevant event types pertaining to the source and the particular date range. While you have the ability to export these events into your Outlook calendar simply by clicking into any one of these icons on the far right column, keep in mind that you can also click into each event for links to other analytics, including pages on earnings analysis, fundamental data, research reports, and company news.
Once you select an event, which I’ve just done, you can click on analysis in the top left corner to display and analyze a number of – of related analyses that you can continue to run on that particular security. For our example, you can select earnings analysis. In this example, we selected the S&P as our security poll. From there, you’ll be able to, depending on the tab that you are on, you can drill down further into each of the sectors comprising the index. As you click into a particular sector, you’re able to drill down further for performance to not only see how the sub-sectors are performing, but also how the securities within these sub-sectors are performing and how they correlate to the overall earnings analysis.
You can review on the terminal for investment ideas by screening for stocks in these sectors (ph) using our equity screening function, EQSgo. EQSgo is the Bloomberg equities screening application that allows you to search for securities based on your defined criteria from a broad set of underlying data. The interface used for this tool offers full transparency at every step of the screening process. You can now identify investment ideas with advanced analytical functionality.
Before we go into a sample screen, I’d also like to point out that there are three main tabs at the bottom. One, where you can build and edit your screen, two, where you can access the screens that you have already created and saved, and three, example screens where you can access screens already created by Bloomberg for customers like you.
So let’s start with the 91 build/edit screen. For a quick example, if we want to search for all companies trading below their cash and equivalence in the materials sector, we can start by searching for our sector by simply typing materials in the amber box in the middle of the page. As I type materials, you’ll see that the drop-down menu updates and allows you to essentially filter for all the materials-related fields that we have.
So let’s select the first option, which is materials. The more you type, the further it narrows your choices. So let’s go ahead and select and input our second criteria. Next, for the fundamental criteria, I will search for market cap, again, in the amber field. Select the appropriate field, which in this case is the first one. Select, when prompted, whether I want to view whether it’s greater than, less than, et cetera. In this case, I will select less than. And in the third amber box that eventually appears, I will type in cash to find the field that I am looking for. I will use the default, latest filing, and press go.
Now you’ll notice under selected screening criteria that at the bottom you’ll see the number of securities that meet both criterias that I input. You’ll see the exact number in the bottom right. If you have a specific fundamental or technical-based ratio that you’d like to use but it’s not currently available in our list of fields, you can use the formula tab located at the top to create a custom field for use in your screen. This provides full flexibility in your search.
Keep in mind that you can also add criteria using the universe criteria given at the very top. This includes full product segmentation and allows you to search for specific revenue drivers. After you finish selecting all of the criteria, you can click on results in the lower right. All of the securities that match will appear in a list with a list of comparable columns. This will include any numerical values from your search criteria. You can also add columns to this view using the amber field above, or also by clicking on fields in the top right.
Once you have your securities listed, you can then click into each of them for links to further analysis with the description page. You’ll see not only the description page, but also related functionality for further analysis. So let’s click into company description, the second option. On the description page, you’ll see that the market information for the selected security appears at the top of the screen. Just below that, you’ll find a snapshot of stock data with links to further analysis regarding the profile of the company, issue information, ratios, and revenue and EPS.
With this particular page, you can click into any one of the functionalities that’s highlighted to be taken to another page on the terminal for additional analysis. Also, at the top, you’ll be able to click on the report feature, which allows you to create your own snapshot of the company on your screen, and allows you to print it for your Japanese security.
To continue your security-specific analysis, Bloomberg offers a wide range of graphing functionality. To start, you can quickly view the historic movement of a stock on GPgo. GP displays historical closing prices for a selected security, which you can see in the upper left, but also features a wide range of customization options.
At the top, you’ll see a gray taskbar that allows you to quickly jump between periods, also add annotation, news and zoom (ph). Sorry, I didn’t even go – also, in the upper right, you have the option to add additional securities or studies for your graph, as well as events. If you click into events, for example, you’ll be able to see that you can add events such as acquisitions, dividends, earnings, et cetera, so that you can easily plot them on your graph. To view the underlying end-of-day pricing for this particular security, you can either scroll down one page, or you can simply run the function HPgo for historical pricing. Historical pricing on HP allows you to customize the data range, the currency, and the period at the very top of the page.
