Where can I research stocks and mutual funds online for free?
Start with Kiplinger.com, which offers reams of statistical data. Try Yahoo! Finance for links to annual reports, quarterly statements and shareholder conferences with management. To help put the statistics in context, Research Wizard, at MSN Moneycentral, lets you see how one stock stacks up against its peers based on different statistics. Use Research Wizard to compare funds, too. Another great online tool is PriceWaterhouseCoopers’s Edgarscan. Edgarscan quickly fillets quarterly and annual balance sheets, plus income and cash-flow statements. Its Benchmarking Assistant then displays that data in bar charts and can compare a company’s results with its peers’ performance over the past ten years. The most comprehensive and least expensive subscription-based service is a premium membership at Morningstar.com. Recently priced at $109 a year (with a two-week free trial), it will give you access to all of Morningstar’s analytical tools and commentary on stocks, funds and the overall market
