The business reporter sometimes has to check the current price or the dividend of a stock listed on one of the exchanges. Here is a guide to understanding the listings on the New York Stock Exchange.

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Trading Center—NYSE

High	Low	Stock	Div	Yld	P-E Ratio
45.90A	30.00	AllstateB	.76	2.3	17
31.42	14.70	FordM	.60C	3.7D	46
70.02	50.25	Gannett	.92	1.4	20E
63.80	44.13	KnightR	1.00	1.7	35

Stock	Sales 100s	High	Low	Close	Net Chg.
AllstateB	24190	33.05	32.51	32.80	-0.30
FordM	65835	16.74	16.06	16.06	-0.81
Gannett	4376F	65.57	64.80	65.00	-0.30
KnightR	2723	60.00G	58.51	59.59H	+0.64

1. The highest and the lowest price the stock has sold for in the past 52 weeks.
2. Name of the corporation that lists the stock. The stock is common stock unless otherwise listed.
3. The annual dividend. When a letter follows the number consult the box at the bottom of the stock table.
4. Yield, the dividend paid by the company expressed as a percentage of the current price of the stock. A stock that sells for $50 at the current market price and pays a dividend of $2 a year has a yield of 4 percent. In the example of the Ford Motor Company, the dividend of $.60 divided by the closing price of $16.06 results in the yield percentage of 3.7.
5. The price-earnings ratio is figured by dividing the price of a share of the stock by the earnings per share over a 12-month period. The earnings per share are not shown in this table. Gannett's earnings for the period reflected in the table was $3.25. We divide the closing price of $65 by the earnings per share of $3.25: 65 ÷ 3.25 = 20.
6. The number of shares traded this day in the 100s. Here, 437,600 shares of Gannett stock were traded.
7. The highest and lowest prices the stock was traded for during the day's trading.
8. The closing price at the end of trading and the difference the closing price was from the closing price of the previous day.