Alpha Vantage Company Overview

This page explains how to get Alpha Vantage company overview data. It also explains the meaning of individual fields and how often they change.

Company overview API URL

The company overview dataset includes summary information and basic financial figures for each stock. It is available using function=OVERVIEW.

Besides function there are two other required parameters:

symbol = The stock symbol. Company overview only works for stocks, not ETFs.

apikey = Your Alpha Vantage API key.

The complete URL is:

https://www.alphavantage.co/query?function=OVERVIEW&symbol=IBM&apikey=demo

The link only works with apikey=demo for symbol=IBM. For other symbols you need to use your own API key.

Output is in JSON format.

Python requests example

import requests

AV_API_KEY = ...  # Your Alpha Vantage API key

OVERVIEW_URL = "https://www.alphavantage.co/query?function=OVERVIEW&symbol={}&apikey={}"

SYMBOL = 'AAPL'

r = requests.get(OVERVIEW_URL.format(SYMBOL, AV_API_KEY))
data = r.json()

Or you can use this function:

def company_overview(symbol, api_key):
    """
    Get company overview data from Alpha Vantage
    Inputs:
    symbol (str) = stock symbol
    api_key (str) = Alpha Vantage API key
    Return dict
    All dict values are strings (even numeric fields)
    """
    url = "https://www.alphavantage.co/query?function=OVERVIEW&symbol={}&apikey={}"
    r = requests.get(url.format(symbol, api_key))
    data = r.json()
    return data

Output is a dict with keys = field names and values = strings. Individual fields are explained below.

Individual fields meaning

The company overview dataset has a lot of fields – about 50. Some are more or less fixed (such as symbol, company name, company description, or address), some change with the dividend and earnings cycle (such as earnings per share, profit margin, or ex-dividend date), and others change with stock price (such as P/E ratio or dividend yield).

For better understanding we can divide the fields into several groups:

• Basic company characteristics
• Number of shares outstanding
• Dividend information
• Fundamental data
• Price based ratios such as P/E or P/BV
• Analyst target price

Company characteristics

These are fields which describe the company. They almost never change.

Symbol = Stock symbol such as "AAPL" or "MSFT".

AssetType = Typically "Common Stock", sometimes "Preferred Stock".

Name = Company name such as "Apple Inc" or "NVIDIA Corporation". Sometimes the share class is included, e.g. "Alphabet Inc Class A".

Description = Short paragraph that explains what the company does. Usually it is several hundred characters long (the most I have seen is 1051 characters, but vast majority of symbol descriptions are between 80 and 300 characters). For some companies it is missing or it is the string "None".

CIK = SEC Central Index Key (CIK) = Unique number that identifies every entity which submits filings to US SEC. Usually it is a string of 4-10 digits, such as "1018724". See official description and CIK lookup at SEC website.

Exchange = Exchange where the shares are traded, such as "NASDAQ", "NYSE", "NYSE ARCA", "NYSE MKT", "BATS", or "PINK".

Currency = Currency in which the shares are denominated. Typically "USD".

Country = Country where the company is based. Usually "USA", but there are some other countries, such as several hundred symbols with "China".

Sector = Sector such as "TECHNOLOGY", "FINANCE", "ENERGY & TRANSPORTATION", "MANUFACTURING", "LIFE SCIENCES", "TRADE & SERVICES", or "REAL ESTATE & CONSTRUCTION".

Industry = Subdivision of sector. For instance, in the "FINANCE" sector, there are industries such as "NATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANKS", "STATE COMMERCIAL BANKS", "INVESTMENT ADVICE", or "LIFE INSURANCE" (and many others). Across all sectors there are several hundred possible values for the Industry field.

Address = Company address, such as "1600 AMPHITHEATRE PARKWAY, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, US".

FiscalYearEnd = Name of the month when fiscal year ends. For instance, if this field is "March", the company uses fiscal year ending in March for its accounts. It is "December" for roughly 80-90% companies.

Shares outstanding

SharesOutstanding = Total number of shares. It may change occasionally as company issues new shares or existing shares are cancelled. This number multiplied by stock price is market capitalization.

Dividend information

These fields provide information about the amount and dates of dividends. Because most US based companies pay quarterly dividends, that is also the updating frequency of these fields.

DividendDate = Dividend payment date. It is a string with format "yyyy-mm-dd".

ExDividendDate = Ex dividend date, "yyyy-mm-dd".

DividendPerShare = Dividend amount per share.

If the company does not pay any dividends, DividendPerShare is "0" and the dates are "None".

Fundamental data

Fields in this section are the most important fundamental and accounting figures based on last reported quarterly earnings. Alpha Vantage usually updates the data on the same day when earnings are released.

LatestQuarter = End date of last period for which the company has reported earnings, "yyyy-mm-dd".

EBITDA = Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA).

BookValue = Book value per share.

EPS = Earnings per share.

ProfitMargin = Profit margin.

QuarterlyEarningsGrowthYOY = Growth in earnings in the last quarter vs. same quarter previous year.

QuarterlyRevenueGrowthYOY = Growth in revenue in the last quarter vs. same quarter previous year.

RevenuePerShareTTM = Trailing 12 months (TTM) revenue per share.

OperatingMarginTTM = Trailing 12 months (TTM) operating margin.

ReturnOnAssetsTTM = Trailing 12 months (TTM) return on assets (ROA).

ReturnOnEquityTTM = Trailing 12 months (TTM) return on equity (ROE).

RevenueTTM = Trailing 12 months (TTM) total revenue.

GrossProfitTTM = Trailing 12 months (TTM) gross profit.

DilutedEPSTTM = Trailing 12 months (TTM) diluted earnings per share.

Price based ratios

The following fields are various ratios of company fundamentals (such as earnings or revenue) and stock price or company value. While the former change when the company reports quarterly earnings, the latter change with share price. As a result, these fields change values continuously.

MarketCapitalization = Market cap = number of shares outstanding multiplied by current stock price.

PERatio = Price to earnings (P/E) ratio = share price divided by earnings per share.

PEGRatio = Price/earnings to growth (PEG) ratio = share price divided by earnings per share (= P/E ratio) and then divided by expected annual growth in earnings per share (EPS).

DividendYield = Dividend yield = dividend per share divided by share price.

TrailingPE = Trailing P/E ratio = share price divided by past earnings per share.

ForwardPE = Forward P/E ratio = share price divided by future expected earnings per share.

PriceToSalesRatioTTM = Price to sales (P/S) ratio = share price divided by revenue per share.

PriceToBookRatio = Price to book (P/B or P/BV) ratio = share price divided by book value per share.

EVToRevenue = Enterprise Value to revenue (EV/R) ratio. Enterprise Value (EV) is the sum of market cap and debt minus cash and cash equivalents.

EVToEBITDA = Enterprise Value to EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio.

Beta = Stock beta = measure of systematic risk in the stock = how the stock tends to move relative to the market.

52WeekHigh = Highest stock price in the last 52 weeks.

52WeekLow = Lowest stock price in the last 52 weeks.

50DayMovingAverage = 50-day simple moving average = average closing share price in the last 50 trading days.

200DayMovingAverage = 200-day simple moving average = average closing share price in the last 200 trading days.

Analyst target price

AnalystTargetPrice = Average target price in financial analyst recommendations for the stock.