COMPANY INFORMATION

NOTE: The letter U next to the name of a resource indicates that it is a licensed electronic service that UTEP subscribes to. Off-campus access (unless otherwise specified) to that resource is available and is restricted to current UTEP students, staff, and faculty. 

Articles

• Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U - excellent resource for locating business articles from magazines, scholarly journals, newspapers, and other types of material. Examples of some of the many important business publications indexed are: Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, Industry Week, and Harvard Business Review.
• Wall Street Journal (1984 - Present) (ProQuest) ^U  - Bibliographic database that provides indexing, abstracts, and complete full text for articles from the Eastern edition of the Wall Street Journal. Primary subject coverage focuses on business and finance topics pertaining to companies, people, products, and geographic areas. Additional coverage is given to the arts, sports, and popular culture. Items indexed include top news stories, editorials, editorial cartoons, and letters to the editor. Coverage: 1984 - present (updated daily).
• Business & Industry ^U
• Business and Management Practices (Gale) ^U 
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U - For magazines and journals, select the "General" tab, mark the "Major US and World Publications" option and type the name of the company in the entry box. When a list of records is retrieved, click on "Magazines & Journals" on the left sidebar. For current news articles on a company select the "Business" tab and locate the record for the company by using any of the search criteria.

Company Affiliation/Ownership

• Mergent Online ^U - Can be used to find the parent company of a subsidiary. Go to Advanced Search, select "General Company Information, then the sub-category "Subsidiary", then the operator "contains" and type name of subsidiary. 
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U - Select the "Business" tab, search and display company record, click on "Corporate Hierarchy" located on the left sidebar. 
• Who Owns Whom: North & South America - use to find the parent company of a subsidiary, division, or affiliate to find more information (Ref HG4538 .W423)
• Company's Form 10-K (Annual Reports)
•  MSN Money Ownership Profile - gives largest owners of U.S. publicly held firms
• Columbia Journalism Review's Who Owns What -- what major media companies own

Company Annual Reports/Financial Information see also "Company Profiles", "Private Companies",  or "International Companies" in this guide

• Mergent Online ^U - Includes detailed financial information on public U.S. & international companies and brief business information on top private U.S. companies.
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U - Click on the "Business" tab to search for current financial information for U.S. and global companies. When you display the record for a specific company, click on "Financial Information" located on the left sidebar.
• Standard & Poor's Corporation Records (Ref HG4921.S62 C67)
• Standard & Poor's Corporate Descriptions  - Available online in  Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe^U through the "Company Profile" section. Includes very current financial information on companies.
• Report Gallery - click on "2,200 Annual Reports" to display a list of annual reports, some international, which are free of charge 
• Carol World (free registration required) - over 3000 annual reports from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Besides annual reports, you'll find company profiles, financial reports, and stock analyses 
• Search company home pages on the Internet. Sometimes companies will provide financial information in their websites.
• EDGAR  - contains documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by publicly held companies since 1993. Filings include annual (10K) and quarterly (10Q) reports, annual reports to shareholders, and other filings that provide a comprehensive overview of a company's financial condition. You will find a description of SEC forms at http://www.sec.gov/info/edgar/forms.htm.
•     FreeEDGAR (free registration required) Provides real time access to filings and allows users to generate Excel spreadsheets
•     EdgarScan (includes documents in rich text) 
•     SEC Info 
• Value Line Investment Survey (VLIS) Online  ^U -  Provides full text online access to Value Line Investment Survey publications covering stocks, mutual funds, options, and convertible securities. Includes the Standard Edition, the Small & Mid-Cap Edition, and the Standard Edition Historical Reports from 1997 - present. Updated weekly. The University of Pennsylvania provides a help sheet on using the database at http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/guides/business/valueline.html.   
• IRIN - Annual Report Resource Center
• Multex Investor (some information free with registration) - includes financial information 
• Hemmington Scott publishers - information including annual reports on publicly traded British companies

