Refer To A Company By Its Name (And Its Ticker) On First Mention

Summary

• Refer to a company by its first name when you first mention it in an article.
• Also include its stock ticker in parentheses.
• For any references after the first one, refer to the company by either its name only or its stock ticker only, not both.

This rule is simple: When mentioning a company for the first time, refer to it by name.

This means spelling out the company name, according to how it appears in the Seeking Alpha system. To check this, go to the quote page for that company, or simply mouse over a hyperlinked ticker and a pop-up should appear.

Hand in hand with the above-mentioned rule is the rule to include tickers after first mention of each public company by putting them in parentheses.

So when first referring to any publicly traded company, whether it’s the primary focus of the article or just a brief mention, you should do so like this:

Company Name (TICKER)

Not only does this create a neat and tidy look on the page, but a stock ticker in parentheses automatically links that ticker to our internal quote page for that stock. It also gives you the option of tagging your article with that ticker as a primary ticker, if such a tag is appropriate.

Remember that you should use both company name and ticker symbol only once, on first mention; after that, you can use the company name alone OR its ticker alone. Either is fine, though it’s preferable to be consistent and choose one or the other to use for the rest of the article.

So, to recap, the first mention of a company should look like this:

Company Name (TICKER)

Here are a few examples using real company names and ticker symbols:

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD)

Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG)

And subsequent mentions should either refer to the company by name only or by ticker only.

Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.