Ticker symbol
Encyclopedia
Abbreviation
An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...
used to uniquely identify publicly traded shares
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
of a particular stock
Stock
The capital stock of a business entity represents the original capital paid into or invested in the business by its founders. It serves as a security for the creditors of a business since it cannot be withdrawn to the detriment of the creditors...
on a particular stock market
Stock market
A stock market or equity market is a public entity for the trading of company stock and derivatives at an agreed price; these are securities listed on a stock exchange as well as those only traded privately.The size of the world stock market was estimated at about $36.6 trillion...
. A stock symbol may consist of letters, numbers or a combination of both. "Ticker symbol" refers to the symbols that were printed on the ticker tape
Ticker tape
Ticker tape was the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use between around 1870 through 1970...
of a ticker tape machine.
U.S. stock symbol history
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, modern letter-only ticker symbols were developed by Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's
Standard & Poor's is a United States-based financial services company. It is a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies that publishes financial research and analysis on stocks and bonds. It is well known for its stock-market indices, the US-based S&P 500, the Australian S&P/ASX 200, the Canadian...
(S&P) to bring a national standard to investing. Previously, a single company could have many different ticker symbols as they varied between the dozens of individual stock markets. The term ticker refers to the noise made by the ticker tape
Ticker tape
Ticker tape was the earliest digital electronic communications medium, transmitting stock price information over telegraph lines, in use between around 1870 through 1970...
machines once widely used by stock exchanges.
The S&P system was later standardized by the securities industry and modified as years passed. Stock symbols for preferred stock
Preferred stock
Preferred stock, also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds, is a special equity security that has properties of both an equity and a debt instrument and is generally considered a hybrid instrument...
have not been standardized.
Examples of U.S. stock symbols
- A – Agilent TechnologiesAgilent TechnologiesAgilent Technologies , or Agilent, is a company that designs and manufactures electronic and bio-analytical measurement instruments and equipment for measurement and evaluation...
- AAPL – Apple Inc.
- BAC – Bank of AmericaBank of AmericaBank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...
- BRK.A – Berkshire HathawayBerkshire HathawayBerkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, that oversees and manages a number of subsidiary companies. The company averaged an annual growth in book value of 20.3% to its shareholders for the last 44 years,...
(class A shares) - C - Citigroup Inc.
- GOOG – GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
- HNZ – H.J. Heinz Company
- HOG – Harley-Davidson Inc.
- HPQ – Hewlett-PackardHewlett-PackardHewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
- INTC – Intel
- KO – Coca-Cola Company
- MMM – 3M Company
- MSFT – MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
- TGT – Target CorporationTarget CorporationTarget Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
- TXN – Texas InstrumentsTexas InstrumentsTexas Instruments Inc. , widely known as TI, is an American company based in Dallas, Texas, United States, which develops and commercializes semiconductor and computer technology...
- WMT – Wal-MartWal-MartWal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
- WAG – WalgreensWalgreensWalgreen Co. , doing business as Walgreens , is the largest drugstore chain in the United States of America. As of August 31st, the company operates 8,210 locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1901, and has since expanded...
Formerly, a glance at a U.S. stock symbol and its appended codes would allow an investor to determine where a stock trades; however in July 2007, the SEC approved a rule change allowing companies moving from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq to retain their three letter symbols; DirecTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
was one of the first companies to make this move. When first implemented, the rule change did not apply to companies with one or two letter symbols, but subsequently any stock was able to move from the NYSE to the Nasdaq without changing its symbol. CA, Inc., which trades under the symbol CA, moved from the NYSE to the Nasdaq in April 2008 and kept its two-letter symbol.
Single-letter ticker symbols
- A: Agilent TechnologiesAgilent TechnologiesAgilent Technologies , or Agilent, is a company that designs and manufactures electronic and bio-analytical measurement instruments and equipment for measurement and evaluation...
- B: Barnes GroupBarnes GroupBarnes Group is a manufacturer of industrial and aerospace components. The company produces springs for airframes, electronics, machinery, stamping presses and turbine engines in addition to providing repair and logistics support primarily on spare parts for the aerospace industry....
- C: CitigroupCitigroupCitigroup Inc. or Citi is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Citigroup was formed from one of the world's largest mergers in history by combining the banking giant Citicorp and financial conglomerate...