Guide to Financials           

•     IBM's Guide to Financials: a Basic Introduction to Reading Financial Statements
•     Tips for Reading an Annual Report - by Jim Milner
•     Managing by the Numbers: a Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Using Your Company's Financials (Main Stacks HG 4028 .B2 K73 2000)

Company Directories/US see also "International Companies" in this guide

• AnyWho Toll-Free Directory 
• CorpTech Technology Company Information - U.S. public and private technology companies 
• Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives (Ref HG4057 .P6)
• Thomas Regional (free; registration required)- Products and services from 550,000 industrial distributors, manufacturers, and service companies. Search by state.
• Thomas Register of American Manufacturers - Directory of 173,000 public and private U.S. and Canadian manufacturers. Users can find out which companies make a certain type of product. Database is searchable by company name, product or service, and brand name. 
• D & B Million Dollar Directory: America's Leading Public & Private Companies, 1999 (Ref HC102 .D8) 
• Directory of American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries - (Ref HG 4538 .A1D5)
• Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies, 1995 (Ref HG 4057 .A573)
• American Big Business Directory - Over 193,000 organizations with 100 or more employees.  Includes number of employees, annual sales volume, credit rating codes, and the names and titles of 703,000 key executives. (Ref HF 5035 .A49 1999)
• American Manufacturers Directory - Over 166,000 organizations with 20 or more employees.  Includes number of employees, annual sales volume and credit code. (Ref HD 9723 .U27 2000)
• CompaniesOnline - contains information on 900,000 public and private companies 
• Business.com 
• Dun and Bradstreet Small Business Services: Search - directory data on Dun and Bradstreet's database of about 13 million U.S. public and private firms. Only gives address information for free but useful for determining headquarter information.

Company History

• International Directory of Company Histories (Ref HD 2721 .I63).  Also available online via Gale Virtual Reference Library ^U
• Notable Corporate Chronologies (Ref HD 2721 .N67 1995).
• Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U - select "Company Profiles" at top of screen
• Mergent Online ^U - public U.S. & international companies
• Corporate America: a Historical Bibliography (Ref HD 2785 .C66 1984)
• Standard & Poor's Corporation Records (Ref HG4921.S62 C67) - Also available online in  Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe^U through the "Company Profile" section. Includes very current financial information on companies.
• Hoover's Handbooks  (Ref Desk HG 4057...) also available online in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe^U through the "Company Profiles" section - includes public and private companies.
• Notable Corporate Chronologies (includes private companies) (Ref HD 2721 .N67 1995)
• United States Corporation Histories: a bibliography, 1965-1985 (Ref HD 2785 .N37  1987)
• Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands (Ref HF 5415.3 .E27 1994) 

Additional Sources

• Company websites for those currently in business may provide history information.  

Company Profiles 

• Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U - select the "Company Profiles" button on top of the screen
• Mergent Online ^U - public U.S. & international companies. 
• Hoover's Handbooks  (Ref Desk HG 4057...) also available online in Lexis-Nexis Academic UniverseU through the "Company Financial" section - includes public and private companies - provides profiles on public and private companies.
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U - select the "Business" section 
• Standard & Poor's 500 Guide - Statistical data on 500 different companies in 103 industries.  Includes basic business information, recent corporate developments, current outlooks, and financial information relating to revenues, earnings, dividends, margins, capitalization and a glossary of terms and definitions (Ref Desk HG 4057 .A44 1998)
• Standard & Poor's Standard Corporation Descriptions - contains descriptions of various publicly held corporations, including those listed on the New York and American Stock Exchanges. Coverage is similar to Mergent's, but this service also lists companies having unlisted securities. Monthly. (Ref HG 4501 .S76636). Also online through Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U.
• WetFeet.com - provides company and industry profiles 
• Company's home page on the web
• CorporateInformation (fee based but some information for free) - U.S. and international public and private companies. Search by company name, country, and country's industry. Lists companies by state, access country exchange rates, and definitions of company extensions. Also provides top 100 lists by market capitalization, sales, operating margin, 52 week price change, and 3-year sales growth. It offers both company profiles and more extensive research reports on selected companies 
• Yahoo! Finance Company and Fund Index - Information on over 9,000 public companies. Reliable data from company research firms like Multex, OneSource and others. 
• Market Guide (free registration required)  
• Wall Street Research Network 
• Researchmag.com Company-provided and public information on many companies
• 411Stocks 
• Business.com
• Ketupa.net - provides profiles and histories of 125 worldwide media companies such as newspaper and magazine publishers, recording companies, film & video production companies, and broadcasters.
• clearstation.com - includes profile and fundamentals, key ratios, analyst information, earnings estimates, insider trading, recommendations, etc. 
• cbsmarketwatch.com - provides quote/news, charts, profile, advisers, analysts, insiders, options, financials, etc. 

