Tip #2001-11: Income Statements from the Internet
Whether you are using a sophisticated stock valuation model or just need to see how
well the interest is covered on your fixed income holdings, you need to access fundamental
information available in a company's balance sheet or income statement. Although market
vendors such as Bloomberg, Reuters, Bridge and Factset let you retrieve balance sheet and
income statement items into an Excel worksheet, we have found it is easier and quicker to
get this information from a web site using a web query.
Most of the financial information seen on web pages is in table form and can be brought
easily into an Excel worksheet with simple copying and pasting. However, of all Microsoft's
desktop applications, Excel is the only Microsoft Desktop application which allows you to bring
information directly into the cells of a worksheet without having to leave the application.
A Web query can retrieve the data on a Web page and return it to Excel for analysis. You can use
a web query to retrieve a single table, multiple tables or the entire web page into an Excel
worksheet. Although the data is not self updating, like a DDE link, a web query can bring in
a lot of information quickly and is ideal for types of information which are only updated
quarterly, such as the accounting information in balance sheets and income statements. It
can be setup to refresh when the workbook is opened or can be refreshed with a simple mouse click.
We created a mini-app which automates the process of collecting
quarterly income statement information. You just need to enter the stock symbol for the company whose income statement
you want to retrieve and click on the Update Income Statement button.
How It Works
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