Investing Why Great Investors Like the Value Line Investment Survey By Joshua Kennon Joshua Kennon Joshua Kennon is an expert on investing, assets and markets, and retirement planning. He is the managing director and co-founder of Kennon-Green & Co., an asset management firm. learn about our editorial policies Updated on May 4, 2022 Reviewed by Chip Stapleton Fact checked by Hans Jasperson Fact checked by Hans Jasperson Hans Jasperson has over a decade of experience in public policy research, with an emphasis on workforce development, education, and economic justice. His research has been shared with members of the U.S. Congress, federal agencies, and policymakers in several states. learn about our editorial policies Photo: Nikada/Getty Images What do Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, and Peter Lynch have in common (besides three of the greatest investment records in the history of global capitalism)? They have spoken about their admiration for one of the best investment products available on the market: the Value Line Investment Survey. Key Takeaways The Value Line Investment Survey is a newsletter that tracks 1,700 individual stocks across more than 90 industries.Each week, the one-page report provides an in-depth analysis of financial data, including sales, profits, tax rates, return on equity, and dividend yields.The Value Line Investment Survey can help you reduce investment risk by offering insight into the stability and profitability of companies. Many libraries have a professional subscription to the survey, which they offer free to members—a potential savings of hundreds of dollars per year. The Value Line Investment Survey If you're a new investor, you've like read about or heard someone mention the Value Line Investment Survey. Value Line's flagship newsletter tracks 1,700 individual stocks across more than 90 different industries. Each week, the Value Line staff analysts update a batch of 130 stocks. How you receive the updates depends on whether you choose the digital or print option. Value Line's impressive one-page reports include a tremendous amount of financial data, including: Sales Gross profits Operating profits Tax rates Shares outstanding Return on equity Return on invested capital Debt-to-equity ratios Average price-to-earnings ratios over time Dividend yields Payout ratios Management ownership This allows you to get an idea of the trends facing a business. For example, are profit margins being squeezed? If so, you could try to figure out whether the problem is temporary or permanent, which would have a significant influence on your valuation. Other Value Line Resources and Products There are numerous other Value Line products apart from the legendary investment survey. These include the small- and mid-cap edition, mutual fund edition, selection, and opinion edition, options edition, and ETF edition. For new investors, these might not be a good fit unless you have specialized knowledge or a particular interest. Why Subscribe to the Value Line Investment Survey? For new and experienced investors alike (not to mention business students and managers), the Value Line Investment Survey can be a great resource. You can understand a business by looking at its numbers. You can see the things that cause it to be a good business or a struggling one. You can see how effectively capital has been returned to owners and how the stock was valued in the past, compared to the present. You can see what makes owning a food stock different from a travel stock. The Value Line Investment Survey can help you reduce investment risk. It can show you in a few seconds whether a firm tends to generate huge losses during recessions and whether the interest coverage ratio is large enough to make you feel comfortable investing in bonds from the issuer. Even if you invest in index funds, you can go through the S&P 500 components to understand what you actually own. How to Access the Value Line Investment Survey for Free For new investors, putting aside as much cash as possible into investment accounts is both wise and prudent. Many community libraries have professional subscriptions to the Value Line Investment Survey, including the online database, so you can run stock screens or put together your own collection of summary sheets to print and study at home. Libraries typically make this available for free to members. Since Value Line Investment Survey subscriptions cost hundreds of dollars per year, this is an excellent option for those who do not have the money to spare but still want to conduct investment research. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit Sources The Balance uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Buffett Archive. "Morning Session 1998 Meeting." Click on "24. Praise for Value Line's Perfect Snapshot." Peter Lynch. "One Up on Wall Street," Page 197. Simon & Schuster, 2000. Value Line. "The Value Line Investment Survey."