What inputs does compare_periods accept?

ticker (string, required): Stock ticker symbol, e.g. AAPL, MSFT, BRK.B — or a CIK (SEC identifier), e.g. '0000320193'. period_a (string, required): Earlier fiscal period. Format: 'FY2023' for annual or 'Q1-2023' for quarterly. period_b (string, required): Later fiscal period. Format: 'FY2024' for annual or 'Q1-2024' for quarterly. as_of_date (string, optional): Point-in-time date (YYYY-MM-DD). Only returns facts with accepted_at on or before this date — eliminates look-ahead bias for backtesting.

Which Valuein plans include compare_periods?

Available on every plan, including the free tier with no account. Point-in-time safe via as_of_date filtering.

Analysis

PIT-safe

Compare Financial Periods

compare_periods

Sample and above

Compare a company's core financial metrics across two fiscal periods side-by-side. Shows absolute and percentage changes with significance classification (minor < 5%, notable 5–15%, significant > 15%). The response includes a `material_changes` count: this is the number of met...

Example Call

example_call.pypython

# Using the Valuein MCP server from Python (via MCP SDK)# Or call directly from Claude / Cursor after setup result = await client.call_tool(    "compare_periods",    arguments={    "ticker": "EXAMPLE",    "period_a": "EXAMPLE",    "period_b": "EXAMPLE"})print(result)

Direct tool call:compare_periods(ticker="AAPL", period_a="FY2023", period_b="FY2024")

Try it now

No token required

Paste this in your terminal — the free tier returns real sample data without authentication.

try-it.shbash

# No auth required — the Sample tier covers a large-cap US benchmark universe with a 5-year window.# Add -H "Authorization: Bearer $VALUEIN_TOKEN" for the full universe and history.curl -X POST https://mcp.valuein.biz/mcp \    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \    -H "Accept: application/json, text/event-stream" \    -d '{        "jsonrpc": "2.0",        "id": 1,        "method": "tools/call",        "params": {          "name": "compare_periods",          "arguments": {            "ticker": "AAPL",            "period_a": "FY2023",            "period_b": "FY2024"          }        }      }'

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`ticker`	string	required	Stock ticker symbol, e.g. AAPL, MSFT, BRK.B — or a CIK (SEC identifier), e.g. '0000320193'.
`period_a`	string	required	Earlier fiscal period. Format: 'FY2023' for annual or 'Q1-2023' for quarterly.
`period_b`	string	required	Later fiscal period. Format: 'FY2024' for annual or 'Q1-2024' for quarterly.
`as_of_date`	string	optional	Point-in-time date (YYYY-MM-DD). Only returns facts with accepted_at on or before this date — eliminates look-ahead bias for backtesting.

Output Fields

tickercompany_nameperiod_aperiod_bas_of_dateswappedtotal_metricsmaterial_changeschanges

Example Response

Illustrative

response.jsonjson

{  "ticker": "AAPL",  "company_name": "Apple Inc.",  "period_a": null,  "period_b": null,  "as_of_date": null,  "swapped": null,  "total_metrics": null,  "material_changes": null}

Shape only — field names match the live schema; values are placeholders, not real filings. Returns Apple's FY2023 vs FY2024 revenue, net income, EPS, and cash flow deltas with significance tags.