Stock Trading and Other Things

Whats the difference between Company, Industry, and S&P 500 when your reading about stock quotes?

I am doing a paper on the company Kimberly-Clark Corp and i need to know what the Company, Industry, and S&P 500 columns are when you go into any of the financial ratios?? Can you help i don't understand the difference?

Public Comments

1. All of the different calculations are based on statistical ratios and data of the specic company you are analyzing, its main competitors (Industry). and the market as a whole (S&P 500).

The main reason people look at the industry averages and ratios when trying to evaluate a particular company is to compare one company to the rest of its competitors in their particular industry. This is essential, because it gives you a way to benchmark and see if the company you are interested in is slacking off in certain areas and or excelling in other ones. For example, you probably wouldn't want to invest in a company with the lowest Return on Investment in its industry unless you have other convincing knowlege to make a decision otherwise.

Analyzing the S&P 500 data is important also because it gives you some insight as to how your particular company does while comparing it to how the entire market did. For example, some companies do extremely well when the entire market does well, where as other companies may have just above average returns in the same situation. The second option may be less risky, but it is also probably not going to make you as much money if the economy does well. So knowing the market data relative to your particular company is important because it allows you to analyze the overall risk of the particular company and helps you to diversify your portfolio of various stocks.