Web Safaris
Web Safaris facilitate Internet searches for useful financial data in order to reach a specific goal corresponding to topics in the chapter.

Chapter 6 Web Safaris

Finding Beta

Question: What is the value of Beta for Dell? This web safari shows you how to answer questions such as this.

Use the following directions to find Dell's current situation.

Beta Source 1

Go to You may enter the ticker symbol for a company, such as Dell, in the field next to the Get Quotes button (note: if you don't know the ticker symbol, you can use their link to Symbol Lookup, shown above the Get Quotes button). Click on Get Quotes after you have entered your company.

After clicking on Get Quotes, you will see a screen with the ticker, time of the last trade, closing price, dollar and percent change in price, and the day's volume (number of shares traded). Click on “Key Statistics.”

Finding Stock Returns

Question: What has the trend been in Dell's monthly stock prices? How can you get this data into an Excel worksheet? How can you get the values of stock market indexes? This web safari will show you how to answer questions such as these.

Go to You will begin with the Yahoo!Finance page.

On the left, select “Historical Prices.”

This page has a screen that allows you to select the starting and ending dates and whether you want the daily, weekly, or monthly stock quotes for a company. You will also need to enter a Ticker Symbol for either a stock or an index. As an example, we have selected to receive monthly price quotes over the past four years for Dell.

After clicking on Get Prices, you will come to the screen that provides the monthly high, low, and close quotes for Dell over the past four years. The adjusted close adjusts for dividends and stock splits for the stock and will be a different number than the close. The adjusted close reconciles any price differences created by a stock split or a stock dividend. In other words, the percentage change in the adjusted price shows the stock return after adjusting for dividends and stock splits.

To download the information in the table, you must scroll down until you reach the bottom of the price chart. You can now download this data in a spreadsheet format to use in Excel. You will next click on Download Spreadsheet Format in order to save this file.

To get the historical data for various stock indexes, you follow the same procedure as for an individual company. The only "trick" is to know the "ticker" symbol for the index. We have shown some of the more popular indexes below.

Here are some for the U.S. stock market:

  • Dow Jones Industrial Average: ^DJI
  • S & P 500: ^SPC
  • Nasdaq Composite: ^IXIC
  • Russell 2000: ^RUT
  • Wilshire 5000: ^WIL5

Here are some international indexes:

  • Chile (Selective Stock Price Index, IPSA): ^IPSA
  • Germany (XETRA DAX): ^GDAX
  • Hong Kong (Hang Seng): ^HIS
  • India (Bombay Stock Exchange, BSE Sensex): ^BSESN
  • Japan (Nikkei 225): ^N225
  • Spain (IBEX 35): ^IBEX
  • United Kingdom (FT-SE 100): ^FTSE