Any stock investing / finance folks in here?

[trane_fanatic]

Can someone explain to me why two different reputable websites are giving me varying historical quotes for the same day? I'm no finance expert, but shouldn't they be the same data?

For example, BRE Properties stock on July 7, 1998

According to USA Today,

USA Today

Date Last High Low Close Volume % Change

07/07/1998 27.12 28.25 27.06 28.06 303,700 4.18%

But then Yahoo Finance says:

Yahoo Finance

Date Open High Low Close Volume Adj Close*

Jul 7, 1998 24.22 25.23 24.17 25.06 303,700 12.28

What gives? Sorry for the formatting, but I can't get the data to space out right.

Edited March 16, 2012 by trane_fanatic

[Big Wheel]

Interesting question. Three things jump out at me about this data:

1) The data comes from different data sources (Commodity Systems, Inc. vs. Interactive Data)

2) Yahoo notes an "adjusted" close which takes into account splits and dividends.

3) While not the same, the data shares similar contours. Both quotes show a stock that closed significantly higher than its opening price, a low 5-6 cents below the opening price, and a high about 20 cents above the closing price. In fact if you look at the ratio of close price: opening price you'll see that both sets of data give almost exactly the same value (1.0346). I think you'll probably find the same thing if you examine other ratios among these prices.

Put all three together and my hunch is that one of the sources (not sure which) has done some more "adjusting" and isn't telling you exactly why without a dig through their FAQ or help forums. Maybe Yahoo has also adjusted all the old prices for inflation or something so people can make more accurate comparisons of trends, not sure.

I checked Fidelity's data and theirs is very close to the USA Today data (it's identical, except the opening price is 27.13 instead of 27.12).

This guy seems to have had similar questions and researched it quite a bit: http://larkbirdsong.com/researchnewsletter042008.html

Edited March 16, 2012 by Big Wheel

[trane_fanatic]

Thanks, BW! Totally forgot I had posted this a while back. Guess I won't rely on cost basis information on the innaweb for tax purposes then.

[Big Wheel]

Thanks, BW! Totally forgot I had posted this a while back. Guess I won't rely on cost basis information on the innaweb for tax purposes then.

Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea anyway for what you're trying to do. Remember, if you bought the stock during trading hours (advisable) the actual purchase price is not necessarily going to be the closing price - I guess by definition it has to be between the high and the low, but you have no good way of knowing your order's exact cost just from looking at these general stats.

If you are purchasing the stocks through any discount broker worth a damn, they should be storing all this basis information automatically and noting it on your 1099-B when you sell. Fidelity is excellent about this - I highly recommend them for centralizing your investment activity so you aren't chasing down tons of info and forms at tax time. They consolidate everything (every piece of every 1099-INT, 1099-B, 1099-DIV, etc.) and send it together so you can do your 1040.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Big Wheel

[BFrank]

I've been with T. Rowe Price for many years and have been very happy with their service - both mutual funds and brokerage. I find the TRP funds to be very reliable and are usually rated favorably on Morningstar.

[Brad]

If you need information for tax reporting, you're better off going to the company's transfer agent. You could probably create an account quickly and they could then generate a 1099 DIV in seconds.