Capital Cube: A Revolutionary Tool For Investors ~ market folly

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Capital Cube: A Revolutionary Tool For Investors

Whenever we come across interesting tools for investors, we like to flag them for readers. So today we're highlighting CapitalCube.com, a site that provides company analysis for stocks all around the world.

Let's face it, there's plenty of tools out there that various levels of investors use.  Retail investors use Yahoo Finance to look up numbers on their stocks, Financial Advisors often use Morningstar and similar platforms, while institutional investors use data providers like Bloomberg, CapitalIQ etc.

What's unique about CapitalCube is that they have an Analysis Platform that takes raw data from the data providers and provides enhanced analysis and commentary for over 40,000 global equities.

Investors can type in the ticker symbol of any company and pull up fundamental analysis about the company.  But here's where things are differentiated from what's already available online on a site like Google Finance or Yahoo Finance.  CapitalCube takes those raw numbers, analyzes them, compares them to key competitors (this is essential), provides historical context, and then explains things in plain English.

So not only do they provide a quantitative assessment for numbers-people, they dig deeper by featuring a qualitative approach, as well as graphical interpretations for context.  They answer the questions – where is the company now (strengths and weaknesses along various dimensions), what can they do (share buybacks, increase dividends etc.), and how strong are their reported numbers (net income to cash flow discrepancies and accounting quality).


Fundamental Analysis

Here's an example.   We'll look at Exxon (XOM) - an industry stalwart.  Typing in the ticker symbol on CapitalCube shows the following:

Fundamental Analysis Score (based on their proprietary algorithms): 88 out of 100.
Dividend Quality Score: 67 out of 100.

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The snapshot gives a summary across various sections from Fundamental Analysis to Earnings Quality. CapitalCube rates metrics on a 4-star scale such as: relative valuation, valuation drivers, operations, earnings leverage, drivers of margin, growth expectations, dividend quality, accounting quality and more.

The key here is the context.  While other free services like Yahoo Finance will tell you XOM’s price to book ratio, it's just a raw number.  CapitalCube's platform tells you XOM’s price to book ratio (2.5), compares it to its peer median (1.2), and further breaks down components (ROE and P/E) to visually paint a picture of how Exxon is doing relative to its peers. It characterizes Exxon as an Outperformer – something that is made use of later in the stock screener.

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It also paints a historical picture of how Exxon has been doing relative to its peers along these metrics.

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One of the keys to what makes Capital Cube unique is its peer relative analysis.  A company is not analyzed in isolation – but is instead judged relative to its peers. The database automatically identifies a company’s peers, but you can also customize the peers to incorporate other companies you're interested in comparing with.

In addition to multiple areas of a company’s fundamentals, there are reports on corporate actions, dividend quality and earnings quality, breaking down key metrics for users. There are no price targets – just unbiased analysis.


Stock Screener

It's also a good tool for investment idea generation as you can use their stock screener.  Again, they compare peer relative metrics which is useful.  You can find high quality dividend paying stocks, stocks that are likely M&A targets, stocks whose earnings are coming from accounting reserves, and more.


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Portfolio Analysis

Investors looking to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their portfolio can use CapitalCube’s Portfolio feature by importing their holdings and it will give you a summary analysis with various fundamental characteristics.

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An alerts feature wraps it all up allowing you to set alerts on individual companies, an entire portfolio, or even on saved stock screens. You can choose to be alerted when any metrics change (for example a company’s borrowing capacity). Stock screener alerts will let you know if new companies meet your screening criteria or if existing companies in the screen no longer meet the selected criteria.

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You can get a free trial at CapitalCube.com.  They will be offering two subscription options starting in July – Premium for $79/month and Professional for $149/month, the difference being access to the corporate actions, dividend quality and earnings quality reports.

With 40,0000 companies analyzed, their database is truly global.  It has 12,700 American companies, 18,200 Asian companies, 8,000 European companies and more.    In summary, CapitalCube is all about context and saving you time.  It compares companies directly to their competitors, highlights the relevant metrics, and shows you the key takeaways.  It's a great tool for a quick snapshot of a company if you're just starting research or screening for investment ideas.  And then if you want to dig deeper, their comprehensive platform has other options to do so.

Definitely check out CapitalCube.com's free trial and let us know if you find any interesting tools we might have missed.


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