This guide is intended to help the user research information on both public and private companies using just the Internet. It is not meant to be all inclusive but is a selected list of sources.
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One can often find information on a company by using various search engines.
This is not an approach that I would recommend however and should only be used if searches on company/financial web sites do not turn up anything.
Each search engine is slightly different so be sure to read the help screens for assistance. Try some or all of the following:
AltaVista
Excite
Lycos
Northern Light
Meta Search Engines-search more than one search engine at once.
These are companies which do not trade on stock exchanges. It is often difficult to find very much information on these companies, other than a brief directory listing, estimated net sales, and sometimes news articles which can be found using a search in various regional newspapers, trade publications and newswires (though usually only larger companies utilize this type of service). One can also search Secretary of State Corporate Records for additional information.Try the following sites for directory information.
Companies Online from Dun & Bradstreet
All Business Directory -search by Business Category/Product or Service/Company Name
Forbes 500 Largest Private Companies This list gives the top 500 private companies and their ranking.
Inc. 500
Locating U.S. Corporate Records Online-from the Internet Prospector -includes links to Secrataries of State and similar bodies.
National Association of Secretaries of States
Thomas Register - A large index of manufacturers: you can search on the name or the product of the 155,000 US and Canadian companies in its database. Gives address, phone number and description of products. In some cases, links to on-line product catalogs are provided. This is a good site to visit if you want to know what a company does, or if you want to know which companies make a certain type of product. Note that this is a list of manufacturers.
Web 100 -this is a list of the top 100 companies which have a presence on the Web. It is a combination of both public and private companies.
PHONE DIRECTORIES
Ready Reference Directories from Ithaca College
Europages-500,000 companies selected in 30 European countries. Searchable by company name and/or product
PUBLIC COMPANY DIRECTORIES via the INTERNET
Companies Online -Directory information from Dun & Bradstreet. Covers public and private information with links to Web sites.
CorporateInformation-one of the best "Mega" sites on the Web. Especially good for foreign publicly traded companies.
Financial Web -stock screening, historical quotes, SEC filings, current quotes, etc.
Fortune 500 -500 largest U.S. companies. Ranked according to size, by industry, etc.
Global 500 -from Fortune Magazine. Go to browse by list and choose Global 500
GrayMetalBox
Investment Resources Page from Ithaca College
Just Quotes -get SEC filings, company news, eps estimates, links to home pages, current quotes and graphs, etc.
Market Guide
Wall Street Research Net (extremely comprehensive)-get SEC filings, company news, eps estimates, links to home pages, current quotes and graphs, etc.
Wright Investor Services-profiles on over 18,000 companies around the world. News, financials, etc.
Yahoo Finance -good starting point for quotes, news, etc.
There are a variety of ways to find a company web site. In most instances one can usually just type the company name followed by .com: Such as www.nike.com.Companies Online-from Dun & Bradstreet. Gives links to both public and private companies.
Findspot is a multi-parallel search engine that will search the major search engines and give you the top results from each. This will allow you to quickly determine if any of the search engines have indexed a home page for the company.
DomainSurfer
Google -search engine
Hoovers Online
Ixquick-meta search engine
Excite -search engine.
Websense Company Locator -search by company name or part of the name to find web pages
Wall Street Research Net
With access to the Internet, one can find pricing up to the minute if willing and able to pay. One can get delayed quotes ranging from 15-30 minutes in time. The following are a small sample of sites where one can find these quotes.Ticker Symbol Lookup
CBS Market Watch Symbol Lookup
Yahoo Ticker Symbol Lookup
Ticker Symbol Lookup from Pathfinder
Check Free Investment Services
Market Guide
PC Quote
Wall Street Research Net -Go to the section entitled "Research a Company"
Yahoo Finance -good starting point for quotes, news, etc.
HISTORICAL PRICING INFORMATION
Big Charts -historical quotes back to 1988. Single day's only!
Microsoft Investor -put in a ticker symbol, then go to "historic charts", then use the "show table" option. Quotes back to at least 1995.
