Praveen Chawla
I am not sure how many users use the performance chart and table on Gurufocus main page, but I use it a lot and this little-known feature has become more powerful.
The performance chart can be found on the main stock page or the "Summary" page. You can get to it by either scrolling down the page or as I like to do, by clicking on the menu link. As you can see here I have the Unilever PLC page, which is a stock I was analyzing today.
Gurufocus uses a technology called lazy loading which preferentially loads the performance chart section rather quickly this way and is better than scrolling down the main page. The Performance section is in the lower half of main "Summary" page.
Performance Section
The performance section is a terrific feature, which I use very often. Many investors don't realize it but dividend account for a large portion of many stock returns. This is particularly true of blue chip value stocks. Being aware of dividends is a powerful way of investing. This is very important to me personally because as full time investor much of my day to day income comes from dividends.
You can also add multiple comparator stocks to the chart. Here I have added Glaxo Smithkline PLC (GSK). As can be seen UL stock has returned just over 30% over the last decade which is just over 3% on an annualized basis (not good). GSK stock has done even worse. The table below gives the Annualized returns as well as the year by year return. (lots of great information).
However the real power of the feature is when you flick on the dividend switch on the top left of the section. Voila! The returns now include dividends.
Even the Annualized Return % and Total Annual return % now show returns with dividends. This feature was just added recently, in response to a suggestion by me. A Big thank you to Gurufocus and its developers. This will be much used by me and I hope other investors. As you can see dividends make a big difference to the returns on these stocks.