(previously used for ChryslerChryslerChrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
) - D: Dominion ResourcesDominion ResourcesDominion Resources Inc. , commonly referred to as Dominion, is a power and energy company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia that supplies electricity in parts of Virginia and North Carolina and supplies natural gas to parts of West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and eastern North Carolina...
- E: EniEniEni S.p.A. is an Italian multinational oil and gas company, present in 70 countries, and currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of 87.7 billion euros , as of July 24, 2008...
SpA - F: Ford Motor CompanyFord Motor CompanyFord Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
- G: GenpactGenpactGenpact Limited is a global business process and technology management company. It was formerly a GE owned company called GE Capital International Services or GECIS. It operates from India, China, Guatemala, Hungary, México, Morocco, the Philippines, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain, South...
(previously Gillette) - H: HyattHyattHyatt Hotels Corporation , is an international operator of hotels.Hyatt Center is the headquarters for Hyatt corporation...
- I: (Open, previously First Interstate BancorpFirst Interstate BancorpFirst Interstate Bancorp was a bank holding company based in the United States that was taken over in 1996 by Wells Fargo. Headquartered in Los Angeles, it was the nation's eighth largest banking company....
) - J: (Open)
- K: KelloggKellogg CompanyKellogg Company , is a producer of cereal and convenience foods, including cookies, crackers, toaster pastries, cereal bars, fruit-flavored snacks, frozen waffles, and vegetarian foods...
- L: Loews CorporationLoews CorporationLoews Corporation is a holding company run by the Tisch Family whose subsidiaries are engaged in the following lines of business:*property and casualty insurance...
- M: Macy's, Inc.
- N: NetSuiteNetSuiteNetSuite Inc. is the leading vendor of cloud-based Software-as-a-Service integrated business management software for mid-market enterprises and divisions of large companies, with over 10,000 organizations and a +$225 billion market cap...
, Inc. - O: Realty Income CorporationRealty Income CorporationRealty Income Corporation is a real estate investment trust known as “The Monthly Dividend Company®” for its practice of paying investor dividends on a monthly rather than quarterly basis. It is chartered in the state of Maryland and has its headquarters in Escondido, California...
- P: Pandora Media, Inc. (previously Phillips Petroleum Company)
- Q: (Open) (previously QwestQwestQwest Communications International, Inc. was a large United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.On April...
) - R: Ryder System Inc.RyderRyder System, Inc. , or Ryder, is an American-based provider of transportation and supply chain management products, and is especially known for its fleet of rental trucks. Ryder specializes in fleet management, supply chain management and dedicated contracted carriage. Ryder operates in North...
- S: Sprint NextelSprint NextelSprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
(previously Sears, Roebuck & Company) - T: AT&TAT&TAT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
- U: (Open)
- V: Visa Inc. (previously Vivendi Universal)
- W: (Open, previously Westvaco)
- X: U.S. SteelU.S. SteelThe United States Steel Corporation , more commonly known as U.S. Steel, is an integrated steel producer with major production operations in the United States, Canada, and Central Europe. The company is the world's tenth largest steel producer ranked by sales...
- Y: Alleghany Corporation
- Z: Zillow (previously Foot LockerFoot LockerFoot Locker, Inc. is an American sportswear and footwear retailer, with its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and operating in approximately 20 countries worldwide. Formerly known as Venator Group, Inc., it is the successor corporation to the F.W. Woolworth Company , and many of...
/WoolworthF. W. Woolworth CompanyThe F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store"...
)
Interpreting the symbol
Stock symbols are unique identifiers assigned to each security traded on a market. Some companies use a well-known product as their ticker symbol. Anheuser-BuschAnheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. , is an American brewing company. The company operates 12 breweries in the United States and 18 in other countries. It was, until December 2009, also one of America's largest theme park operators; operating ten theme parks across the United States through the...
, the brewer of Budweiser beer, used "BUD" as its three-letter ticker until it was acquired by InBev
InBev
InBev is a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev. The company existed independently for several years - since the merger between Interbrew and AmBev and until the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch. InBev has operations in over 30 countries and sales in over 130 countries...
in 2008, symbolizing its premier product. Its rival, Molson Coors Brewing Company
Molson Coors Brewing Company
Molson Coors Brewing Company is a company that was created by the merger of two of North America's largest breweries: Molson of Canada, and Coors of the United States, on February 9, 2005...
