- Is the company owned by someone else? Many sources provide entries under the parent company's name only, and not under individual subsidiaries.
- Is the company public or private? Publicly traded companies must provide regular reports to the SEC and shareholders,
making a wide range of information about their operations available to the
public.
- If the company is public, on what stock exchange is it traded? What is it's ticker symbol? (Yahoo! Finance has a ticker symbol lookup.)
- What SIC code(s) best represent the most important products or activities of the company? It is important to compare companies to their peers and com
petitors. The government divides economic activity into sectors, and assigned categories (SIC codes) to
represent specific activities. Some sources support searching by SIC code,
compiling information on the general marketplace for an industry, including
information on competitors.
- Directory of Corporate Affiliations: Who Owns Whom
- Available: Library Reference REF. HG4057 .A217
- Includes subsidiaries and indicates which parent company owns individual subsidiary companies
- Hoover's Company Records via Proquest
- Includes individual entries for large subsidiaries, which also identify and link to the parent company.
- Searching for the largest brands may also retrieve the entry for the parent company.
- ThomasNet
- Online version of Thomas Register of American Manufacturers
- Identifies companies by products manufactured.
- Includes contact information, types of products produced, and general sales and employee ranges.
- D&B Million Dollar Database
- Also Available in Print: Library Reference REF. HC102 .D8
- Includes over 150,000 U.S. private and public companies, with sales over $500,000.
- Lists officers and directors, line of business, SIC code, approximate sales and number of employees,
stock ticker symbol, and sub-divisions.
- Hoover's Company Records
- Information on over 40,000 public and private business. Can include contact information, estimated sales and employees, overview, history, and key competitors.
- Available via Proquest (ABI/Inform)
- Available via Lexis-Nexis Academic
- Choose Business, Company Profiles, and Source: Hoover's Company Records
- Available via free Internet Site
- http://www.hoovers.com
- Includes many annoying pop-ups
- Hoover's Handbook of American Business
- Available: Library Reference REF. HG4057 .A28617
- Company profiles contain a concise statement of the nature of the business, history and the products and services;
also sales figures, officers, number of employees, rankings, and competitors.
- Hoover's Handbook of Private Companies
- Available: Library Reference REF. HG4057 .A28615x
- Profiles the largest privately owned U. S. businesses with revenues $650 million+. Contains information on key competitors, sales, number of employees, and company overviews.
- Lexis-Nexis Academic Search
- Business section: Company Profiles
- Includes company descriptions from Hoover's, Standard and Poor's , and Bankruptcy Court
- Mergent Online
- Overview of 40,000 U.S. and 75,000 international companies.
- Includes history, financial overview, news, subsidiaries, joint ventures, and long-term debt.
- Entries for publicly-traded companies include stock information and SEC filings.
- Reuter's/Factiva Company Profiles and Reports
- Detailed outline of this company's primary activities, top officers and executives, competition, history, products, services, and key financial ratios.
- Very useful overview of companies and their competitors, but somewhat difficult to find within the Factivia site.
- Choose Companies/Markets tab.
- Choose Company link (top-left corner, under Factiva, just after Quotes and Charting).
- Search for and select desired company.
- Choose Reports.
- Choose Detailed Company Profile Report.
- Standard and Poor's Corporate Descriptions
- Information on over 11,000 publicly held companies.
- Available via Lexis-Nexis Academic
- Choose Business, Company Profiles, and Source: S&P Corporate Descriptions
- ThomasNet
- Online version of Thomas Register of American Manufacturers
- Identifies companies by products manufactured.
- Includes contact information, types of products produced, and general sales and employee ranges.
- Value Line Investment Survey
- Reports historical and current financial information on 1,800 companies and about 100 industry groups. Includes five-year projection for financial performance of companies.
Many of the industry analysis tools group industries by SIC Code.
See the SIC section for tips on determining the appropriate SIC code for a company.
- Industry Norms & Key Business Ratios
- Library RESERVES: HF 5681 R25 I525)
- Average industry financials arranged by SIC.
- Market Share Reporter
- Library RESERVES: HF 5410 M35
- Market share summaries for selected companies, from a variety of sources, arranged by SIC.
- Mergent Online
- Entries for individual companies includes a list of competitors.
- Also allows searching by SIC code to retrieve all companies in a specific industry.
