Birdsong Information Services

April, 2008

This may be one of those emails you keep for next year around tax time or if you have a tax extension this might be useful now. These past few months I have received questions about prices of stocks that are not readily available. In addition, I have been working at the Boulder Public Library (http://www.boulder.lib.co.us) in the reference area and we have received many questions on this topic as well.

The sources listed below are a few of the existing sources for finding historical stock prices and have been complied in conjunction with the reference staff at the Boulder Public Library. There are other sources that can be used by information professionals if you don’t want to use your time to track down stock prices or have a stock with hard to find pricing information.

Website Resources
There are some surprising results with the four websites I used to search for historical price data. I used McDonald's (MCD) as an example and looked for the closing price on July 26, 1974 on four websites.

Google Finance (http://finance.google.com/finance) has a link for historical stock prices after you type in the company name and click on the historical price link above the charts. In Yahoo Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/) one would type in the stock name and look for the historical prices link on the left. Big Charts (http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/) has a historical quotes link at the top of the page. Generally the data can go back to January 1, 1970 for many stocks on these three sites.

The website of the company you are looking for stock information on may also have some data if the company still exists. On McDonald’s web page in the investor’s area there is historical stock information. (http://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/invest/finan/stock.html). McDonald’s Corporation went public in 1965 yet they don’t have stock information that far back. July 26, 1974 is the first available date for daily stock information.

Lastly, if you have a company that is no longer traded, you might able to go to the website of the acquiring company. In one instance I worked on, the stock information for the company sold was listed on the website of the acquiring company and was useful in determining the basis for the stock that was no longer listed.

Results
I looked at the information displayed for the closing price of McDonald's on July 26, 1974 and there were some surprising results if one is not paying attention to the data and footnotes. As you read across the data presented for the closing price Google Finance reads $1.01, Yahoo Finance $41.00 with a disclosure note, Big Charts $41.00 (with a sidebar of $1.012346 and note) and the website for McDonald's shows $1.01 with a disclosure note.

The data for Yahoo and Google is supplied by CSI Market Data (http://www.csidata.com/), Big Charts data is supplied by Interactive Data Real Time Services (http://www.interactivedata-rts.com/) and McDonald's data is provided by Iverson. Iverson Financial Services is now part of Capco Reference Data Services (CRDS) (http://www.capco.com/) per Capco website.

So what is up with the different information as it reads quite differently between Yahoo and Google with CSI Market Data supplying data to both Yahoo and Google? Google lists the closing price of $1.01 with no disclosure information. Yahoo lists the closing price at $41.00 and discloses that the close price is adjusted for dividends and splits and has an adjusted close of 0.69 cents. McDonald's lists the closing price as $1.01 with a disclosure note indicating that prices display split-adjusted cost basis per share on that date. Big Charts has the close at $41.00 with a side chart and note for the split adjusted price of $1.012346 and the adjustment factor of $40.50. The closing price is generally the price recorded during trading that takes place in the final period of a trading session.

I emailed the folks at CSI Market Data and asked for their input on the discrepancies between Google and Yahoo since they supply the data to both sites and received a very quick reply from Kurt.

“Here's how the dividend adjustments are calculated at YAHOO:
The dividend is subtracted from the closing price on the day before the stock trade’s ex-dividend.  This value is then divided by the same closing price to arrive at an adjustment factor for all previous prices.  For example, say a stock closed on the day prior to the ex-date at $5 and the dividend amount is $1.  The adjustment factor to modify prior numbers with would be (5-1)/5 or 0.8. I am not certain, but I am guessing that Google and McDonald do not adjust history prices for dividends.  CSI and YAHOO feel it is incorrect not to do so as this unfairly makes the performance history of dividend paying companies look worse than non-dividend paying companies.  Also, sometimes the dividends are so large that they must be accounted for or there would be a huge distortion in the price. What then becomes the cutoff point when a dividend should trigger an adjustment other than some arbitrary amount or percentage value? ”

With the discrepancies in the information I received, I wanted to know with exactness what I would have paid if I bought the last transaction of McDonald’s stock on July 26, 1974. I used the public library for this quest and went into the online historical data base for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal and looked at the prices in the July 27, 1974 editions. They both reported a close of $41.00 on the New York Stock Exchange for McDonald's. Additionally, I made a call to a library that has the Daily Stock Price Record by Standard and Poor's Corporation and they agreed to look up the information for me as it was not online. This source also listed the close at $41.00.

Finally we know the price I would have paid if I bought the last transaction of McDonald’s stock on July 26, 1974 to be $41.00 (Yahoo, Big Charts). Yet we have $1.01 (Google, Big Charts, and McDonald's) and 0.69 cents (Yahoo) as stock price information for that date.

The different results can be confusing to an individual depending upon the purpose of their request. It becomes important to know what you are looking for and to read the disclosure notes. In this case Google does not provide any information as to what the $1.01 represents. Yahoo does have the price I would have paid that day and then has an adjusted close of 0.69 cents for both dividends and splits. McDonald's lists $1.01 with a note that it is for a split-adjusted cost basis per share on that date. Big Charts shows both $41.00 and a split adjusted price of $1.012346 which in my opinion is more useful as it combines what you would have paid that day with a split adjusted share price. Note that both Big Charts, McDonald's don’t address dividends where as Yahoo indicates they adjust for dividends.

Depending upon the purpose of your information need it may be time to go to your tax professional as there will be a difference in the tax basis of your stock depending upon dividend treatment, stock splits, stock dividends, acquisitions, partial sell of shares, etc. If you want to look at performance measures, Yahoo gives the adjusted price of 0.69 (for splits and dividends) Big Charts and McDonald's has an adjusted price of $1.01 (for splits).

Without much research the initial eye would not have any idea what Google was doing with their historical stock prices the way they currently list prices without any disclosure note. This is an example of the need to pay attention to the data and information that is available. Additionally, it takes a far bit of time to source and verify the data so it becomes useful information. If this is something you don’t have time for and need help with please contact your information professional for assistance.

Should you need assistance with information
or research please contact me at

or 303-884-8666