If you are not familiar with Step 10 of The 13 Steps to Investing Foolishly (in the Fool's School area) you might want to review it so that you have firmly in mind what the PEGulator is doing. Once you "get it," running the PEGulator is simplicity itself.
The secret is in finding the numbers to feed it. A good source is our Quotes & Data box in the left margin. Just enter the ticker symbol for the company or companies that you're interested in and click on "get info". When you get to the Quote page, write down the current price.
From there, you will need three different tabs at the top. The first is the Estimates tab. This is what the analysts think the company will be earning at some point in the future. Fools much prefer to have from two years to (even better) five years for their future estimate -- but sometimes you have to go with what's available. Use the farthest out, full year estimate.
You will then click on the Snapshot tab where you will find the Trailing Twelve Month Earnings (labeled Earnings TTM). This is the sum of the last 4 quarters of reported earnings per share. Don't try to use the last fiscal year if any earnings have been reported since then--you want the most recently reported quarter plus the three quarters preceding it.
Finally, you will need to find the Number of Quarters. To do this, click the Financials tab, and note the month when the last earnings were reported. How many quarters are there between then and the end of the year you used for the future estimate? That's your third line on your Pegulator. Ex: If the last earnings were reported in June of '97 and the earnings estimate is for the fiscal year ending in December '98, then you would have 6 quarters, four from '98 and the two left in '97. Watch out for fiscal years that end in other quarters--if Fiscal Year '98 ends in September, you would only have 5 quarters.
All that's left is plugging in the current price. That's all there is to it. Run it a few times and pretty soon it will be as easy as doing your taxes. (Kidding!)
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