Financial Glossary

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Alpha: Alpha is a risk adjusted return using beta as the risk measure. The higher the alpha the better, as it describes the level of risk adjusted performance in excess of the benchmark (i.e., S&P 500, NASDAQ Composite, etc.).
Annual Earnings Change (%): The historical earnings change between the most recently reported fiscal year earnings and the preceding fiscal year earnings.
Annual Net Profit Margin (%): The percentage the company earned from gross sales for the most recently reported fiscal year.
Annual Sales Change (%): The percentage change in sales between the most recently reported fiscal year and the preceding fiscal year.
Beta: Beta is a measure of systematic risk, or the sensitivity of a manager or stock to movements in the benchmark. As another risk measure, beta attempts to measure the movement of an asset relative to the broad market. A beta of 1 implies that you can expect the movement of a stock or manager return series to match that of the benchmark used to measure beta. In other words, if a stock or portfolio had a beta of 1.10, it can be said that the asset has historically moved higher and lower than the market by 10%. Similarly, if an asset had a beta of 0.80 then it has historically moved 20% less than the market - both up and down.
Current Ratio: A company's current assets divided by its current liabilities. A measure of balance-sheet strength.
Estimated EPS Change (%): The change in the analysts' mean earnings estimate for the current fiscal year from the last month, last three months, and last six months to the current month.
Latest Quarterly Earnings (%): The percentage change from the latest quarterly earnings report compared to the same quarter one year earlier.
Market Value: The value placed on a company by investors, obtained by multiplying the current price of the company's stock by the number of common shares outstanding.
Mean Return: A stock's average monthly total return. Total return is price change plus (+) dividends.
P/E Ratio (Current): Current stock price divided by last reported annual earnings per share.
P/E Ratio (Projected): Current stock price divided by the consensus analyst estimate of earnings per share for the next fiscal year (12-month) or the next two fiscal years (24-month).
Price-to-Sales Ratio: The current price of a stock divided by sales-per-share of the company in the most recent fiscal year.
Profit-Margin Expansion: Long-term, is a measure of a company's net profit margin in the latest reported quarter divided by its profit margin in the previous fiscal year. Short-term, is a measure of a company's net profit margin in the latest reported quarter divided by its profit margin in the immediately preceding quarter.
Quantitative Analysis: Involves the statistical study of historic returns, price volatility and price correlations of different assets to construct optimal portfolios.
Quarterly Earnings Change (%): The historical earnings change between the most recently reported earnings and the preceding quarter.
Quarterly Net Profit Margin (%): Net operating earnings after taxes for the latest quarter divided by revenues for the quarter.
Quick Ratio: A company's cash and equivalents divided by current liabilities. This is an indication of a company's financial strength.
Return on Assets (% ROA): A company's net earnings divided by its total assets.
Return on Equity (% ROE): A company's net earnings divided by its equity.
Reward-Risk Ratio: A comparison of the stock's Alpha relative to its risk. This is calculated by dividing the stock's Alpha by its Standard Deviation. A Reward-Risk Ratio greater than 0.4 is considered excellent.
Reward-Risk Rank: Stocks are ranked in descending order by Reward-Risk Ratio, with # 1 being the highest rank.
Standard Deviation: Standard deviation is a common risk measure as it measures the volatility of returns for an investment from its average return for a given period of time.
Standardized Unanticipated Earnings (SUE): Relates the average earnings surprise at a company to the dispersion of analysts' earnings estimates for the company and can be used to estimate the future likelihood of earnings surprises.