Firms often combine both styles. Rule number one is to beware data and presentations put together by fund managers or company marketers. It is the job of the marketing department to put the best gloss on whatever information they have. To help them in this they use statistics. The statistics themselves will be accurate, but their impact depends not so much on the numbers themselves, as the presentation.
Most information is presented as simple numbers or as graphs.
It is usually a flag waving exercise and not to be taken too seriously, though it might indicate something worth following up. The graphical approach is more important as it is meant to be taken seriously, and often all the information available is presented as one form of graph or another. Graphs are wonderful for displaying data in an easy to understand manner, but when you know that the compiler of a graph has an axe to grind you have to be cautious. In many cases it is the information that is left out of the graph may be as important, or more important, than the information in the graph itself. Always ask yourself what they are trying to show, and what parts of the picture might be hidden.