Guide to Company Research
The following are library databases that you can use to find basic company information. All the databases can be found in the E-Resources Gateway on the UW Libraries home page and can be accessed both in the library and remotely from your own computer when you log in with your NetID. If you need help finding any information, contact the JRR.
Directories
- Corporate Affiliations:Use Corporate Affiliations to get a hierarchical listing of a company’s family tree. Find out exactly where the company you are researching lies within its broader organizational structure.
- D and B Million Dollor Database: A versatile and manipulatable database, D and B allows you to generate a list of companies that fit your established search criteria. Examples of possible searches include: identifying businesses that operate within Wisconsin whose annual sales are between 100 – 500 million or identifying businesses that operate within a specific SIC code that employ more that 100,000 people..
- Hoover's: Hoover’s can be used for a number of reasons, with highlights including: company overviews, lists of competitors and brands, lists of key employees, and access to news articles and significant company and industry developments.
Finanial Data
- Mergent: Mergent Online has a wealth of company financial data for users to access (though only for publicly traded companies). Type in the company name or ticker symbol and once inside, click on the various tabs, such as company details, equity pricing and company financials, to view data. Some highlights of Mergent Online is its access to Edgar, its 15 year archive of balance sheets, and its “create a report” tab that allows you to extract data on your areas of interest. .
- One Source: Use OneSource to get information on public and private companies. If you are researching a publicly traded company you can access ratio comparisons, income statements, balance sheets, cash flows, SWOT analysis and company filings such as SEC filings and annual reports. If you are researching a private company you can access a company’s tearsheet, news articles, corporate overview, list of executives, and an overview of the company’s corporate family.
Investor Analysis
- One Source: To access OneSource’s investor analyst reports, type your company name in the company search box. Once inside your company’s OneSource page, click on the “Analysts’ Reports” link on the left hand side of the screen. Analyst reports are available in PDF format.
- Standard and Poor's Net Advantage: To view S&P’s company data, click on the Companies tab and then enter in the company name or ticker symbol. Information available for viewing includes: current year stock charts, stock valuation, quarterly financials for the current and previous 5 years, corporate actions, as well as S&P’s own stock report which is accessible in HTML or PDF format. This information is only available for publicly traded companies
News Sources
Online Journal Databases
- ABI Inform, Business Source Elite, and Business Full Text: These three online journal databases are excellent resources for business and company research. To get articles on specific companies, click on the Advanced Search tab, enter in the company name, and in the drop-down menu select company/org to limit the search to only those articles that focus on your particular company. If your search yields few results, select citation/abstract (in ABI/Inform), default fields (in Business Source Elite, or Keyword (Business Full Text) from the drop-down menu.
Online Newspaper Databases
- Pro Quest Newspapers and Regional Business News: If your company is private or is a subsidiary of a publicly traded company, you may experience difficulty in locating data or journal articles about your company. A good place to look for articles on subsidiaries or private companies is newspaper resources. Both ProQuest Newspapers and Regional Business News carry local papers. Type your company name in the search box and click search. If your search yields few results, go back to the search screen and select text from the drop-down menu.
- Factiva: Factiva indexes an enormous amount of news sources, from trade journals to newswires, to broadcast transcripts and beyond. Other functions within Factiva include webpage browsing as well as a section devoted to company and industry research. To search Factiva, type your search term into the “free text” search box and select “run search.”
- Lexis Nexis: To search Lexis-Nexis business resources, select the Business link from the bar near the top of the screen. From here you can search for a company under their name, ticker number, or even location