Getty Images / Pekic A company's financial statements—balance sheet, income, and cash flow statements—are a key source of data for analyzing the investment value of its stock. Stock investors ...

(See also: Reading the Balance Sheet.) On the balance sheet, spotting creative accounting practices can be broken down into three categories for analysis: assets, liabilities, and equity.

In other words, the balance sheet must balance. Subtracting liabilities from assets shows the net worth of the business A basic tenet of double-entry bookkeeping is that total assets (what a ...

The SEC requires this information to be shown on a company's balance sheet. When you buy stock in a company, you buy a percentage ownership of that business. How much of the business your one ...