Company Rankings see also "Lists", "Market Share", and "Competitors" in this guide

• Business Rankings Annual (Ref Desk HG 4050 .B88) Note: online version may be more current.
• Mergent's Industry Review (continues Moody's Industry Review, 1997-) - industry ranking by 8 standard criteria for public companies (Ref HG4961 .M68)  
• Periodical articles: Business & Industry ^U (enter company name and select "ranking" from the "document type" input box); Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U (conduct a subject search using the heading "corporations-rankings" or "business enterprises--rankings"); Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U (go to the “News” or “Business” sections; use the company name, product name, or industry and the words (market or brand) near8 (share or size or rank or ranking)
• Wards Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies - Provides rankings of companies, nationally and by state, by sales within industry groupings (Ref HG 4057 .A573 1995)
• Mergent Online ^U -  Click on the “Advanced Search” button; select a category “Industry Codes”; select a “Sub-Category”, etc.
• If an existing market share/ranked list is not readily available, an alternative is to make comparisons bases on sales/revenue.  

Comparisons 

• Mergent Online ^U (publicly-traded companies) - Compare company against custom group or compare company against industry. Search for the company and click on "to Company Analysis List" for each company. Go to "Company Reports" and create multiple company reports. 

Competitors see also "Company Rankings", Market Share", and "Lists" in this guide

• Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U - select "Company Profiles" at top of screen. Provides list of major competitors.
• Hoover's Handbooks - Public and private companies (Ref Desk HG 4057...) . Also online at  Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U ->Company Profile ->Hoover's Company Profile Database
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U ->Company Profile ->SEC Filings (10-K reports) 
• Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys - Includes key companies within each industry. Useful for larger private firms (Ref Desk HC 106.6 .S74) 
• Yahoo Finance - compare companies in the same industry or look up industry profiles for top competitors in industry  
• Wall Street Research Network - For publicly traded U.S. competitors. Enter ticker symbol and then "pull down" to "competitors" 
• Quicken - enter your company and then view a list of the 10 competitors sorted by market cap. You can also select an expanded list of competitors by clicking on "show all competitors"  

Financial Forecasts

• Value Line Investment Survey (VLIS) Online  ^U -  Provides full text online access to Value Line Investment Survey publications covering stocks, mutual funds, options, and convertible securities. Includes the Standard Edition, the Small & Mid-Cap Edition, and the Standard Edition Historical Reports from 1997 - present. Updated weekly. The University of Pennsylvania provides a help sheet on using the database at http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/guides/business/valueline.html.   