- Reuter's Ratio Comparison Report
- Compares key financial ratios of this company against its industry, sector, and the S&P 500 Index aggregates.
- Very useful overview of companies and their competitors, but somewhat difficult to find within the Factivia site.
- Choose Companies/Markets tab.
- Choose Company link (top-left corner, under Factiva, just after quotes and charting).
- Search for and select desired company.
- Choose Reports.
- Choose Ratio Comparison Report.
- Robert Morris Associates Annual Statement Studies
- Library RESERVES: HF 5681 B2 R6
- Composite industry financials arranged by SIC.
- Snapshots North America
- Overviews of 630 different industries and markets in North America, including market size, market segmentation, forecast and market share by specific companies.
- Standard and Poor's Industry Surveys
- Library RESERVES HG4915 .S673
- This resource provides economic analysis of more than 1500 companies. Many charts and projections are included. The three volumes are broken down into topic (or industries) and different companies are located in each topic or several topics. Look in Vol. 1 to check the "Index to Companies" to locate your company.
- Value Line Investment Survey
- Reports historical and current financial information on 1,800 companies and about 100 industry groups. Includes five-year projection for financial performance of companies.
- Yahoo! Finance
- Searchable by Ticker Symbol.
- Current and historical company data and investment information for publicly
traded companies, including links to companies Web pages.
Standard Industrial Classification codes were developed by the U.S. Government to describe and group economic activity. Many of the
company directories, including D&B Million Dollar Directory, Hoover's Company Directories and Reuter's Company Profiles include SIC codes.
The following sources may be useful when trying to identify which SIC code desribes a specific product or industry.
- Standard Industrial Classification Codes via SEC Info
- Allows browsing by broad economic activity/industry, or by specific product.
- SIC - Standard Industrial Classification Manual
- Available: Library Reference U.S.DOCS PREX 2.6/2:IN27/987
- Last version of the manual to be issued, published by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget in 1987.
- Available online at:
http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/sicser.html
- Online version of the 1987 Manual.
- Available via Lexis-Nexis Academic Search
- Choose Business - Directories - Source: NAICS-SIC
- Lexis-Nexis Academic Search
- Business: Company Financial Reports: Source - Disclosure Reports
- Disclosure reports include business and financial information extracted from reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Business: Company Financial Reports: Source - Stock Reports
- Earnings estimates and stock recommendations from investment services.
- Business: SEC Filings and Reports
- Includes 10-Q and 10-K reports.
- Mergent Online
- For publicly traded companies, the EDGAR tab displays SEC filings for the last 90 days. From the EDGAR tab, use the "Search EDGAR" option to access earlier filings.
- SEC - EDGAR
- Official site from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
- Includes 10-Q and 10-K reports.
- SEC Info
- A relatively friendly, easy-to use interface available free to the public, but requires one-time registration.
- Proquest (ABI/INFORM)
- Index to articles in academic research journals, trade and industry publications, and the news media.
- Includes the full-text for most articles listed, including many from the Wall Street Journal.
- Individual databases available:
- ABI/INFORM Global:
Indexes articles from scholarly research journals, national trade journals and magazines, and the Wall Street Journal.
- ABI/INFORM Dateline: Focuses on local and regional business news.
- ABI/INFORM Trade and Industry: Periodicals with a focus on a specific trade or industry.
- Lexis-Nexis Academic Search
- Business section: Business News
- Choose from one of the following:
- Business and Finance
- Industry News
- Merger & Acquisitions
- Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News (business articles from regional newspapers)
- Business section: Industry and Market
- Choose a specific industry grouping (e.g. Food and beverage, Medical and health, Manufacturing and engineering, etc.)
- News section: General News: Source - Major Papers
- Articles from 50 top newspapers, including several international publications.
- News section: U.S. News
- Articles regional newspapers, grouped by area or state.
- Academic Search Elite
- Descriptions of articles in over 3000 scholarly journals and popular magazines.
- Includes the full-text of 30-40% of the articles listed.
Use the Find It! button for articles not labeled or "Full-Text".
- Factiva
- Full-text access to over 8,000 business and current events sources, including newspapers, magazines, and newswires.
- News pages include access to the last week of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Chicago Tribune,
Los Angeles Times, Business Week, Barrons, and Newsweek.
