Apples to Apples

The discipline of stock valuation is relational. In order to know how strong Cisco Systems is, you have to compare it side-by-side with 3Com and Cabletron. Without looking at the larger picture, without comparing several players in an industry together, virtually no meaningful conclusions can be drawn. Singular snapshots of companies do us little good.

This is what the Industry Snapshot is all about.

Each week in the IS newsletter we profile a different industry. Choosing 6 companies within that industry, we look at each company and value it using over thirty different fundamental valuation methods, both Foolish and traditional.

After reading the industry overview and looking at each company's valuation, you get a very good grasp of how it stacks up against other companies in the industry. That's the beauty of IS. In a short amount of time, without losing your mind, you're able to assess the financial performance of several key players within a specific industry (as well as numerous qualitative intangibles about those companies).

What's better than that? Nothing.

Now that you know what Industry Snapshot is all about, how do you begin? Take a look at the Definitions section, in it are descriptions of the various ratios that are employed in the Snapshot. In addition, take advantage of the free download, it's one complete Industry Snapshot issue ready for your evaluation.

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