Gateways

• Rutgers University Libraries: Company Research Guide 

Institutional Ownership/Holders

• Mergent Online ^U Search for the company then click on "Research"

International Companies

• Mergent Online ^U (publicly-traded companies)
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U->Business -> Company Profiles->International Company Reports or ->SEC 20F Reports 
• Mergent International Manual (Ref HG 4009 .M66)
• Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives (Ref HG4057 .P6)
• CorporateInformation (fee based but some information for free) - provides links to useful business-related websites. Includes U.S. and international public and private companies. If the company has two words in its name, type the two words in quotes 
• EDGAR  - Beginning in November 2002, all foreign companies listed on U.S. exchanges are also required to file registration statements, periodic reports, and other forms electronically through EDGAR.
• D&B Principal International Businesses (Ref HF54.U5 P74 2000/01-) 
• Directory of American Firms Operating in Foreign Countries (Ref HG 4538 .A1D5)
• Directory of Foreign Firms Operating in the United States (Ref HG 4057 .A155 1992)
• Directory of Foreign Manufacturers in the United States (Ref HD 9723 .A76 1993)
• Directory of Multinationals (Ref HD 2755.5 S79 1992)
• Thomas Global Register (free registration required) - Directory of over 500,000 industrial suppliers, organized by 10,500 industrial product classifications, in 10 languages and from 26 countries.
• Thomas Register of European Manufacturers (free registration required) - Directory of over 210,000 industrial suppliers, organized by 10,500 industrial product classifications, in 6 languages, and from 17 European countries.
• Europages-European Business Directory - Contact information on 500,000 companies from 30 Western and Eastern European countries. Searchable by company name or product or service.
•  Europemedia - european business directory
• Latin America 25,000 - directory of Latin America companies (Ref HG4091.5 .A2 1998)
• Directory of Mexican Corporations - (Ref HG 4092 .Z65 D57 1998)
• SEDAR -   Canadian public securities filings
• CAROL - Company Annual Reports On-Line for the United Kingdom. Also provides share price information on companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange. You can also use the "LSE Stock Search" to access information for companies outside the top 100 stocks.
• globalEDGE - Search the "Trade - Company Directories" in the Global Resources section. 

Investment Analyst Reports (see also "Stock Markets" and "Lists")

•  Value Line Investment Survey (VLIS) Online  ^U -  Provides full text online access to Value Line Investment Survey publications covering stocks, mutual funds, options, and convertible securities. Includes the Standard Edition, the Small & Mid-Cap Edition, and the Standard Edition Historical Reports from 1997 - present. Updated weekly. The University of Pennsylvania provides a help sheet on using the database at http://gethelp.library.upenn.edu/guides/business/valueline.html. 
• Mergent's Handbook of Common Stocks -quarterly, provides profiles on nearly 1,000 NYSE companies, with analysis of recent results and assessment of future prospects. Also included: financial summaries of an additional 1,500 companies. (Ref HG4905 .M815 )
• Standard & Poor's 500 Guide - 500 largest companies by market capitalization.(Ref Desk HG 4057 .A44 1994)
• Mergent Online ^U - Use the "Equity Reports" tab to access individual analyst equity reports on over 4,000 large and mid-cap U.S companies. Each two-page detailed reports offers buy, hold and sell recommendations for the company and peers, price momentum ratings and chart, earnings summary and chart, price performance charts and business summary, prospects, recent developments and more.
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U - Select the "General" tab, click on "More sources", click on "Companies & Organizations", then click on "Company Analyist Reports".
• Standard & Poor's Corporate Descriptions -  available online in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U through the "Company Profile" section.
• Yahoo Finance - includes analyst consensus estimates under "Research"  
• Zacks.com - some free information
• Zacks Free Research Center  - provides quick overview of a public company's balance sheet, income statement, and brokerage recommendations
• The Outlook (S&P weekly) - describes developments in major companies and industries and makes recommendations for investments (Ref HG4501 .S7)
• Silicon Investor - company information for over 600 high technology firms 
• Technology Cybertimes (The New York Times) - See "Investing" section
• NETworth: Stock Research
• NETworth: Mutual Funds Research 
• Parenteau - an independent investment research firm which provides its research reports for free upon request.
• MSN Money    
• Wall Street City - Click on the "Stock" button and then go to sidebar and enter company symbol to access chart, quotes, company news, company information, analyst reports, insider trading, and industry groups. 
• ClearStation - includes profile and fundamentals, key ratios, analyst information, earnings estimates, insider trading, recommendations, etc. 
• Bigcharts
• SmartMoney
• ClearStation
• MarketWatch
• The Montley Fool CAPS
• Multexinvestor.com
• MarketWatch from Dow Jones

