Need Historical Stock Data going back 20 years and with dividends reinvested, for free

[snip]

Summary numbers on broad indexes like the SP500 should be available - Google it, or search for articles at financial news services. For individual issues, most libraries carry Value Line at the reference desk, with data for the past 15+ years on their universe of 1700 stocks.

Do you happen to know where to locate 15 - 20 years of earnings data for all stocks (not just Value Line)? I wasn't aware of MSCI Barra. I Googled for earnings, and came up with a comprehensive service, but it was a pretty raw database, and a subscription of $3,400(!). Long Term Values (owned by the company that does Daily Graphs) was a great $289/ yr service, complete with charts and company descriptions, but they ceased publication years ago - and would not disclose their data source.

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You can download from Yahoo historical daily prices and dividends for the Vanguard S&P 500 index fund (VFINX) since March 27, 1987 from Yahoo. Yahoo also provides an "Adjusted Close" column that reflects the reinvestment of dividends. The fund tracks the S&P 500 very closely and has had low expenses, now about 0.1% annually, earlier maybe about 0.2%.

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Thanks, I figured this out later. Indeed the last column in Yahoo's

historical quotes on the S&P500 is adjusted for dividends. I also found that even for five years out, the end point is important: for example, picking February 29, 2008 as your end point rather than two days earlier (Feb. 27) gives almost a half point difference in average yearly return over five years!

As for other free data sources, I don't know of any except Reuters Business and some (10 yrs) free Morningstar stats.

RL

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Shiller has data through August 2006 available at:

You'll have to adjust returns for dividends yourself, but the dividend data is there to do it with.

-Will

william dot trice at ngc dot com

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Caveat on "adjusted close" -- it's a moving target that is only valid for the day you check it. Meaning, if you write down a the numerical value for the adjusted closing price for a given date, and re-check it months later, the value will be different (if any dividends were paid, that is...with no dividends, adjusted close = close, there's no need for any adjustment).

It doesn't go back 20 years but the Russell site

has free downloads of their index data for two versions of their indices -- nominal value, and with dividends reinvested, which is a completely different number series. For example the Russell 3000 (one proxy for "the US market") closed at 1373 on Friday, but the dividend-reinvested index value was 3160.

-Tad

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I'm still puzzled. So far we have "reinvestment of dividends", "adjusted for dividends", and "moving target". Yet Yahoo! (and only Yahoo!, as far as I can search), says it has to do with avoiding "negative historical pricing".

Here is exactly what Yahoo! Finance help says about the "adjusted close" column that is provided (info about split adjustments omitted, that one I think I understand). The explanation goes on to provide an example of how the numbers are actually calculated.

"Dividend multipliers are calculated based on dividend as a percentage of price, primarily to avoid negative historical pricing. For example, when a $0.08 cash dividend is distributed on Feb 19 (ex-date), and the Feb 18 closing price was 24.96, the pre-dividend data is multiplied by (1-0.08/24.96) = 0.9968."

-Mark Bole

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