Financial Web-this site gives historical data: high, lo, close, volume back to 10/22/1996
IQC Historical Quotes
Yahoo Historical Quotes
CHARTS
Big Charts
Stock Site
ANNUAL REPORTS
Annual reports are issued by publicly traded companies, but are not required by the S.E.C. (Securities and Exchange Commission). They are produced for the shareholders as a public relations document. The official "annual financial statements" are really located in what is known as Form 10-K which does not contain the glossy pictures and graphs that the Annual Report does. That said, if you still wish to access annual reports, you can try Public Register's Annual Report Service or Wall Street Research Net (which also has links to company home pages if available). Both of these sites have copies of company annual reports which can be downloaded and read with Adobe Acrobat.
BONDS
BondsOnline-find out if a company has bonds, their ratings and yield.
SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission Documents)
These are documents which publicly-traded, (companies which trade stock on an exchange are required to file with the SEC (United States Securities and Exchange Commission). Among these are such documents such as Form-10K (Audited Financial Statements-issued up to 90 days after a company year end) and Form 10-Q (unaudited financial statements issued up to 45 days after a quarterly financial ending). Companies are not required to file Annual Reports but usually issue them because of shareholder demand. The best thing for you to do is look at Disclosure and its descriptions of the various SEC documents to educate yourself on all of the information which can be found in them and in what sections of the documents.
- SEC/Edgar database is convenient way of accessing official SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) documents such as Form 10-K, 10-Q, Proxy statements, registration statements, and merger and acquisition documents.
*** Make sure to follow the directions for downloading as follows:
- Search the Edgar Archives, type in your company name, and retrieve the latest available Form 10-K.
* To download, do the following:
- Go up to File
- Click on Save As Save to the A:\ (drive) with a .txt extension.
- Next, go to WordPerfect or Word and do the following:
- A) Set margins to widest possible. Either .25" or .30"
- B) Choose Courier or New Courier as the Font.
- C) Set Font size to 8pt
- D) Open File saved with the .txt extension.
- E) Save
EDGAR/Online-fee based, though parts are free.
EdgarScan
FreeEdgar
TenKWizard -allows searching of the text of SEC documents for word(s) which you can connect using boolean logic.
Wall Street Research Net -also has links to SEC/Edgar, Go to the section entitled, "Research a Company"
EARNINGS ESTIMATES
Zacks Investment Research
Market Guide-Access I/B/E/S
Another way of getting news is from wire services which usually disseminate public relations releases from various companies. Try the following which are searchable by company name.CNN Financial Direct - * (My first choice!!! ) search by company name or ticker symbol for stories which have made the wire services. (Includes Reuters Company News, Business Wire, and PR News wire.
Newspage -from Individual Inc.
PR Newswire -click on company news to search back up to one year on the company or companies of your choice.
Yahoo Financial News
Ecomponline-database which gives officers and directors compensation.
Edgar Online People -searches SEC Filings by a person's name or displays all people associated with a specific company name.
Insider Training -track insider trades and companies an individual is associated with as an officer, director or board member.
SEC/Edgar-search especially in the Form 10-K (Part III-Part 10-13), Proxy statements (DEF-14A) for compensation and biographical information.
SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) documents can sometimes provide insight into company legal matters. Try searching the following documents from the SEC Documents Section. Form 10-K ( Part 1 Item-3), Form 10-Q (Part 2, Item-1), Form 20-F (foreign companies trading on U.S. Exchanges) (Part 1-Item 3)., Form 8-K (Item 5)
It is sometimes useful to research public opinion on companies and competitors. These sites allow you to search newsgroups and some mailing lists for discussions about companies and their products. NOTE: A Word of Caution!!! Take an information that you retrieve this way with a grain of salt!Google Groups formerly DejaNews
CEO EXPRESS
CORPORATE INFORMATION
CAROL-get annual reports from European, Latin American and Asian Companies
Corporate Information
Author: James Bondra, JBondra@bondra.com
Last modified: June 28, 2001