Do you want to know how to get historical stock data in Excel? If so, you have come to the right place. In this comprehensive guide, we will teach you everything you need to know about getting historical stock data into your Excel spreadsheets. We will cover everything from finding free historical stock data online to importing it into Excel and analyzing it. So whether you are a beginner or an experienced Excel user, this guide has something for you!
What is historical stock data, and why do you need it?
Historical stock data is a record of a company's past performance. This data can be used to predict future trends and make investment decisions. Many people use Excel to store and analyze historical stock data.
The types of historical data available include :
- Stock prices
- Dividends
- Earnings
- Splits
- Key metrics
- Financials
Each type of data can be useful in different ways. For example, historical stock prices can be used to identify trends and make investment decisions. Dividends can be used to measure a company's profitability. And earnings can be used to assess a company's financial health.
While historical stock data is not required to make investment decisions, it can be helpful in making more informed decisions.
There are a few reasons why you might need historical stock data in Excel. For example, you may want to:
- Analyze a company's historical performance to predict future trends
- Compare the performance of different stocks over time
- Make investment decisions based on historical data
Whatever your reason for needing historical stock data, Excel is a great tool for storing and analyzing this data. In the next section, we will show you where to find historical stock data online.
How to get historical stock data
There are a few ways to get historical stock data. One way is to use Google Finance. Google Finance is a website that provides financial data and news. To use it, simply go to google.com/finance and search for the ticker of the stock you want data on.
For example, if you want historical data on Apple, you would search for AAPL.
Once you find the stock you are looking for, scroll down to "Financials."
This will show you the company's financial statements along with the year-over-year percentage difference.
Another way to get historical stock data is through the Yahoo Finance website. Yahoo Finance is similar to Google Finance, but it offers more data and options.
To use Yahoo Finance, go to finance.yahoo.com and search for the ticker of the stock you want data on.
For example, if you want historical data on Apple, you would search for AAPL.
Once you find the stock you are looking for, click on it and then click on "Financials". Here you will be able to see the company's financial statements for the last 4 years or 5 quarters.
How to import the data into Excel
Unfortunately, importing the data from these websites into excel is difficult, and using methods like web scrapping has downsides such as the possibility of getting banned and the data retrieval being inaccurate and unreliable. For this reason, the best way to get this data to your Excel spreadsheet is to use the Wisesheets add-on and the Excel STOCKHISTORY function.
Both options were built specifically for getting data into Excel using simple spreadsheet formulas so you can forget about complicated scrapping or expensive APIs and instead focus on doing the analysis you need quickly, so you make great investment decisions.
The historical stock data you can get through Wisesheets includes historical pricing data, dividend yield, dividend payments, financials, key metrics, and growth metrics. The best part is that this includes stock coverage for over 50 major global stock exchanges. On the other hand, you can use the STOCKHISTORY function to get historical stock price data such as close volume and more for a large number of stock exchanges.
Let's dive into how you can get data for each one.
Historical Dividend data
Historical dividend data is one of the easiest data types to access.
All you have to do is enter =WISEPRICE("ticker", "dividend").
For example =WISEPRICE("COKE", "dividend"):
As you can see, this will return the date, dividend payment, adjusted date, payment date, and declaration date for COKE, with the data going back to 1985.
Another type of dividend data you can get is the historical dividend yield.
All you have to do is enter in any cell of your spreadsheet =WISE("ticker", "dividend yield", "year") or =WISE("ticker", "dividend yield", "year", "quarter").
For example, to get Apple's dividend yield for the 2021 fiscal year in the second quarter, you need to enter =WISE("AAPL", "dividend yield", "2019", "q2")
This will return the dividend yield based on the dividends paid in the quarter and the closing price when the financial statements were released.
Historical Pricing Data
When it comes to historical pricing data, you can access various parameters, including:
- Open
- High
- Low
- Close
- AdjClose
- Volume
- Unadjusted Volume
- Change
- Change Percent
- Vwap
- Label
- ChangeOverTime
All you have to do is enter =WISEPRICE("ticker", "parameter/s, num of days) or =WISEPRICE("ticker", "parameter/s, , start date, end date).
For example, to get Apple's close price for the last 30 business days, all you have to do is enter =WISEPRICE("aapl", "close", 30).
This will return the date and the close price in an array.
Alternatively, you can use the STOCKHISTORY function, which is built into Excel, to get the close price between January 1st 2022 and Jnuary 30th, 2020 you need to enter on any cell =STOCKHISTORY(“AAPL”, "01/01/2022", "01/30/2022",0,1,0,1).
Using this function, you can retrieve the following historical stock attributes:
- Close (1)
- Open (2)
- High (3)
- Low (4)
- Volume (5)
For a full guide on how this function works, click here.
Historical Financials
There are two ways to get historical stock financials on your excel spreadsheet. The first is to enter the company name or ticker in the search bar of the Wisesheets statement dump menu and then click data.
As you can see, this returns all of the financial statements, key metrics, and growth metrics of that particular company formatted for your spreadsheet going back to 2003.
The other way which is more valuable for your unique way of analyzing stocks is to get any information you'd like available in statement dump using the WISE function.
As you can see, you can build your favorite stock analysis models very fast using the function as shown, including DCFs stock watchlist, and custom screeners, amongst many others. You can click here to see the full guide on how to use the wise function.
However, to make matters even simpler, you can pick your favorite template from the selection of free stock templates available and then make any modifications you'd like to suit your unique investment style.
Historical key metrics
Getting historical key metrics for stock in excel is not much different than getting historical stock financials. You can use the statement dump option described above or use the WISE function to get only the stock metrics you want for many companies at once for more valuable insights.
In this way, you can find investment opportunities faster and discover valuable stocks, you would not otherwise have found.
How to analyze stock data in Excel
Use sparklines
Sparklines can be quite helpful in analyzing stock financials as they provide a good visual indication of the trend for particular financial statement items. When combined with statement dump, you can see how they help in trend analysis which you can then use to help with your valuations and overall analysis.
Compare companies side by side
One of the best ways to analyze stocks is to compare them with other companies in the same sector and industry. This allows you to assess how they stand up against each other and find potential investment opportunities. Using the WISE function is key to performing this type of analysis.
Use historical stock data for valuations
Using the historical financials and key metrics as a strong base can help a lot in your stock valuations to ensure you use reasonable assumptions and estimates based on your own research and the past performance of this company. Using a DCF or custom valuation model that gets you the data and allows you to simply change the assumptions is a good way to speed up this process and find more investment-worthy opportunities.
Tips for interpreting stock market data
When trying to interpret historical stock market data, it is important to keep in mind a few things:
-The data may be misinterpreted. Just because a stock has gone up in value does not mean that the company is doing well. Many factors can affect stock prices, and it is important to take all of them into account before making any investment decisions.
-The data may be outdated. Historical stock data is not always indicative of future performance. Therefore, it is important to review the relevance of the data and how it relates to the current operating conditions of the company.
-It is important to do your own research. Historical stock data should not be used as the sole basis for making investment decisions. It is important to do your own research and understand the company thoroughly before investing.
With all of this in mind, it is still possible to glean valuable information from historical stock market data. By keeping these things in mind, you can avoid making costly mistakes and find successful investments.
Conclusion
Now you know how to get historical data on your excel spreadsheet, why this is valuable, the different ways you can use this data to find attractive stocks to invest in, and some of the errors to avoid when interpreting historical stock data.
In the end, historical data is just one piece of the puzzle but it is a critical part of any good investment decision. With this guide, you should be well on your way to getting historical stock data in Excel and using it to find attractive investments.
Happy investing!
