An intriguing company in Miramichi, N.B., will soon let people not only analyze publicly listed stocks by themselves but help more qualified users sell their analysis reports to others.

Patchell Brook Equity Analytics Inc. has developed a tool that allows people who follow the market to analyze publicly traded companies based on fundamental valuations. The results can be shared with others, and soon the company will provide a virtual storefront so people can sell their reports.

“We’re into a marketplace where individuals can be located anywhere and do the analysis on any publicly traded company,” said president Brian Donovan in an interview. “If they’re confident enough, if they have the skills and requirements, they can sell their reports.”

Patchell Brook’s product is StockCalc, and it brings a new dimension to the market for online analytics. Most available tools rely on technical analysis — that is, interpreting charts of recent stock prices — but StockCalc focuses on the financial information released by the companies themselves.

It allows people to find value in those companies analysts overlook. For example, there are 3,500 companies listed on the Toronto and Vancouver exchanges, but only 800 are covered by analysts. StockCalc can help analyze the other 2,700.

Essentially, users choose a stock listed on the NYSE, the Nasdaq, Amex, TSX or Vancouver. Patchell Brook has secured financial statements on all companies on these exchanges from data provider Morningstar, updated daily.

They can select raw data from a range of categories, including profits, revenue, cash flow, costs, dividends and cost of capital. Users can build historical charts based on the data and understand how the stock has been valued in the past. StockCalc then lets them look forward and understand what the stock price should be if certain assumptions are met.

By understanding how the market has priced the stock based on fundamentals in the past, StockCalc allows users to identify over- or undervalued shares. They can also post their findings and discuss stocks with other users.

Donovan is working with four developers, and the system is about 75 per cent finished. It is being tested by a few users. The company — which has received investment from the Miramichi Technology Fund, established by former New Brunswick premier Frank McKenna — hopes to launch the product later this year.

Analytics tools usually are priced at about $20 to $90 a month for subscribers, and StockCalc will probably be in that range. Donovan hopes users could earn back their subscription fees through the sale of their reports.

The team has identified three main markets for the product: the roughly 500,000 people in North America who manage their own money and have the sophistication to analyze stocks, the 30 million people who have stock investments without using financial advisers and publicly listed companies that need to assess their valuations compared with their competitors.

“One of the great things about this space is the audience is quite captive,” said Donovan, a chartered business valuator with an MBA. “We can advertise on sites (used by the stock trading community) and know there is a high preponderance of people who would be interested in our product.”