With recent market fluctuations, many investors find themselves routinely checking their stocks’ values, worrying that they may have missed an opportunity to buy or sell specific assets. However, while obsessive checking may result in nothing but anxiety for investors, a routine portfolio stock analysis is a smart move when it comes to long-term financial goals.
What is a Stock Portfolio Analysis?
A stock portfolio analysis is exactly how it sounds. It’s a check-up of all the different stocks in your investment portfolio that focuses on historical performance, current values, and future trends that may affect the values over time.
Deciphering how your stocks have performed over the past few days, months, and years is easy enough and can be conducted with a Google search. However, interpreting these fluctuations in your financial ambitions is much harder to achieve.
How often you conduct a stock portfolio analysis depends on a range of factors that extend from global market conditions to your own imminent goals. A wealth management expert like Saddock Wealth can help you determine how often you should “check in,” based on your investment portfolio, and future ambitions.
Key Components of a Stock Portfolio
There are a wide variety of stocks that you can invest in, which are often further divided into different subsets or categories. A sample of just some of the public and private investment stocks available for investors include the following:
- Common and preferred stocks
- Domestic and international stocks
- Large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap stocks
- Growth and value stocks
- Dividend and income stocks
- Safe and speculative stocks
- Blue-chip and penny stocks
- Specific industry stocks
- IPO (initial public offering) stocks
- ESG (environmental, social and governance) stocks
Remember that the above list is just a sample of the various stocks that may be part of your portfolio. Additionally, your overall portfolio may (and likely should) include other types of investments.
Essentially, a well-balanced portfolio isn’t generally composed of stocks alone. Instead, it should include bonds, cash, and other assets like real estate, which are not as affected by the fluctuating stock market.
How to Analyze a Stock Portfolio
When it comes to calculating how your stock portfolio is performing, there are a few key components to keep in mind.
Assessing performance
Historical performance data over the past few months and years is crucial in assessing your stock investments. However, you also need to take a closer look at future markets or economic changes that may impact on your stocks’ overall or individual value over time.
There are many reasons why a stock’s value may slide.
Major shareholder selling, negative research notes by an analyst, changes in future guidance for public or private companies, or general adjustments in supply and demand are just a few examples. National and global economic factors also play a huge role across the board, and all of these factors need to be taken into account when judging future performance.
Risk assessment and investment horizon
Stocks are often an excellent option for investors with a longer investment horizon, as investors can essentially wait out any large market fluctuations and grow value over time. However, if you have a big life change on the horizon – like retirement or buying a house – then you may want to shift to more conservative investments like bonds, which may have smaller returns but are a less risky option for the short term.
Diversification
Another attribute to review is your portfolio’s diversification. Diversification is crucial for any investment portfolio, as it ensures that a huge global economic or market change does not hinder the value of your entire portfolio.
Make sure that your stocks are distributed in a variety of ways. If you notice significant and consistent trends across the board regarding changes in value, it’s time for a more detailed and extensive portfolio stock analysis to ensure greater diversification.
The Best Way to Conduct a Portfolio Stock Analysis is With Professional Guidance
Whether you are in the beginning stages of investing in stocks or simply want a check-up of your stock portfolio, Saddock Wealth can help.
Our dedicated team can perform an in-depth stock portfolio analysis to ensure that your investments are on the right path and that they align with your short-term and long-term investing goals and ambitions.
A stock portfolio analysis is challenging, and you need an expert to identify any gaps or opportunities along the way. As a lifelong resource that is solely concentrated on your wealth management, Saddock Wealth is an ideal partner to ensure that your investments across the board result in future financial success. Contact us today to create the right plan for your portfolio.