The 5 Best Websites for Historical Financial Data
Real-time financial data is everywhere, but tracking down historical data for publicly traded companies can be more challenging.
This is especially true if you're trying to export a large dataset or, on the other end of the spectrum, trying to track down one very specific number or detail.
In either case, it's hard to find the tool with the exact information you're looking for — which is why I compiled this list.
Here are the five best websites and tools for accessing historical financial data.
Summary of the best sites for historical financial data
| Website | Best for |
| Stock Analysis |
|
| Yahoo Finance |
|
| Koyfin |
|
| EDGAR |
|
| Investor relations pages |
|
1. Stock Analysis: best overall
Stock Analysis is the best free stock research website you'll find.
It has financial information, statistics, and valuation metrics on over 14,000 stocks and funds. Plus, the streamlined, user-friendly interface is easy to navigate, and the site is really fast.
To get a bit more granular, there are three different categories of historical financial datasets where Stock Analysis really stands out: financial statements, dividends, and corporate actions.
Best for historical financial statements
Stock Analysis has financial information, statistics, and valuation metrics on over 14,000 stocks and funds.
In addition to all our real-time data and news, Stock Analysis provides five years of financial statements for free:
Best-in-class data
A lot of finance websites save money by getting their data from second-tier providers, but not us. We wanted a website that was connected to the highest-quality data sources, so we built it ourselves.
We pay a premium price for these connections, but we think it's worth it.
Additionally, you can unlock up to 30 years of financial statements by upgrading to Pro for $9.99/month or $79/year. Pro also comes with unlimited exports (Excel and CSV files), analyst ratings data, unlimited watchlists, and more.
Best for business metrics
In addition to their financial statements, every company reports specific business metrics that provide valuable insights into their growth, performance, and progress on key objectives.
For instance, Nvidia reports on Data Center revenue growth, Tesla posts numbers on deliveries across each of its models, and Apple reports on iPhone sales:
You won't find this level of granularity on an income statement or balance sheet, but it's critical information to know as an investor in these stocks.
Previously, the only way to find these numbers was by digging through each company's quarterly reports on their investor relations websites (which still isn't a bad place to look, more on that below).
But now, on Stock Analysis, you can view company-specific performance metrics for 300 of the most popular U.S. companies (with more being added all the time) all on one website.
You can access up to 8 quarters or 3 years (TTM) of data completely free.
To unlock the complete history and the ability to export and download these metrics, you'll need a Pro account.
Best for dividend history
For yield-focused investors, we provide 10 years' worth of dividend history and charts for free.
With a Pro account, you can unlock a stock's full dividend history and export the corresponding charts and data.
Best for corporate action history
We've also compiled a complete set of corporate actions going back to 1998. You can filter actions by type of action (listed, delisted, splits, spinoffs, etc.) or by year.
More features
Stock Analysis also has many other useful features available for free, including a stock screener and market gainers and losers.
2. Yahoo Finance: best for exporting historical open/close prices
Yahoo Finance is one of the most popular stock research websites in the world.
It has real-time financial data, news, and analysis on stocks in dozens of markets from around the world.
The site provides free income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements for every company over the last four years. That said, you'll need to pay for the most expensive “Gold” plan to unlock a company's complete financial history and exporting capabilities, which costs $49.95/month or $479.40/year.
When I wrote this article, Yahoo Finance allowed you to download a stock's entire price history for free. You could export each stock's open & close and high & low prices going all the way back to the company's IPO.
While you can still access all of this information for free, you can no longer export any of this data without being on the $49.95/month Gold plan.
So we (at Stock Analysis) made our own version. Just like on Yahoo Finance, you can view any stock's historical price data for free. However, our data provider requires us to paywall exports on these numbers, so you'll need to become a Pro subscriber to download the data.
3. Koyfin: best for visualizing data and statistics
Koyfin provides access to a wide range of historical financial data, including financial statements, key valuation ratios, and other financial metrics for thousands of stocks.
Instead of only displaying this information in tables, Koyfin allows you to build custom line charts so you can visualize these metrics over time.
This way, you can instantly see how a business is trending.
On Koyfin, you can also compare multiple stocks at once, build customizable dashboards, and create custom templates for quickly analyzing stocks.
You can share charts and analysis with other investors in a few clicks, too.
However, while you can get some of this functionality for free, you'll quickly bump into a paywall if you start using the product regularly. It's $49/month or $468/year for their “Plus” plan, or $110/month or $948/year for their most popular “Pro” plan.
You can try it for free with a 7-day trial.
Koyfin also ranks #6 on our list of best stock research websites.
4. EDGAR (SEC): best for granular research and direct access to 10-Ks
Every publicly traded company in the United States is required to file a 10-K form (annual, audited financial statement) and 10-Q forms (quarterly, unaudited financial statements) with the SEC.
The SEC makes all of these reports available to the public via its Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval database site, or EDGAR for short.
You can look up any U.S.-listed ticker on the EDGAR website and see its complete filing history.
While reading through 10-Ks can be boring, they do contain a lot of granular information that may be hard to find anywhere else.
For instance, if you're trying to find the difference in Apple's gross margin between its products and services or how much of its revenue comes from China, you can hunt down this information in these reports.
They also tend to disclose key business risks to be mindful of.
5. Investor relations pages: best for company-published reports
Most public companies in the U.S. also publish their annual and quarterly reports on their own websites, usually on a page titled “Investor Relations” (e.g., see Apple's Investor Relations page).
These reports often contain much of the same information as the 10-Ks they send to the SEC.
However, the financial information is typically summarized, the company's key metrics are made more prominent, and many companies also issue a press release that summarizes the key details.
Additionally, many companies also turn their reports into PDF documents or slide decks (e.g., see PayPal's Q3 FY24 Investor Update).
These are much easier to read than a text-only 10-K and often contain extra information about what the company's management team is focusing on and what they're forecasting for future quarters.
Why is historical financial information useful for investors?
It's very easy to get sucked into the day-to-day fluctuations in the stock market and the latest headlines about what's “moving the markets” today.
However, long-term investors know this tends to lead to overtrading and other adverse behavior.
Instead, it's useful to take a step back, zoom out, and look at the larger trends going on within companies. The best way to do this is by looking at historical financial data and statistics to gauge how a stock is trading relative to its own history or industry.
By examining a company's trends in revenue, profit, and other metrics, long-term investors can make more informed, objective, and unemotional investment decisions.
Disclaimer: Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Final verdict
In summary, the best website for you will depend on what type of historical financial data you're looking for, as well as whether you're willing to pay for it.
At Stock Analysis, we provide five years' worth of financial statements and 10 years of dividend data, plus many other features, for free. To access up to 30 years of financial data and export any data, you'll need to go Pro for $9.99/month or $79/year.
Yahoo Finance provides four years' worth of financial statements for free. To unlock and export the rest, you'll need to pay for its “Gold” plan, which costs $49.95/month.
However, you can download a stock's entire price open, high, low, and close history from Yahoo Finance for free.
Koyfin is a great tool for visualizing a company's financial performance, stock ratios, and other metrics over time. You can try it with a 7-day free trial.
And the SEC's EDGAR database, as well as companies' investor relations pages, will give you direct access to 10-Ks and are great resources for digging deep into a company.
These are my go-to resources for historical stock market data.