Investor Guides:

• Securities and Exchange Commission - Provides the investing public with a reliable source of investment guidance, advice, and information. Also includes other security-related information.
• MoneyCentral Investor.com - use to learn the basics of investing
• Motley Fool "Fool's School - steps to investing and investing basics 

Lists

• Hoover's Handbooks (Ref Desk HG 4057...) 
• BusinessWeek 50 // Ranking Criteria  
• Forbes - includes the largest U.S. privately held companies
• Fortune - includes the largest U.S. publicly traded companies
• Inc 500 - America's fastest-growing private companies 
• Web 100 - Top U.S. and international companies on the Web (ranked by revenue)
• Industry Week 1000 - This site provides data on the world's 1,000 largest publicly-held manufacturing companies, based on revenue. The list provides the company name, a link to a short company profile, and its ranking for the current and previous year.
• Datamonitor.com - Includes lists of global companies by industry. Click on "Industries" and browse specific industry to display company lists.  
• World's Most Respected Companies - published by Financial Times and PricewaterhouseCoopers 
• Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U - indexes the Wall Street Journal which publishes an annual edition entitled "The Global Giants" which is a ranking of the "World's 100 Largest Public Companies" and "World's 100 Largest Public Financial Companies". 
• Gary Price's List of Lists - useful for ranked listings of companies, industries, people, and other business related research

Market Share see also "Company Rankings" in this guide

• Market Share Reporter  – Market share data on companies, brands, products, and services. Includes top companies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Arranged by SIC Code (Ref HF 5410 .M35).
• World Market Share Reporter  (Pre 2005--Ref HD 2757 .15 .W67). Merged with the Market Share Reporter beginning in 2005. Effective that year, the Market Share Reporter will be a 2 volume set. The 2nd volume is the World Market Share Reporter.
• Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U - look up company in "Company Profiles" to retrieve Datamonitor reports. Sometimes report provides market share.
• Periodical articles: Business & Industry ^U (enter company name and select "market share" from the "concept term" input box); Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U (enter "market share" or "business enterprises--ratings & rankings as subject headings; Wall Street Journal (1984 - Present) (ProQuest) ^U (enter "market share" as subject search)
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U  Select the "News" tab. Use the company name, product name, or industry and the words w/10 market 1/5 share or open the "Add index terms" menu and select the subject "Market Share"  or "Rankings".
• Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys - quarterly (Ref Desk HC106.6 .S74) 
• Industry and trade associations often provide industry overviews including market size information.  See “Professional Associations”. For example, the U.S. market share data for property & casualty insurance carriers is reported in http://www.naic.org/research/Research_Division/Stats/2002_PC_MktShare.pdf. Also look for articles in the trade and industry literature.
• SEC filings - the annual report or form 10K will sometimes provide the market share of a company's products.
• Company websites
• Economic Census--Concentration Ratios - government reports which classify industries by the percent of output accounted by the largest 4, 8, 20, and 50 companies 

• If an existing market share/ranked list is not readily available, an alternative is to make comparisons bases on sales/revenue.  

