If you're new to investing (and maybe even if you're not), you might not understand all the information in an online stock quote. To help familiarize you with the information, here's a typical online stock quote, for General Electric (NYSE:GE), followed by some explanatory comments after each line item:

  • GE -- GENERAL ELECTRIC (This is the company's name and its ticker symbol.)
  • Exchange: NYSE comp (GE trades on the New York Stock Exchange.)
  • Delay: 20 minutes (This information is 20 minutes old.)
  • Last Price: 27.08 at 15:00 ET (This is the last price at which shares traded.)
  • Change: Down 0.70 (The last price is 70 cents lower than the previous day's closing price.)
  • High: 27.85 at 9:30 ET (The high price so far today has been $27.85 per share.)
  • Low: 27.05 at 14:59 ET (The low price so far today has been $27.05 per share.)
  • Open: 27.77 (The shares began trading at $27.77 each today.)
  • Previous Close: 27.78 (The stock last traded at $27.78 in the last trading session.)
  • Volume: 12,415,200 (So far 12,415,200 shares have changed hands today.)
  • 30-Day Avg. Volume: 21,227,000 (Over the last month, an average of 21.2 million shares of GE traded daily.)
  • Shares Outstanding: 9,994,362,000 (GE has just about 10 billion shares available to be traded.)
  • Market Cap.: 270,647,322,959 (GE's market capitalization -- shares outstanding times current price -- is $271 billion.)
  • 52-Week High: 32.98 (In the last year, the highest GE stock has traded at has been $32.98.)
  • 52-Week Low: 21.30 (In the last year, GE's lowest stock price has been $21.30.)
  • Beta: 1.06 (This essentially means that GE stock is 1.06 times more volatile than the overall market.)
  • Yield: 2.7% (GE's current dividend yield -- annual dividend divided by current stock price -- is 2.7%.)
  • P/E Ratio: 19.07 (GE's price divided by its trailing 12-month earnings per share is 19.07.)
  • EPS: 1.42 (GE's earnings per share over the last year have totaled $1.42.)

Newspaper and other online stock listings usually contain many, but not all, of the above items. Newspapers list stock information as of the previous trading day's close, whereas online quotes are updated continually throughout each trading session.

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