Q:/English Handouts/Company Research Steps.docx
Company Research Steps
Found on http://www.library.uni.edu/business-portal/company-research-steps
This page suggests steps to follow in gathering information needed for company analysis. Each step includes an
explanation, types of sources that may include relevant information, and specific tools to try. Some steps will not be
appropriate or necessary for particular assignments. Also, some assignments are likely to require steps other than
those listed below.
Determine the company's exact name and status
A company research project can get off to a bad start due to confusion
regarding the company's exact name and status. Different companies can
have similar-sounding names. Company names can change over time. A
product brand name is usually not the same as the company name. Make sure
you are researching the company you intend to be researching! As to
company status, some firms sell securities to the public and are said to be
publicly-held. Other firms are said to be privately held, and it will be more
difficult to find information, especially financial, on them. It also can be hard to
find detailed information on subsidiaries and divisions of public or private
companies and on small or new companies.
This type of information is available from sources such as company directories
and the "about us" section of corporate web sites. Also try these:
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LexisNexis Academic (Companies section on initial search form; or click
Companies link on left side of page for more search types)
Business Insights: Global
Hoover's
More U.S. and international company directories are listed on the Company
Information Sources Library User's Guide.
Obtain an overview of the company: what it does, history, etc.
Company overviews, or profiles, include information such as: the firm's lines of
business, industries in which it competes ("NAICS" and "SIC" codes), key
numbers such as annual sales and number of employees, history, ticker
symbol if traded on an exchange, names of executives, and URL.
This type of information is available from sources such as company
information databases and corporate web sites. Try these:
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Business Source Elite (pick Company Profiles link in upper middle portion of
screen)
Business Insights: Global
Hoover's
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage
Mergent Online
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Yahoo Finance!
UNISTAR (library has books about many companies)
Find news articles about the company
News about a given company may be published in sources such as business
newspapers and magazines, general interest newspapers and magazines,
blogs, and the company's own corporate web site. Small companies are more
likely to be written about in newspapers from the areas in which they do
business. Several library databases provide a way to track the news on a
company at some specific point in time (for example, what was going on with a
particular company around August 14, 2001). Company publications such as
press releases are important, but the issue of their objectivity should be kept in
mind.
This type of information can be found using search tools such as:
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Company web sites
Wall Street Journal (ProQuest)
Business Insights: Global
LexisNexis Academic
Google News
Find articles about the company from trade journals and academic
(scholarly) journals
Trade journals are magazines that focus on particular industries such as
automobiles, beverages, and advertising. They publish articles about
companies written by journalists and others knowledgeable about the industry.
Such articles use terminology of the industry and are usually short.
Academic journals (or scholarly or peer-reviewed journals) cover all major
subject fields. Academic journal articles, unlike trade journal articles, have
usually been evaluated by two or three experts in the field, in addition to an
editor, before publication. They are written by professors or other researchers
in the given field, describe the methodology used for a study, reports results,
and list references. Academic journal articles may have been written about
various aspects of a given company. The search strategy for finding trade
journal or academic journal articles involves entering the company name and
the issue being studied, such as: deere AND advertising, deere AND
organizational structure; and deere AND sarbanes oxley.
Trade journal and academic journal articles can be found using search tools
such as:
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ABI/INFORM Complete (can check box before search to limit to "Scholarly
journals" OR view search results tabs for Scholarly, Trade, etc.)
Business Insights: Global
Business Source Elite (can check box for "Scholarly Journals")
EconLIT
Study the company's financial statements, ratios, and stock performance
Publicly-held companies are required to file financial statements and other
documents, such as the Form 10-K annual report, with the U.S. Securities &
Exchange Commission (SEC). (SEC reports are available directly from the
SEC and through various free and fee-based services such as LexisNexis.)
These include the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement.
Figures from these statements can be used to calculate financial and
operating ratios, such as net income over sales. These are used to evaluate a
company's performance and compare it with other companies such as those in
the same industry. A publicly-held company's stock price represents the
investment community's view of the outlook for the company.