Mergers & Acquisitions see also "Company History" in this guide

• M&A Activity Page  - This page on the CorporateAffiliations.com site lists the largest firms (over $20 million in revenue) that have either merged, changed their name, or have gone out of business over a designated period of time. Can search archived data to get older information on firms back to 1976.
• Wall Street Net - Includes an M&A section which provides information on recent activity.
• Business & Industry ^U- use the pull down menu for "Concept term" and select "Mergers & Acquisitions"
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U- Select the "General" tab, click on "More sources", click on "Companies & Organizations", then click on "M&A Reports".
• Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U- Use to locate journal articles. It includes articles from the Mergers & Acquisitions : the Dealmaker's Journal which contains in-depth articles about current merger actions or mergers/acquisition trends and news. Also includes Global Finance which lists top mergers and acquisitions.
• EDGAR  - Provides the text of documents filed with the SEC in regard to M&A activity. 
  • S-4 Registration. Used to register securities that will be part of a business combination transaction. Contains the "Merger Proxy/Prospectus" (details of merger to be considered by shareholders).
  • 14D1. Tender offer filed with the SEC and the target company giving the terms of the offer and the acquirer company background.
  • 14D9. Response to the tender offer filed with the SEC and the acquirer. Indicates whether offer is hostile or friendly and gives recommendation to the shareholders.
  • 8-K. Filed within 15 days of acquisition
• Zephyr  - Go to "Free Offers" and click on "Statistics". Merger & acquisition statistics fact sheets are produced on a monthly basis. Information on the PDF and excel versions is different. The reports give names of the companies, who bought who, and statistics on mergers/acquisitions.  It's a global database, but you can pull out the U.S., if that's all you need. The database gives the top 20 deals for the month, and for the first half of the year. Also click on "M&A Synopsis" to retrieve an overview of M&A activity. (Note that the dating system is European, so reports dated 01/07/2004 are really from July 1, 2004)

Non-Profit Organizations  Note: If the organization has less than US$25,000 in assets a non profit doesn't have to file with the federal government.

• GuideStar - Reports on more than 700,000 U.S. nonprofit organizations. Free profiles cover mission and programs, financials, leaders, and full text of the charity's IRS 990 filing from1998 forward in most cases. Form 990 is free with registration. It provides information on revenues, expenses, programs, activities, executive salaries and board members.
• GrantSmart.org
• Foundation Directory Online - includes all of collections of 990's (the non-profit tax filings). NOTE: Access to this product is available to anyone but is limited to designated computers within the UTEP Library's Reference Department.
•  Notes about Non-profit, Charity and Other types of Annual Reports
• Article about nonprofit research sources: "Researching specific non-profit organizations: a selective
  bibliography" by Todd M Hines. Reference Services Review Volume 32 Number 3 (2004) pp. 302 – 312.

Private Companies

• Mergent Online ^U  Includes both public and private companies. You must checkmark "Include private companies" in order to search private companies.
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U->Business ->Company Profiles ->U.S. Private Companies. Includes Hoover's Handbook of  Private Companies which is also available in print (Ref Desk HG4057 .A28616 )
• Hoover's Masterlist of Major U.S. Companies (Ref Desk HF 5035 .H66)
• Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U The "Company Profiles" button at the top of the screen gives you access to reports of  both public and private companies. 
• CorporateInformation (fee based but some information for free) -  Includes U.S. and international public and private companies. If the company has two words in its name, type the two words in quotes 
• Forbes Magazine - Each year Forbes publishes the "500 largest private companies in the U.S."  In addition, each year Forbes publishes the "Forbes best small companies" many of which are private. Complete archive of Forbes articles from the 1997 to present 
• Inc Magazine & the Inc 500: "Annual List of America's Fastest-Growing Private Companies" 
• Business.com - use to find company home pages 
• Thomas Register of American Manufacturers - Directory of 173,000 public and private U.S. and Canadian manufacturers.
• See other company directories for limited information.
• Periodical articles: Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U; Business & Industry ^U; Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U, and others.
• Kompass - (free and fee-based site) directory for manufacturers and distributors 
• Search for articles in local or regional trade journals in Business Dateline ^U or local newspapers in InfoTrack  
• See "Company Affiliations" to determine parent company.
• See "Telephone Directories"
• Business Filings Database (free and fee-based site) - organized by state, links to database of publicly available business and corporate filings. If state is not on the list, it has not posted corporate records online  
• CompaniesOnline - contains information on 900,000 public and private companies 
• CorpTech (free & fee based site) - The CorpTech database contains information on approximately 50,000 public and private manufacturers and developers of high-tech products. The companies covered are “primarily emerging small to mid-sized private companies and the operating units of larger corporations.”  
• dot com directory - used to find location & ownership information by website address  
• Business CreditUSA.com - provides free business credit reports for public and private U.S. companies and executives 
• Franchise 500 - information on franchises and their rankings 
• Dun & Bradstreet zapdata.com - provides company directory information for free
• Central Contractor Registration (CCR) Database - government's database of vendors that are doing business, want to do business, or are applying for a grant from U.S. federal agencies. This site permits visitors to search the over 300,000 vendors that have registered with the CCS and to obtain short profiles on those firms. A special section of this site also permits visitors to search a database of small business by clicking on a link titled "Dynamic Small Business Search."
• Company's website - look for press releases
• Search the company's hometown newspaper to find information
• An Advanced Google search may be useful: Use the PPT or PDF format to find white papers or presentations given at conferences by a firm's executives

