Importing Google finance data to excel: A step-by-step guide

In this post, we are going to talk about how to import data from Google Finance. The Google Finance website contains a lot of financial information that may be of interest to you as you get started in the world of the stock market and start analyzing companies.

To be able to import financial data, we need to have an account registered with Gmail, Google’s email service. You must have a Google account to be able to use Google Drive spreadsheets (an application very similar to traditional Excel but somewhat less complete), where we can easily import the data.

What is Google finance?

Google Finance is managed by Google. It is a platform that focuses on business news and financial information of all kinds; so on this platform, users can customize the way they receive information about their investments.

Among other things, Google Finance allows importing financial data into a spreadsheet easily: quotes, volume, highs and lows, P/E ratio, frequency, etc.

How to get Google Finance data in Excel

Before explaining how to import stock market data from Google Finance, you should know how to get Google Finance data in Excel:

1. Log in to Google Finance through google.com/finance.
2. Click on “Portfolios” (if you have multiple portfolios, select the portfolio you want to export).
3. Then click on “Download Spreadsheet” and open Excel.
4. Click on “File” and then click on “Open”.
5. Finally, you can navigate to your download folder and open the “data.csv” file (these will be the portfolio data).
6. Keep in mind that after opening the file, you will see that all your data has been imported into Excel in separate cells; so you may need to save the file again with a .xlsx file format, as it allows you to see more functions and formats than a .csv file.

Now, to be able to import financial data we need to have an account registered with Gmail, Google’s email service. You must have a Google account to be able to use Google Drive spreadsheets (an application very similar to traditional Excel but somewhat less complete) where we can easily import the data.

How to create a Google spreadsheet

To access Google spreadsheets we have to open the email and press the button at the top right (rounded in blue):

Upon clicking the button, a dropdown will open. Among other available applications, we are going to focus on two of them: Google Drive and Google Spreadsheets.

Google Drive is a folder associated with the email that allows you to save files in the cloud, just like other applications such as Dropbox. In addition to allowing you to save files, we can create them directly from there. The files we can create are spreadsheets (Google’s Excel), documents (Google’s Word), presentations (Google’s PowerPoint), and a few more, and they are automatically saved as we edit them.

To create a spreadsheet, we click the Drive button from the previous image, and within it, we create a new file, a spreadsheet.

How to get current stock data from Google Finance

Once we have created the spreadsheet, we can now import data on stocks. First, we have to go to Google Finance and search for the ticker associated with the stock from which we want to import data. It is usually the ticker of the stock exchange where it is listed followed by a colon and the ticker of the stock.

In the case of Google and General Electric, US companies, the tickers are NASDAQ: GOOGL and NYSE: GE respectively. These tickers are the ones we enter into the spreadsheet in different cells. Now, in the column on the right, we just have to write the function =GOOGLEFINANCE(B3) if we want to get the stock quote from cell B3:

In addition to the quote, we can ask the Google Finance function to return more information:

In addition to this data, we can obtain much more, you can see the entire list here. However, not all data is available for all companies.

By entering these functions in the different cells, we can follow the shares that interest us in a spreadsheet in a simple way. In addition, the data is updated with a delay of about 15 minutes.

Obtaining the historical quote of a share

In addition to obtaining current data on some financial magnitudes of stocks, we can also obtain historical data. In this case, we are going to use Repsol as an example. The procedure is similar:

In cell B4 we have entered the function =GOOGLEFINANCE; in the same way as before, we enter the data we want it to return (“price”, “low” and “high”) and we enter the number of days we want. If we want to observe the daily data for the last year, we enter TODAY()-360; TODAY() and then “DAILY”. If we want weekly data we enter “WEEKLY”.

We see how automatically the Google Finance function generates a column with the dates when we want it to return historical data. The only way to “eliminate” them is to open another tab in the spreadsheet and copy columns C, E, and G (Close, Low, and High).

Finally, you should consider some tools to analyze the investment portfolio you want, such as the following:

• Compare information about specific stocks, choose a stock, and then click on the “Compare” tab.
• You should consult the performance of different currencies, as each currency includes a link to its own page, along with a currency converter that allows you to quickly compare values.
• You should review financial information from companies annually or quarterly and;
• Download prices, transactions, and other information in the spreadsheet, according to the process already explained.

Speaking of stock data, move your focus away from Google Finance for a bit. Check out the financial ratios you should be concerned about.

In conclusion, tracking the performance of a financial instrument in the stock market is fundamental for all investors. In this case, although Google Finance has several options that allow measuring performance, it is possible that you need to perform advanced mathematical calculations in Excel; Therefore, to transfer the data from a Google Finance portfolio to Excel, you can use Google’s data export tool quickly and easily by following the above process.

And you, do you already use Google Finance for your investments? Tell us about your experience in the comments, and if you have any questions, ask us!

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