Library: Business Resources: Research a Company

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S.G. Maldonado-Velez

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Research a Company

Your Best Bets:

MarketLine This link opens in a new window Offers a collection of company, industry, financial, product and country profiles based on published research and primary and secondary data sources. Includes market overviews and market trends.
Mergent Online This link opens in a new window Updated weekly, Mergent Online's U.S. Company Data and International Company Data (formerly available in part as Moody's Company Data) provides business and financial data on more than 15,000 U.S. public and 20,000 non-U.S. companies.
S&P NetAdvantage This link opens in a new window Provides access to Standard & Poor's investment research and commentary. Includes financial data and standard ratios for companies and industries, stock reports, and mutual fund reports.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window Provides full-text access to nearly 6,000 information resources including newspapers, news magazines, wire services, and transcripts of major radio and TV broadcasts.

Other Great Resources:

Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window An EBSCO database, this resource provides indexing, abstracts and full text as far as 1886. Also included are detailed company information for more than 1.1 million of the world’s largest public and private companies. Data includes financials, subsidiaries, products, employees, industry information and more.
Value Line Investment Survey This link opens in a new window Value Line tracks the stocks of 1,700 companies in over 90 industries, providing information and analysis targeted to investors.
Morningstar Investment Research Center This link opens in a new window This resource provides real-time access to comprehensive data and independent analysis on thousands of investments, spanning mutual funds, stocks, exchange-traded funds, and closed-end funds. The library has subscribed for one simultaneous user.

How to Research Private Companies

Since private companies do not have to disclose financial information to the government, researching them can be tricky. If you're persistent and creative, you might be able to find what you need. Here are a few suggestions:

Start with the company's website. Look for "About Us" information and links to news articles and other public information. Depending on your assignment, you may even consider contacting the company directly to ask for information.

Try looking through the company profile databases (above). Mergent includes a database of private companies, and yours might be listed there.

Every state maintains a list of companies registered to do business there. Use this Secretaries of State list to find the website for the state you're interested in, then look for a company search option.

Look up your company in newspapers, especially local papers that might have done a profile or review of the business. Try looking for journal articles if the company has made a big impact on its industry or region.

Using Government Filings

The federal government of the United States monitors commerce through its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). All public companies and some private companies are required to file periodic financial and business disclosure forms with the SEC. These forms are part of the public record, so anyone may view them.

The most common reports are the 10-K (annual report) and 10-Q (quarterly report). These reports include information about products, markets, distribution channels, foreign operations, sales, and other matters. You can view all the different types of SEC reports here.

SEC filings can be searched through EDGAR. It's easiest to search by company, but you can explore other search options as well.