Value Line history

A former editor was accused of accepting a $15,000 bribe from two brokers in 1972 in exchange for writing bullish recommendations on two selected stocks.

Since 1980, the Investment Survey has been ranked No.

Bernhard before the Newsletter Association of America on June 2, 1981, is not only the story of the beginning of our Company, but is also, in many ways, the essence of our founder’s philosophy.

By 1983, the 375-employee firm had expanded its survey to include ratings on 1,700 stocks, while controlling $1.2 billion in assets through its six mutual funds.

Widespread interest in new issues and stock investments in general at the time brought the selling price to $17 a share and helped the price to climb to a record high of $40 by the summer of 1984.

Baldwin, William, “Paying the Piper,” Forbes, October 19, 1987,

"In Memoriam: Arnold Bernhard," New York: Value Line, Inc., 1988.

In 1992, Value Line saw its revenue return to near-record levels and profits climb to an all-time high of $26 million.

In 1995, the company also offered its first on-line service, negotiating a deal with CompuServe through which subscribers can access both The Value Line Investment Survey and The Value Line Mutual Fund Survey and can view individual company and industry reports.

Competition had also heated up, coming from the vast stores of financial information of the Internet and from Morningstar, which had entered into the stock ranking business in 1997.

A bull market did little to help Value Line revenues, according to Crain's , up only 2 percent for fiscal 1998, to $93.6 million.

In 2005, the Hulbert Financial Digest ranked the Value Line Investment Survey second among rating investment newsletters for risk-adjusted performance over the past 25 years, according to the America's Intelligence Wire .