Yahoo Finance is Internet’s main source of information and data on stocks. The most important page that Yahoo Finance has about each stock is the “Key Statistics” page. On this page one of the most important numbers, which I always consider before deciding to buy a stock, is:
Qtrly Earnings Growth (yoy): stands for Quarterly Earnings Growth (year on year). It is a percentage measure of the growth of earnings in the last quarter reported, compared to the earnings of the same quarter of the previous year.
Hugh? Not so simple to understand without an example:
For instance today is the 31 August 2006. We look at EXXON (XOM) statistics and we see the last Quarter they have reported is the Quarter comprising the months of April, May and June 2006.
During that Quarter EXXON (XOM) has reported earnings of $39.39B. Since in the months of April, May and June 2005, EXXON (XOM) had reported “only” $29.05B we can say that:
EXXON (XOM) had a Quarterly Earnings Growth (year on year) of 35.60%
Of course that measure is very important, because tells you how fast earnings for the company are growing. It is also right to measure the data comparing the last quarter reported this year with the same quarter of the previous year because company earning very often depend of the seasons. For instance consider the last quarter of the year that includes Christmas. You can’t compare it to the previous Quarter. It is much better to compare it with the Quarter comprising Christmas of the previous year.
So please, before buying a stock, always give a look at Qtrly Earnings Growth (yoy) on Yahoo Finance!
BUY, SELL, KEEP 
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