Is your company publicly or privately held?
Before you can research a company, you need a basic understanding of how companies are organized. Companies are either publicly or privately held. Most companies in the United States are private. Publicly held companies sell stock to the public and are required by law to provide certain information to shareholders and the government. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is the Federal agency that regulates public companies. Private companies are not legally required to disclose information about their operations and generally guard information about themselves very carefully. The result — publicly held companies are easier to research than private companies.
Is your company a parent company or a subsidiary company?
Even research on public companies can be confusing because a large company can be a subsidiary (a company owned or controlled by another company, the parent company). Financial information is filed under the name of the parent company.
Use these sources to determine whether a company is private, public, or a subsidiary company. These sources will also provide basic information such as the company's address, major line(s) of business, names of the company's principal officers, the number of employees, and annual sales.
Directory of Corporate Affiliations
Business Library, Reference: HG4057.A219
Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies
Business Library, Reference: HG4057.A56
Mergent
This database provides information on 11,000 U.S. public companies and 17,000 non-U.S. public companies.
Directory of Chain Restaurant Operators
Business Library, Reference: TX907.D49
How did your company perform last year? Use these sources to find basic financial information about your company.
Mergent
This database provides information on 11,000 U.S. public companies and 17,000 non-U.S. public companies.
SEC Filings & Forms (EDGAR)
EDGAR is a database of SEC filings for individual companies. It is searchable free of charge.
Hoover's Online
This site provides basic information about more than 10,000 companies worldwide. Company "capsules" (a description of the company, address, officers, sales, employment figures, and hyperlinks to financial reports, stock quotes, SEC filings, and news services) are available free of charge. Penn State authorized users have full access to the full Hoover's service.
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage
This full text database is the electronic version of several leading Standard & Poor publications. It is an essential source of company, industry, and investment data.
Do the numbers in the Annual Report and 10-K filings mean that your company had a good year or a bad year? Does your company have a comfortable amount of working capital? Is your company heavily relying on debt for financing purposes? Financial ratios can help you answer these and related questions.
Consult the following sources to obtain industry-wide norms for common financial ratios:
RMA Annual Statement Studies
Business Library, Reference: HF5667.R701
Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios
Business Library, Reference: HF5681.R25I5
Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios
Business Library, Reference: HF5681.R25T684
The most recent edition is also available in CD-ROM format in the Business Library.
Where does this company fall within the industry? Who are the company's major competitors? Consult the following sources to answer these questions.
Dun's Business Rankings
Business Library, Reference: HG4057.A25
Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies
Business Library, Reference: HG4057.A56
Forbes Magazine publishes several rankings of companies and individuals, including their annual directory of the 500 largest U.S. companies, the 500 largest privately held companies, the 200 best small companies, the top CEO's, and the 400 wealthiest people in the U.S. You can access these lists from Forbes Magazine website by clicking on Lists.
Hoover's Online
This site provides basic information about more than 10,000 companies worldwide. Company "capsules" (a description of the company, address, officers, sales, employment figures, and hyperlinks to financial reports, stock quotes, SEC filings, and news services) are available free of charge. Penn State authorized users also have access to Hoover's Pro Tools and Pro Plus Tools services.
The following periodicals publish special issues that may help you determine where your company ranks within the industry. Current issues are shelved alphabetically by title in the current periodicals area. Older issues are shelved in the stacks by call number, unless otherwise indicated.
Are you looking for recent stock quotes? Several Web sites provide free quotes.
PC Quote
PC Quote is one of the world's leading electronic providers of real-time securities quotations and news. PC Quote offers free delayed quotes (delayed up to 20 minutes during a trading day).
Yahoo!Finance
This service of Yahoo offers delayed quotes, recent related headlines, corporate profiles, SEC filings, charts of stock performance, and research data provided by Zacks Investment Research.
What new developments is your company involved in? What are the company's most serious problems as well as opportunities? Articles from news magazines, trade journals, and newspapers can help you answer these questions.
Use these indexes to locate articles on companies that have been published in news magazines, trade journals, and newspapers. Some of these indexes provide the full text of articles.
Lodging, Restaurant, and Tourism Index
Business Library, Reference: TX901.L64
Brokerage house reports can also be a good source of information on specific companies and industries.
Reuters Research On-Demand
This database contains full-text brokerage house reports more than 700 brokers. It also provides real-time news.
Who is leading your company? Use these resources to obtain biographical information about business leaders.
Biography.com
This website contains more than 20,000 short biographical entries.
Contemporary American Business Leaders: A Biographical Dictionary
3rd Floor Paterno: HC102.5.A21534 1990
Entrepreneur Magazine: An Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs
3rd Floor Paterno: HC102.5.A2H35 1997
Hoover's
When searching for company information, select the "Company Profile" option. Then select Officers and Employees.
D & B Reference Book of Corporate Management
Business Library, Reference: HD2745.D8501
Who's Who in Finance and Industry
Business Library, Reference: HF3023.A2W5
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage
Select the Register: Execs option from the sidebar menu to find biographical information about executives.
Other Useful Links
