Stock Market Webquest
A Financial Portfolio
By Alex EighthGrader
Introduction
• For this webquest I set out to find 3-5 companies to invest a tidy sum
of $50,000 in. I researched some web sites, primarily
www.bigcharts.com, and followed the stock prices of 5 companies
over the course of about a week and a half, recording the results in
Microsoft Excel. Then I put all of this information into colorful charts.
From the charts, it is easy to see that the three companies I chose rose
slightly over the week and a half. Finally, I decided how many shares
of each stock to buy. I used as much of the $50,000 as possible.
Stock Prices over 5 Years
80
Panera Bread Co.
price
60
Verizon
Communications
NYSE
40
20
Dell Computer
Corporation
0
1997
1998
1999
2000
year
2001
2002
Panera Bread Co. over 5 days
37.5
37
price
36.5
36
35.5
35
34.5
34
33.5
11/21/2002
11/25/2002
11/26/2002
11/27/2002
12/2/2002
Dell Computer Corporation over 5 days
29.5
price
29
28.5
28
27.5
11/21/2002 11/25/2002 11/26/2002 11/27/2002 12/2/2002
Verizon Communications over 5 days
42.5
price
42
41.5
41
40.5
40
39.5
39
38.5
38
37.5
11/21/2002
11/25/2002
11/26/2002
11/27/2002
12/2/2002
Conclusion
• I would choose to invest the $50,000 in three companies: Dell, Panera, and
Verizon. They have shown reasonable growth in the past five years, and each
seem to have potential for more.
– 511 shares of $37.01 each in Panera Bread Co., totaling $18,912.11
– 400 shares of $41.88 each in Verizon Communications Co., totaling $16,752.00
– 501 shares of $28.60 each in Dell Computer Co., totaling $14,328.60
Altogether totaling $49,992.71, with $7.29 left over.