When researching a company, keep in mind the following questions:
- Do you know the exact name of the company? For example, the drug store chain is called Walgreen’s, but the actual company name is Walgreen Co. Also, make sure you are searching for a company, not a brand name. For example, Crest is a brand of toothpaste produced by the company Proctor & Gamble.
- Is the company public or private? Private, or closely-held companies, do not sell stock to the public, and are not obligated to disclose information about themselves. For this reason it may be more difficult to obtain information about private companies. Articles and the company’s own web site may be the best sources of information for private companies.
- Does the company have subsidiaries or divisions?
- Is the company domestic or international?
- Of what industry or industries is the company a part?
Company Overviews:
LexisNexis Academic:
Use Search Company Info to search for company reports that include financials, news, analysts' reports, and other company information.
OneSource:
Contains U.S. and international company financials, histories, ratios, news, and complete annual and quarterly financial reports. Includes up to 15 years of data.
Net Advantage:
Includes research, data, and commentary on companies, industries, stocks, bonds, and funds, from popular Standard & Poor’s research products such as Industry Surveys, Stock Reports, Corporation Records, The Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives, The Outlook, and Mutual Fund Reports among others.
Passport GMID:
For companies: Short overviews of many companies, including strategic information, company background, and contact information.
For industries: Full-text market reports, global industry information, consumer demographics, comment from expert industry and country analysts, and much more.
Hoover’s Handbook of American Business (Print): Call number: Ref HD 2741 H6754
Contains profiles of 500 major companies, including information on history, officers, products, 10-year financial statistics and list of key competitors.
Hoover’s Handbook of World Business (Print) Call number: Ref HD 2709 H675
Value Line Investment Survey (Print). Ask for this at the Circulation Desk
Includes reports on companies in about 95 industries. Information includes11-year statistical history, recent stock prices, projections, and target price ranges. Industry information includes financial statistics and charts, updated quarterly. There is also a general weekly review and financial outlook summary. Call number: Reserve Desk (request at Circ Desk, first floor Gleeson).
Financial Data:
OneSource:
Contains U.S. and international company financials, histories, ratios, news, and complete annual and quarterly financial reports. Includes up to 15 years of data.
Net Advantage:
Includes research, data, and commentary on companies, industries, stocks, bonds, and funds, from popular Standard & Poor’s research products such as Industry Surveys, Stock Reports, Corporation Records, The Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives, The Outlook, and Mutual Fund Reports among others.
Statistics, Market Share:
Business Rankings Annual (Print): Call number: Ref HG 4057 B88
Contains lists of ranked companies, products, services, and activities compiled from a variety of published sources.
Market Share Reporter (Print): Call number: Ref HF 5410 M35
Provides market shares for companies, industries, products in the form of pie charts and bar graphs.
TableBase:
Use for finding statistical information, including market share, market size, consumer data, and other statistics that are taken from journals and reports on companies, industries, products, countries and markets.
Company News and Articles:
ABI/Inform Complete:
Includes citations and summaries and full text from about 1000 business periodicals that contain company and industry information, as well as articles on many other business topics. Includes the full text of the Wall Street Journal.
Business Source Premier:
Focuses on facts, figures, events and market information about companies, industries, products and markets. It covers all industries and is international in scope. Also provides SWOT analyses for companies and industries. Includes the full text of the Harvard Business Review.
LexisNexis Academic:
Use the Search the News section for business news from national and international sources.
Directories:
ReferenceUSA:
A directory of US businesses. Can be searched by business size, location, industry, etc. Also useful for determining if a business is public or private or finding company affiliations.
Selected Web Sites:
EDGAR (public company filings with the U.S. government): Use Search for Company Filings to get started. Includes companies outside the U.S.
Financial Ratios Calculator: University of Washington
Forbes Magazine’s company lists
Google Finance
Thomas Net (Thomas Register): Directory of companies.
Yahoo! Finance