Product/Brand

• Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U - For list of companies, select "Company Profile", select your company and then click on the name of the company to get a list of major products and services. Open report to look at product analysis. 
• "The Best Global Brands" Business Week 8/5/2002 can be accessed in Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U
• Standard Directory of Advertisers - includes a "Brand Index" that can be used to locate a company by its brand name (Ref HF 5805 .S72 1995)
• Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands - Information about the most popular brands in America. Includes the brand history, sales and market share, major competitors, advertising information, address and phone number of the parent company. (Ref HF 5415.3 .E527 1994)
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U
• Thomas Register of American Manufacturers (registration required)- can be searched by product, service headings and brand names

Proxy Statements see "Company Annual Reports/Financial Information" in this guide

Public or private company?

• Yahoo Finance - put in the company name under "Symbol Lookup". If you find a ticker symbol, the company is publicly traded. If the company is not in the list, it may be because it is private or a subsidiary, etc. 

Public Corporate Filings

• EDGAR - provided by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U ->Business-> Company Financials ->Disclosure -> SEC filings for public companies, domestic and foreign

Ratios - Individual Companies 

• Mergent Online ^U (publicly-traded companies) - View each companies financial ratios or compare company against custom group or compare company against industry. Procedure: search for the company and click on "to Company Analysis List" for each company. Go to "Company Reports" and create multiple company reports.
•  Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U- Select the "Business" section, search by company name, and click on "Financial Information" or select "Company Profile" and search "Hoover Company Reports".
• Standard & Poor's Corporation Descriptions - available online in  Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe^U through the "Company Profile" section. Includes very current financial information and ratios on companies.
•  Value Line Investment Survey (VLIS) Online  ^U - company reports provide ratios 
• Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys - Provides industry and comparative company analysis tables with ratios for major corporations (Ref Desk HC 106.6 .S74)
• Mergent's Industry Review (continues Moody's Industry Review, 1997-) - a bi-annual print publication that covers approximately 6,000 companies grouped in 137 industries. It provides statistical comparisons of stock performance, ratios, and rankings by standard financial and industry-specific criteria (Ref HG4961 .M68)  
• BigCharts
• Zacks Investment Research 

    Explanations of ratios:

•  101 business ratios: a manager's handbook of definitions, equations, and computer algorithms: how to select, compute, present, and understand measures of sales, profit, debt, capital, efficiency, marketing, and investment. (Ref HF 5657.4 G38 1993)
• The analysis and use of financial statements - Part 4: "Foundations of Ratio and Financial Analysis" (Ref HF 5681 .B2 W4678 1994)
• Search NUGGET (Library's online catalog) under the subject "ratio analysis" for additional sources.
• Business Ratios (CCH Incorporated)
• Financial Ratios (CCH Incorporated)
• Financial Ratio Analysis (biz/ed) - Consider this source when you are analyzing companies and need to understand financial ratios and how to use them properly.

