READING STOCK TABLES

91-75 Nke 1.24 1.5 16 16,893 83.30 .75

Hi-Lo. During the past 52 weeks the highest price paid for a single share of Nike (NKE) was $91 and the lowest per share was $75.

Company Name or Symbol and Dividend. The next column is the name of stock symbol of the firm issuing the stock, or the ticker symbol of the stock. If dividends are paid, the amount will be immediately next to the stock name. The example shows that Nike(NKE) paid an annual dividend of $$1.24 per share.

Yield. The yield column tells us that at today's price, investors in Nike receive a return of 1.5% or %1.50 for every $100 invested. The yield is derived by dividing the annual divident by the closing price.

PE. This column is the price to earnings ration. The p/e ratio compares the price per share to the earnings per share. It shows how much an investor is willing to pay for $1 of current earnings per share (EPS). The p/e ratio is calculated by dividing the stock's price by the company's latest 12-month earnings per share (EPS).

Volume. The next column lists the volume of shares (in hundreds) that were trade on this date. In our example, 16,893,000 shares of Nike were traded. Volume may give you an indication of the breadth of the market for a company's shares.

Net Change. The final column of the table stands for the change between the closing price for the previous da and the current day. The net change is measured in dollar value. In the example, Nike closed $.75 higher than it did yesterday.

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