As a Dividend Growth Investor, I focus on quality companies that have managed to raise dividends for a certain number of years. Before I research a company however, I tend to look for:
1. Trends in earnings per share over the past decade
2. Trends in dividends over the past decade
3. Dividend payout ratio
4. Trends in shares outstanding over time
I can do this easily if I were focusing on just one company at a time, using annual reports for example. However, if I have to screen through a larger list of companies, such as the dividend champions for example, it is definitely a time saver to use a resource that showcases the data in an easy to access format. You may enjoy this list of resources I use.
One of my favorite new investing resources is the site ROIC.AI
I can quickly see trends in earnings, cashflows, revenues, shares over the past 10 - 15 years.
For example, I can see the following data for PepsiCo (PEP) since 2006. (Source)
I can see trends in revenues per share, earnings per share and cash flow per share. You can also view trends in dividends per share and shares outstanding over the past 16 years.
The other neat feature is that the site shows financials for the past 30+ years. This includes trends in Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Statement of Cash Flows. You can view this below:
They produce a chart similar to what Value Line reports look like (minus the qualitative review). (classic view)