Ratings from Analysts see also "Company Profiles" in this guide        

• Value Line Investment Survey (VLIS) Online  ^U company reports provide ratings  
• Mergent Online ^U - Use the "Equity Reports" tab to access individual analyst equity reports on over 4,000 large and mid-cap U.S companies.
• cbsmarketwatch.com  
• clearstation.com
• Fitch Ratings - Credit ratings and news. Includes companies from the U.S. and other countries.
• Standard & Poors (free registration required) - Credit ratings of U.S. and international companies.
• Moodys.com (free registration required) - Credit ratings and more for U.S. and international companies. 

Regional Companies

• El Paso Manufacturers/Suppliers & Services Directory (Ref Desk HD 9728 .E4 E46 1999)
• Fortune 500 Companies, El Paso, Texas/State of Chihuahua, Mexico - Provides company's name, rank, and type of facilities. (Ref Desk HD 2770.5 .F67 1998)
• The Top 100 El Paso Businesses - Includes rank, number of employees, company address, phone number, and type of business. (Ref Desk HD 2798.5 .E47 E4737 1998)
• Directory of Texas Manufacturers (Ref HD 9727 .T4 D5)
• North/West Texas Business Directory (Ref HF 5065 .T4 T386)
• South/Gulf Coast Texas Business Directory (Ref HF 5065 .T4 T387)
• The Texas 500 (Ref HF 5065 .T4 T49)
• Texas Business Directory - Includes small companies with 3 to 5 employees. Provides employee size, sales volume, and credit rating. (Ref HF5065.T4 T38) 
• Texas Manufacturers Register (Ref HD 9727 . T4 T45) 
• Texas Chambers of Commerce   
• Directory of New Mexico Manufacturers - provides company address, phone number, contact person, number of full-time employees, year established, and SIC codes. (Ref Desk HD 9727 .N6 .N43 2000-01)

Subsidiaries -- Subsidiaries do not have to file financials unless they sell debt publicly. In those cases, they file their own 10K's, 10Q's, etc. with the SEC. Due to recent SEC rulings, parent companies have to disclose more subsidiary information than they did previously.  But in no way do they have to disclose anything like a full balance sheet and/or income statement for a subsidiary - unless, as I noted above, that subsidiary is selling public debt. 

• Mergent Online ^U - Under the Company Financials tab, there's a link to "Segements". Here you can find a breakdown of financial data by business segments and geographic areas although the level of detail can vary from company to company.  
• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe ^U - Click on the "Business" tab and search for parent company. When you display the record for the parent company, click on "Parent & Subsidiaries" on the left sidebar.  Click on the subsidiary you are looking for to retrieve information.
• Article databases such as Business Source Complete (EBSCO) ^U and the Wall Street Journal (1984 - Present) (ProQuest) ^U may have recent articles providing estimated numbers if the company you are researching is a high profile company.
• Check local newspaper web sites. Local and regional newspapers are often first choices for information about local and regional companies as well as large companies located in a region or for subsidiaries of a corporation.
• Business Dateline ^U - includes numerous local and regional business journals.
• Golden Gate University Library 
• University of Minnesota Libraries 
• Florida International University, Green Library 

Ticker Symbols

• Yahoo! Finance U.S. and world
• Wall Street Research Network   
• Quote.com 
• CBS MarketWatch   

Tutorials

• Researching Companies Online - Prepared by Debbie Flanagan, Fort Lauderdale, FL.
• Company Research - Funded by the OhioLINK Small Grant Research Program  

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 Page created & maintained by  Lilia Fernandez
Last updated: 02/08/10