(also credit rating) A qualitative assessment of the financial capacity of a business, institution or country, as well as its trustworthiness as a debtor. It indicates to the banks and investors the level of risk associated with government bonds or securities, and the amount of credit that can be granted to a given debtor. Ratings are assigned by business information agencies: the most well-known amongst them are the American Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's

Recommendations represent the investment rating of the stock, and are function of analyst's expectation of total return (forecast price appreciation and dividend yield). Recommendations can slightly vary for each broker. Most of brokers apply the following recommendations: BUY-OUTPERFORM: stock's total return is expected to outperform the total return of a relevant benchmark, with shares rising in price on an absolute basis.
SELL-UNDERPERFORM: stock's total return is expected to underperform the total return of a relevant benchmark, with share price not anticipated to show a gain.
HOLD-NEUTRAL-IN LINE: stock's total return is expected to closely approximate the total return of a relevant benchmark with shares price generally rising in price on an absolute basis.

A price calculated continuously (updated in real time) and representing a weighted average of prices for the last 10% of shares traded during the given Stock Exchange day. The last reference price calculated by the Stock Exchange telematic system expresses, therefore, the price trend for the given security at the time when the stock market is closed

(Return On Equity) Index that measures the yield of the capital of a company. It is calculated as the ratio between the given financial year and the net capital

(Return On Investment) A level of profitability for the capital invested in a company or sector of activity. It is the ratio of actual profit to the value of the capital applied to the business activities performed by the company