Four ways you can use Company REFS...

Income or growth, whatever your approach to investment you usually begin your search for attractive shares with your key criteria and then look for other supporting factors. Here are just a few examples of how REFS can be adapted to suit your personal investment system.

High Yield Stocks

In periods of falling interest rates, high yielders are very likely to outperform the market as a whole, but to shortlist these high yielding companies through your own efforts could take hours. REFS gives you an updated list every month in the tables of Highest Dividend Yields showing the highest yielding shares in each index, plus non-index and AIM stocks.

You’ll also need to assess the supporting criteria, the first one of which is dividend cover to make sure the dividend is secure. You should also compare the price-to-cash flow (PCF) with the price-earnings ratio (PER) and check that gearing is not excessive. The PER and forecast growth rate are other key factors. REFS provides all the answers in the tables of shares with Highest Dividend Yields.

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The Contrarian Approach

David Dreman, the doyen of contrarian investing, in his recent book Contrarian Investment Strategies: The Next Generation suggested four basic approaches to investment.

1. Lowest Price Earnings Ratios (PERs) in relation to the market.
2. Lowest Price-to-Cash Flow (PCF).
3. Lowest Price-to-Book Values (PBVs).
4. Highest Dividend Yields.

There’s a simple way to research all the information you need to apply each of these strategies - REFS. Companies meeting each criterion are ranked in the REFS tables every month, together with the relevant supporting information. For instance, the lowest PCF tables also highlight other key criteria such as last Annual Report (AR) cash flow per share, last AR capex per share, the cash flow trend and the last AR net gearing. Only REFS brings together all this information and presents it in one place - easily accessible and completely up to date.

David Dreman suggests that much better results can be obtained by combining the four approaches mentioned above. How would you combine these criteria using your current system? It would take you a long time. With CD REFS you can quickly and easily set the parameters for selection and find the companies that meet all your criteria in seconds.

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Lowest Price to Sales ratio

In a bearish climate, you may want to look for shares with low price-to-sales ratios (PSRs). James O’Shaughnessy in his research for his book What Works on Wall Street found that, when coupled with good relative strength in the previous year, a low PSR was the most successful investment criterion over 40 years. You’ll find that the tables of shares with the Lowest Price-to-Sales Ratios include, as do all of the other tables, full details of relative strength over the previous year and previous month. They also show net gearing, the sales trend, margins, the margin trend, the PER and the Price-to-Tangible-Book Value (PTBV). All this key information makes it quick and easy for you to find the shares that should be on your shortlist.

REFS is a multi-dimensional investment product and, whatever your investment strategy you’ll find the hard facts and figures you need, to assess which shares deserve a place in your portfolio. REFS in CD format will help you find those shares -in seconds. This powerful research tool gives you the capability to search through the entire database of UK quoted companies, finding those that meet your personal criteria for investing.

REFS could have a significant impact on the way you invest. Why not put it to work today - and like our other subscribers - you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.

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