Before You Begin Your Research
Establishing a few basic facts about the company first will simplify the research process.

What is the difference between a public and private company? Public companies sell stock to the public. Private companies don't. Publicly held companies in the United States are required by law to disclose a great deal of information, while privately held companies are generally not. It is usually more difficult to research a private company than a public company.

Some of these entities may have different names than their parent companies. Usually, only the financial statements of the parent companies are made public. To find the answers, use  the Directory of Corporate Affiliations (Ref 338.86 D58N), which is useful for finding parent company and subsidiary information. It covers U.S. and international public and private companies.

What is the company’s ticker symbol?

Many of the electronic resources use the ticker symbol, the symbol which identifies a company’s stock on an exchange. To find a ticker symbol on the web, try:

Yahoo! Finance Ticker Symbol Lookup  (http://finance.yahoo.com/l)

Motley Fool Ticker Symbol Lookup Page (http://quote.fool.com/lookup.asp)

 

What are the company’s SIC or NAICs codes?

Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) (Print Ref. 338.02 S520) codes provide a mechanism for classifying like businesses together. They can be used to identify a company’s competitors and to determine industry financial norms. Search the 1987 SIC manual:

Standard Industrial Classification Search  (http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/sicser.html)

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) (Print Ref. 338.0973 N78)codes are being phased in to replace SIC codes, but many standard reference works still use the SIC codes. You can look up NAICS codes and convert SIC codes to NAICS codes at:

North American Industry Classification ( http://www.naics.com/search.htm)

Annual Reports
Annual reports to stockholders, published by public companies, provide a review of last year's accomplishments and plans for the future. Annual reports also include financial information like corporate earnings, current assets, capital value (property, buildings, machinery), debt, liabilities, stock prices and earnings per share, and a ten-year financial summary.

Stock Performance
Check the status of a public company's stock. Some of these sources also provide investment reports, which analyze the health and prospects of companies.

For a detailed guide about how to use it see Value Line Investment Survey by the University of Western

Industry Analysis
To learn about the context of a company's work, and to compare a company to its competitors, use industry analyses. A complete industrial analysis usually includes a review of that industries' recent performance, it's current status, and an outlook for the future. Many analyses include a combination of text and statistical data.
For a detailed guide about how to use it see Value Line Investment Survey Guide by the University of Western For a detailed guide about how to use it see Value Line Investment Survey Guide by the University of Western · Statistical Abstract of the United States (Ref 317.3 U65).

Company Rankings

Market Share
Market share is the ratio of sales of a company's brand to the total sales of that product-type in a defined area (county, continent, etc.). Market share can also be defined as the ratio of sales of a company's entire product line to the total sales of all related companies.

· Market Share Reporter (Ref. 658.8 M28, 2000) · Databases: Business Source Plus (EBSCOhost) and Business Index ASAP (InfoTrac)

Company History
There are many possible sources for learning a history of a company.

· International Directory of Company Histories (Ref. 338.74 I79D V. 1-52) · Hoover's Handbook of American Business 2002 (Ref. 338.74 H77H) · Corporate Web Site: Many corporate web sites have a "company history/timeline" page

Note: Many annual reports provide historical information.

Articles from Periodicals
While newspaper, trade magazine and journal articles are important for researching all companies, they are often the major source of information about private companies. When searching for articles about a company, always make sure to check sources that cover the geographic areas where the company has an impact on the local economy.

Print Indexes

Business Periodical Index (1958-1982) Ref. 016.65 B75 Wall Street Journal Index  Ref. 016.65 W26. The Wall Street Journal is also indexed in Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe.

Compiled by Miao Hong Contact hongm@.marywood.edu

Last updated in Fall 2004
Created and maintained by Miao Hong
Contact hongm@marywood.edu,
Marywood University Library