, uses a similarly beer-related symbol, "TAP." Likewise, Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines Co. is an American low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas. Southwest is the largest airline in the United States, based upon domestic passengers carried,...
pays tribute to its headquarters at Love Field in Dallas through its "LUV" symbol. Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, which operates large amusement parks in the United States, uses "FUN" as their symbol, while Steinway Musical Instruments
Steinway Musical Instruments
Steinway Musical Instruments, Inc. is a musical instrument manufacturing conglomerate.Through acquisitions and mergers, the company has acquired a large number of musical instrument brand names and manufacturing facilities...
uses the symbol "LVB", to honor composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven. Yamana Gold uses "AUY", because on the periodic table of elements, "Au" is the symbol for gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
. Starting August 27, 2007, Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
used the symbol "JAVA" for its Java programming language until it was acquired by Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation
Oracle Corporation is an American multinational computer technology corporation that specializes in developing and marketing hardware systems and enterprise software products – particularly database management systems...
. Sotheby's (the famous auction house) uses the symbol "BID".
Prior to the 1999 merger with Mobil Oil, Exxon used a phonetic spelling of the company "XON" as its ticker symbol. The symbol of the firm after the merger was "XOM". AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
's ticker symbol is simply "T"; accordingly, the company is referred to simply as "Telephone" on Wall Street (the T symbol is so well-known that when the company was purchased by SBC, it took the AT&T name, capitalizing on its history and keeping the desired single letter symbol).
After Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard
Hewlett-Packard Company or HP is an American multinational information technology corporation headquartered in Palo Alto, California, USA that provides products, technologies, softwares, solutions and services to consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses and large enterprises, including...
merged with Compaq
Compaq
Compaq Computer Corporation is a personal computer company founded in 1982. Once the largest supplier of personal computing systems in the world, Compaq existed as an independent corporation until 2002, when it was acquired for US$25 billion by Hewlett-Packard....
computer, the new firm took on the ticker symbol "HPQ". (The former firms were HWP and CPQ.)
| A – Class "A" | K – Nonvoting (common) | U – Units |
| B – Class "B" | L – Miscellaneous | V – Pending issue and distribution |
| C – Continuance – or Nasdaq exception | M – fourth class – preferred shares Preferred stock Preferred stock, also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds, is a special equity security that has properties of both an equity and a debt instrument and is generally considered a hybrid instrument... |
W – Warrant Warrant (finance) In finance, a warrant is a security that entitles the holder to buy the underlying stock of the issuing company at a fixed exercise price until the expiry date.... s |
| D – New issue or reverse split | N – third class – preferred shares | X – Mutual fund Mutual fund A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors to buy stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities.- Overview :... |
| E – Delinquent SEC filing SEC filing An SEC filing is a financial statement or other formal document submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . Public companies, certain insiders, and broker-dealers are required to make regular SEC filings. Investors and financial professionals rely on these filings for information... s |
O – second class – preferred shares | Y – American Depositary Receipt American Depositary Receipt An American depositary receipt is a negotiable security that represents the underlying securities of a non-U.S. company that trades in the US financial markets... (ADR) |
| F – Foreign | P – first class preferred shares | Z – Miscellaneous situations |
| G – first convertible bond Convertible bond In finance, a convertible note is a type of bond that the holder can convert into shares of common stock in the issuing company or cash of equal value, at an agreed-upon price. It is a hybrid security with debt- and equity-like features... |
Q – In bankruptcy Bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor.... |
Special codes |
| H – second convertible bond | R – Rights | .PK – A Pink Sheet Pink Sheets OTC Markets Group, Inc., informally known as "Pink Sheets", is a private company that provides services to the U.S. over-the-counter securities market including electronic quotations, trading, messaging, and information platforms. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, OTC... , indicating over-the-counter Over-the-counter (finance) Within the derivatives markets, many products are traded through exchanges. An exchange has the benefit of facilitating liquidity and also mitigates all credit risk concerning the default of a member of the exchange. Products traded on the exchange must be well standardised to transparent trading.... |
| I – third convertible bond | S – Shares of beneficial interest | SC – Nasdaq Small Cap |
| J – Voting share – special | T – With warrants or rights | NM – Nasdaq National Market |
Canada
| A-B – class of shares | NO, NS, NT – notes | S – special U.S. terms |
| DB – debenture | P – Capital Pool Company | U, V – U.S. funds |
| E – equity dividend | PR – preferred | UN – units |
| H – NEX market | R – subscription receipts | W – when issued |
| IR – installment receipts | RT – rights | WT – warrants |
United Kingdom
In the United KingdomUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, prior to 1996, stock codes were known as EPICs, named after the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
's Exchange Price Information Computer (e.g.: "MKS" for Marks and Spencer). Following the introduction of the Sequence trading platform in 1996 EPICs were renamed Tradable Instrument Display Mnemonics (TIDM), but they are still widely referred to as EPICs. Stocks can also be identified using their Stock Exchange Daily Official List (SEDOL)
SEDOL
SEDOL stands for Stock Exchange Daily Official List, a list of security identifiers used in the United Kingdom and Ireland for clearing purposes. The numbers are assigned by the London Stock Exchange, on request by the security issuer...
