Guide to Company Information Using Only the Internet

at the Ithaca College Library
Phone: (607)-274-3890
reference@ithaca.edu
Ithaca College Library

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. If you have questions that this guide does not answer, please contact a public services librarian for assistance at 274-3890 or stop by the library.

 

Search Strategy for Company Analysis Search Engines Private Companies Directory Information Quotes & Charts Financial Information including S.E.C. documents News & Public Opinion Officers & Directors Legal Information

  

Search Strategy &Questions usually asked in a company analysis
 Back to top

Search Engines/Meta Search Engines

One can often find information on a company by using various search engines. Each search engine is slightly different so be sure to read the help screens for assistance. Try some or all of the following:

Search Engines

 Meta Search Engines-search more than one search engine at once.

 Back to top
PRIVATELY HELD COMPANIES
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 which can sometimes be accessed as web pages, though usually only larger companies utilize this type of service. One can also search Secretary of State Corporate Records for additional information as well as doing a search using any of the wide variety of search engines above.
Try the following sites for directory information.
 Back to top

 DIRECTORY INFORMATION  

PHONE DIRECTORIES 

 PUBLIC COMPANY DIRECTORIES via the INTERNET

 WEB SITE URL (Uniform Resource Locators)

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.
  • 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
  • WhoIs.Net
  • Excite -search engine.
  • Google -search engine
  • Hoovers Online
  • Ixquick-meta search engine
 Back to top
 

STOCK QUOTES & CHARTS

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 delayed quotes.

Ticker Symbol Lookup

CURRENT QUOTES

HISTORICAL PRICING INFORMATION

  • Big Charts -historical quotes back to 1988. Single day's only!
  • MSN Money Central - Go to Quotes, Charts & News, then Choose Charts, then Go, Choose Historical, Choose Period (time frame)-Custom, (set for either daily, weekly, etc. To Download, choose File, then Export Data, Save to Disk
  • Yahoo Historical Quotes

CHARTS

 Back to top  

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

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 the following:

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).
 
  • SEC/Edgar access official SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) documents such as Form 10-K, 10-Q, Proxy statements, registration statements, and merger and acquisition documents.
  • EDGAR/Online-fee based, though parts are free.
  • EdgarScan-extremely neat interface.
  • FreeEdgar
  • SECInfo-Search by name, SIC code, insider trading, etc.
  • TenKWizard -allows searching of the text of SEC documents for word(s) which you can connect using boolean logic.
  ANALYST REPORTS/MARKET RESEARCH REPORTS
  • Investext- Wall Street Analyst Reports on companies and industries. (Fee-based)
  • Multex -Another source of analyst reports (Fee-based)
 Back to top  

NEWS (PRESS RELEASES & TRADE PUBLICATIONS)

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.

PUBLIC OPINION ABOUT COMPANIES & PRODUCTS

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 any information that you retrieve this way with a grain of salt!
 Back to top

 OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD

  • 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.
  • SEC/Edgar-search especially in the Form 10-K (Part III-Part 10-13), Proxy statements (DEF-14A) for compensation and biographical information. Also look a Forms 3,4, filings which detail recent insider (Officers & Directors) trades
  • SECInfo-Search by name, SIC code, insider trading, etc.
 Back to top
 

LEGAL 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)

 

Contacting the CollegeDirectoriesSite IndexIthaca College HomeIthaca College Home

Author: James Bondra
This page maintained by: Library Webmaster
Ithaca College Library
Last updated on July 12, 2004