If you’re interested in further analysis using technical studies, you can continue your graphical analysis of the security by running Graphgo at the top. This function provides you with a number of things. In the top left, you’ll be able to see the chart of the day. Lower left, you’ll be able to create a series of custom charts.
To the right of that, we have sample G (ph) charts that already display some of our technical studies and provide you with examples on each of these studies. And in the upper right, you’ll have a number of chart resources that you can use to become more informed on technical studies and charts features on the terminal. Finally, in the lower right, you’ll be able to see the chart showcase of the day displaying essentially why a particular study would be important to view on the terminal.
After viewing where a specific security has priced using our chart functionality, you can then switch over to get a fundamental picture of the overall company by running FAgo. FAgo is a dynamic and interactive fundamental analysis tool that displays the financial history of a specific company with full transparency to the financial statements. Here you can identify trends and analyze the value of a potential investment using the statements themselves, as well as comparative techniques and custom templates that allow you to access the data you need quickly in order to make an informed decision on an investment opportunity.
The FAgo screen initially wakes up to the key stats tab located in the upper left. But as you can see, there are a series of tabs locates at the top that you can click into and which allow you to drill down further. So for example, clicking on the income statement, you will see that it has a series of sub-tabs as well. To suit your preferences, you can also click on the settings tab at the very top, and this will allow you to adjust your settings whenever you popular or run this particular function.
One of the key benefits of the FAgo screen is the full transparency it offers into the numbers. For example, if you’d like to view the statement for which we have obtained a specific data point, simply click into the line item. So let’s say for example that we’d like to click into revenue for Apple. When you do that, you’ll be able to see exactly where we sourced our information from. You can click into the particular line item itself, drill down further, and on the right hand side, you’ll see two icons – two document icons which when clicked on allow you to view the source document itself and highlighted exactly where we got the information from.
Let’s close out of this and go back to the main page on FA. You will see a number of things here. You’ll see that estimates, denoted by the letters EST, are included alongside historical data. You can click into any one of these estimates by view consensus estimates from sell-side analysts. This gives you a clear view of where the company has been and where it’s expected to go. Depending on your analysis, you’ll find it very easy to run a specific analysis based on ratios, which you’ll see located at the top, valuations, segments, or additional information with the tabs at the top. Each of these tabs, specifically the additional tab, pulls in the relevant key measures for that industry.
With this insight into estimates, we can continue our equity research with the earnings estimate on EEOgo. Here on EEO, we aggregate all earnings estimates for a company in one place so you can quickly gauge market expectations on an investment opportunity. From this page, you’ll see a number of things. Starting at the very top, you’ll have the option to adjust the reporting period, as well as the consensus type and currency.
Also from this page, you can customize your settings and set alerts for earnings data, for consensus date that you are interested in for this particular security. This will allow you to stay up-to-speed with any estimate shifts for a particular company. Here in this page we’re looking at consensus estimates which represent a consensus value for each measure based on reported sell-side expectations.
Alongside each estimate, which is listed on the left hand side, you’ll see – or you will find the number of estimates received per measure. Whenever you hover over the exact estimate numbers, you’ll be able to see – or this will give you additional information, such as the number of analysts who revised the estimate itself, and other key information. If we click into a specific measure, you can get even more clarity on that figure.
From here, you’ll see a breakdown in three main parts. In the top left, you’ll see a quick summary of the consensus data itself. To the right of that, you’ll see the historical values of the consensus data as plotted by the analysts. And just below that, you’ll see a breakdown of all of the analysts who contributed to the consensus.
On the left hand side, you’ll be able to see or you’ll be able to click into the research provided by this particular analysis covering the security. And to the far right, you’ll be able to access a graph that allows you to view the analyst estimates historically alongside the price of the particular security that you are – that you are researching. So on one graph you have both the price and the historical estimates or the historical consensus estimates for that particular security.
