First steps

Picture 3: Desktop of the Bloomberg terminal with the button  to start Bloomberg in the top left corner

Picture 4: Starting screen of the Bloomberg Professional program

Before having access to the terminal, students have to make their own accounts. Therefore students have to enter their name, email-address, country and phone number.

1. In the left corner select “91) Actions”
2. Select “Export to Excel;”
3. Select all the rows with a checkmate to download
4. Select “91) Export” in the left corner
5. All checkmated information will be shown in an excel spreadsheet

Picture 9, 10, 11, 12: Screens following step 1 to 5. Exporting data to Excel using Bloomberg®

It is important to know that these excel data cannot be used on computers without Bloomberg® Professional application.

Industry and Company Analysis Tools

Bloomberg® is a powerful tool for conducting a market and competitor analysis. To conduct a market analysis, enter the company of interest into the comprehensive search function (HL). In this example, we use Johnson & Johnson as the company of interest.

Picture 13: Initiating company and industry analyses.

Select the desired company from the search results and select the desired function from the main menu. To conduct a market analysis, select Relative Valuation from the comparative analytics subheading.

Picture 14: Main menu options for conducting market analyses.

Explore the industry information presented in the Relative Valuation section. Product segments are provided on the upper left screen, while company performance metrics are presented on the upper right screen.

Picture 15: Product segments and performance metrics.

Three short videos by FinTute are extremely helpful when trying to learn the fundamentals of company analysis and industry analysis. These can be found at the following links:

• Company Analysis
  1. Part 1
  2. Part 2
• Industry Analysis
  1. Video 1

• Helpful tools exist that can help with the stress of accessing and navigating the Bloomberg® terminal including this helpful startup guide.
• Avoiding peak hours in Day Hall or the DRC would allow for a much more peaceful experience at the terminals. Peak Hours 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Monday through Friday. From our experience there are very few terminals in use on weekends and suggest going at that time

• HL – Comprehensive Search
• MAIN – returns a list of categories encompassing various markets
• N, TOP –  Real Time News
• BLAW –  Legal Search
• LAST – Returns the last eight pages you’ve visited

• DES – Returns descriptions
• CN – Company specific news
• DVD – Dividends
• CF – Corporate Filings
• FA – Financial analysis
• HDS – All large shareholders
• RV –  Relative valuation against competition
• ERN – Earnings summary
• HP – Historical pricing and volume

• Profit margin:
  • Divide net income by sales
  • Shows how well a company is able to make revenue from its sales

• Current and Past earnings per share (EPS)
  • Earnings available to common shareholders divided by the number of shares outstanding.
  • Growing EPS often leads to an appreciation in share price. It is a useful indicator of a company’s profitability

• Price-to-earnings ratio (P/E)
  • Divide the current stock price by the EPS
  • Critical in valuing investments and useful to visualize the earning potential of companies to potential investors.

• Payout Ratio
  • Dividend per share divided by earnings per share
  • Percentage of earnings is paid out immediately as dividends (McGraw-Hill Education, 2013)

• Debt-to-total-Asset
  • Total Debt divided by Total Asset
  • Shows, how much of the company is financed by debt (McGraw-Hill Education, 2013)

• Market Capitalization
  • Amounts of shares times their value
  • Shows how much a company is worth on the market

Balance Sheet:

A balance sheet gives information about the company at a specific date. It shows the assets as well as the liabilities and shareholder’s equity of a company (McGraw-Hill Education, 2013).

Cash Flow Statement:

The statement of cash flows shows the uses and sources of cash in a company from the start of the financial year to its end (McGraw-Hill Education, 2013).

Income Statement:

The income statement shows the profitability of a company over a certain time (McGraw-Hill Education, 2013).

10-K Form:

8-K Form:

A form, which provides brief information important for shareholders or United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The form usually has a heading, a short text describing the situation and sometimes additional information related to the heading (e.g. financial statements). The events, when a 8-K occurs could be a change at the top of the company or a bankruptcy.

Bloomberg® Finance L.P. (2018): About Bloomberg. Available online at https://www.bloomberg.com/company, checked on 1/25/2018.

Forbes Media LLC (2017): America’s best employers for diversity. Available online at https://www.forbes.com/companies/bloomberg/, checked on 1/25/2018.

Library University of Guelph (2017): Use the Bloomberg Professional Terminal: Start Here. Available online at http://guides.lib.uoguelph.ca/Bloomberg, updated on 12/17/2017, checked on 1/25/2018.

McGraw-Hill Education (2013): Foundations of Financial Management, 10th Edition, by Block et al, ISBN: 1-25-902497-0