This type of information can be found in various places using search tools
such as the following:
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U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission EDGAR Database (start with
Companies & Other Filers search form; can limit results to Form 10-K)
Mergent Online (contains up to 15 years of ratios, calculated from company's
financials)
Value Line Investment Survey (company pages summarize financials for
several years, also include some ratios)
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage (Stock Reports summarizes financials;
Industry Surveys include ratios in Comparative Company Analysis)
Corporate web sites' investor relations sections often link to SEC filings,
webcasts, and recent annual reports to shareholders
Review investment research reports
Investment research reports track company financials and other
developments, monitor industry trends, and make purchase recommendations.
Investment research reports can be found using search tools such as:
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Some company web sites link to some investment analyst reports
Some analyst reports also available via Business Insights: Global
Morningstar Investment Research Center
Value Line Investment Survey
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage
Yahoo Finance! (provides free overview of investment analyst reports)
Determine and evaluate the company's strategies
Companies aim to develop strategies to meet their goals and compete
successfully in the long run. Company executives may state, discuss, and
answer questions about their strategies in SEC filings, annual reports to
shareholders, investor conference calls and webcasts, speeches, articles, and
documents on corporate web sites. Some authors use strategic analysis tools
like SWOT and Five Forces when studying company strategies and industries.
The results of these studies are published in sources such as journal articles,
books, and company reference sources.
This type of information can be found using tools such as:
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U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission EDGAR Database (See Part I, Item
1 - Business of 10-K Annual Reports for company's discussion of strategic
issues)
Investor Relations Presentations/Webcasts (usually listed in Investor Relations
or "About Us" section of corporate web site)
Annual report to shareholders (usually listed in Investor Relations or "About
Us" section of corporate web site; also in Mergent Online)
Business Source Elite (Company Profiles include SWOT analyses, written by
Global Data) for larger companies
UNISTAR (library catalog search may lead to books on specific companies
that address their history)
See Step 4. for additional databases for searching for academic journal and
trade journal articles
Identify competitors and study industries in which company operates
Company analysis includes evaluation of competitors and the industry in which
the company competes. One way to determine the industries in which a
company does business is to look up its entry in directories like those listed in
Step 1. Business & Company Resource Center, for example, lists lines of
business and NAICS and SIC industry codes in company entries. Company
reference sources and product catalogs can help identify competitors. Industry
reports usually mention leading companies in different sectors of the industry.
This type of information may be found using tools such as:
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Business Source Elite (Company Profiles list competitors)
Hoover's (profiles list competitors)
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage (look up entry for company; click the
Competitors list on left side of the company entry screen)
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage (Industry Surveys analyze industry but also
discuss leading companies in around 50 industries)
IBISWorld (notes leading companies in some 700 industries and addresses
major strategic issues)
Business Insights: Global
ThomasNet (product catalogs like this one list manufacturers and distributors
of specific products, such as filing cabinets)
Examine the company's web site(s)
Corporate web sites provide a wealth of information, of course presented from
the company's point of view. In addition to providing a picture of the company's
marketing strategy, they also include other types of information about the
company, like links to SEC filings, annual reports to shareholders, and
speeches by executives. Information like this may be listed under a heading
such as "About Us" or "About the Company" or "About Company X." A
company's division or subsidiary web sites may have information not on the
parent corporation web site.
Company web sites can be found using tools and techniques such as:
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Company directories such as those listed in Step. 1 usually give the URL for
the corporate web site and other contact details like phone and address.
Another approach is to guess the corporate URL: http://www.______.com.
Guessing may lead to web sites that are fakes or the pages for companies
with similar sounding names, however.
General web search tools like Google
Learn how to evaluate companies in particular industries
Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage includes a source called Industry Surveys. It
covers about 50 major industries. The surveys are written by Standard &
Poor's industry analysts and financial writers. The analysts list and explain key
ratios and statistics in the study of a given industry, and they also explain how
to analyze a company in that industry.
Industry Surveys can be accessed in this tool:
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Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage (click Industries tab, located toward the top
of the page in the middle)
This page is based in part on the University of Florida Business Library
Company Tutorial.