number.
International
Stock symbols are indispensable for stock market work in non-European countries. In countries where Arabic script is used, and in East AsiaEast Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
, translated Roman script versions of company names may be confusing to an unpracticed Western reader; stock symbols provide a simple means of clear communication in the workplace. Many Asian countries use numerical or alphanumerical ticker symbols instead of characters to facilitate international trade.
- Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – 1398.HK [Hong Kong]
- HSBC – 0005 [Hong Kong]
- DBS Bank – D05 [Singapore]
- Jardine C&C – C07 [Singapore]
- TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK – 5012 [Japan]
- Toshiba Corp – 6502 [Japan]
- China CITIC Bank Corp Ltd – 601998 [Shanghai – China]
- Hubei Golden Ring Co Ltd – 000615 [Shenzhen – China]
- ASUSTEK – 2357 [Taiwan]
- Chunghwa Telecom Co Ltd – 2412 [Taiwan]
The most prevalent standard used for international trade is the International Securities Identifying Number (ISIN). An ISIN uniquely identifies a security
Security (finance)
A security is generally a fungible, negotiable financial instrument representing financial value. Securities are broadly categorized into:* debt securities ,* equity securities, e.g., common stocks; and,...
. Its structure is defined in ISO 6166
ISO 6166
ISO 6166 defines the structure of an International Securities Identifying Number . An ISIN uniquely identifies a fungible security. Securities with which ISINs can be used are Equities, Fixed income & ETF's only....
. Securities for which ISINs are issued include bonds
Bond (finance)
In finance, a bond is a debt security, in which the authorized issuer owes the holders a debt and, depending on the terms of the bond, is obliged to pay interest to use and/or to repay the principal at a later date, termed maturity...
, commercial paper
Commercial paper
In the global money market, commercial paper is an unsecured promissory note with a fixed maturity of 1 to 270 days. Commercial Paper is a money-market security issued by large banks and corporations to get money to meet short term debt obligations , and is only backed by an issuing bank or...
, equities and warrant
Warrant (finance)
In finance, a warrant is a security that entitles the holder to buy the underlying stock of the issuing company at a fixed exercise price until the expiry date....
s. The ISIN code is a 12-character alpha-numerical code that does not contain information characterizing financial instruments but serves for uniform identification of a security at trading and settlement
Settlement (finance)
Settlement of securities is a business process whereby securities or interests in securities are delivered, usually against payment of money, to fulfill contractual obligations, such as those arising under securities trades....
.
Securities with which ISINs can be used include debt securities, shares, options, derivatives and futures. The ISIN identifies the security, not the exchange
Stock exchange
A stock exchange is an entity that provides services for stock brokers and traders to trade stocks, bonds, and other securities. Stock exchanges also provide facilities for issue and redemption of securities and other financial instruments, and capital events including the payment of income and...
(if any) on which it trades; it is not a ticker symbol. For instance, Daimler AG stock trades on twenty-two different stock exchanges worldwide, and is priced in five different currencies; it has the same ISIN on each, though not the same ticker symbol. ISIN cannot specify a particular trade in this case, and another identifier, typically the three-letter exchange code, will have to be specified in addition to the ISIN. The SEDOL
SEDOL
SEDOL stands for Stock Exchange Daily Official List, a list of security identifiers used in the United Kingdom and Ireland for clearing purposes. The numbers are assigned by the London Stock Exchange, on request by the security issuer...
board of the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
is currently revising their own standards to address this issue.