Let’s menu back to the consensus detail screen. And to go into further detail into the area in the top left, the consensus rating at the top is based on the analyst recommendations that are compiled by Bloomberg reporters and researchers around the world. ANR allows you to determine the latest analyst sentiment and identify which analysts have the most accurate equity rating.
Another dynamic tool for analyst research is the function ANRgo. This is the home page for analyst recommendations. Here you will see a listing of the analyst recommendations, their price targets, price target time periods, and a consensus rating for a selected equity, which you’ll see in the upper left corner. Here as well, similar to the consensus estimates, you’ll also see a graph in the right hand side to view historical recommendations.
At the top, the consensus ranking is based on analyst recommendations. They are compiled by Bloomberg reporters and researchers around the world. This page allows you to determine the latest analyst sentiment and identify which analysts have the most accurate equity rating. Bloomberg assigns a numerical value from one to five for every recommendation, where five represents a buy. In this example, sentiment on Apple appears to be a buy. You’ll see that there are more buys than holds and sells. This can also be seen in the consensus rating located right here in the top (inaudible).
Now let’s take a look at the analyst recommendations. In the table at the bottom of the screen, you’ll be able to see that there is a column called BAR. This is the Bloomberg absolute return risk, which essentially highlights those analysts that have returned the most in terms of total return for this particular security. Let’s locate the analyst who has – who has returned the most for Apple.
If we scroll down, you’ll be able to see that the analyst from BTIG was ranked first in terms of BAR. To the far right, you’ll be able to see a graph with that particular analyst – you’ll be able to see that this particular analyst for the duration that – for the amount of time that they’ve covered this security, they have excelled in terms of their recommendations.
Now that we’ve seen charts, fundamentals, and earnings on a company, I’d like to continue our review of the core equity functionality with a peer analysis tool called relative value, or RVgo. You can use RV to perform a customized peer group analysis so that you can benchmark your security’s performance for capital structure against its peers.
Once you are on the relative valuation screen, you’ll see three main sections. In the top left, you’ll be able to see how this particular security ranks across a number of sectors. To the right of that, you’ll key metrics for that particular security in comparison to its peers, to the median for its peers. Just below that, you’ll see the main portion of this screen, which is divided into several tabs. It initially wakes to an overview tab, which is the overview template, but you also have the option of clicking into the other templates that allow you to analyze the security or compare the security in different ways, such as the markets template and the EPS preview template.
One great feature about the relative value function is that you can create your own custom template. And from there, you can enter the fields that are most relevant for you, as well as the securities that you would like to compare your main security against. Another peer comparative tool, PPC, complements this analysis. Let’s run PPCgo and you’ll see what I mean.
With PPC, you’ll be able to take a different look at how companies fare against their peers by comparing them across product segments. It allows you to perform an in-depth analysis of company revenue by introducing the sector classification that you see on the left hand side, and the hierarchy that allows you to compare, depending on which sector you select, the key measures on the sidebar.
On this screen, you’ll be able to select the classification for which you’d like to sort the security by. For example, VIX, GX (ph), or any of the ones listed below. You can also filter by the currency on the right hand side, and finally, by the industry to the right.
From here, you will see the hierarchy located on the left sidebar. You can select any measure from the hierarchy sidebar. And then, let’s say for example you click into music download sites for Apple, and on the right side you’ll be able to see the company’s competitors within each product. This adds yet another layer of analysis into data collected through the financial statements to help you make an informed investment decision. You can also click into the numbers under the hierarchy section in order to view more transparency data, similar to what you can do with FA.
This covers the basic equity overview on the Bloomberg terminal. The functions we went over today in news, broad market indicators, and security-specific analysis tools are just an introduction to the vast resources we have for you to make informed investment decisions. If you have any further questions, remember that you can hit the help key twice for 24-hour assistance with (inaudible) for future training opportunities. Thank you for your participation in Bloomberg Essentials.
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