Library Guides: Business: Financial & Investment Data

Company Research Tips

The information you will find on a company depends upon several factors. Before you begin your research, ask yourself these questions:

1. Are there variations of the company name?
Different research resources may use alternative spellings or abbreviations of a company name. Some databases require a ticker symbol to find company information.

2. Is the company public or private?
It is usually easier to find information on public companies, but you might find information on private companies in our resources.

3. What about the company's "family tree"?
Is it a parent company? Division of another? Foreign-owned? Family-owned?

4. Is the company newsworthy?
Companies tend to be in the news when they want the PR, when they are performing extremely well, or when they are having problems. Even a small private company may be considered newsworthy by local press.

To get help with these questions, start with a directory listing or company profile.

Adapted from Williams, T. (n.d.) Company Research Tips. Butler University. Retrieved from https://libguides.butler.edu/c.php?g=34071&p=217007

Benchmarking

Bizminer This link opens in a new window
Provides industry and area specific financial benchmarks as well as market statistics.

Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios (2018)
Call Number: HF5681.R25 A45
The Almanac provides financial information and performance data for 50 operating and financial factors in 199 industries, organized by NAICS code. Want to look at this book? You can order pages from it that cover the industry/ies to which your company belongs. See our Getting Book Chapters page for details.

Financial Data

Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
U.S. and international company data, including financials, equity pricing, insider trading, and institutional holdings. Includes some private companies. Sustainability module evaluates companies on Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. Restricted to UP students, faculty and staff, for research purposes only.

Mergent Online This link opens in a new window
U.S. and international company data, including financials, equity pricing, insider trading, and institutional holdings. Includes some private companies. Sustainability module evaluates companies on Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. Restricted to UP students, faculty and staff, for research purposes only.
Value Line Investment Survey This link opens in a new window
Full text information on approximately 1,700 stocks, more than 90 industries, the stock market, and the economy. On the Dashboard page, blue Quick Links indicate publications to which Clark Library subscribes. To locate reports on individual companies, enter the company name or ticker symbol in the upper-right search box.
Important publications in our subscription:
* Summary & Index: view basic information for the 1,700 companies covered by Value Line, as well as industry rankings. BUS 205 students, start here.
* Selection & Opinion: Investment recommendations, some macroenvironment data

Value Line YouTube Channel
Watch short videos to learn to use Value Line effectively.
Exploring the Value Line Page
Learn more about the calculations behind each section of a Value Line PDF company report.
Value Line University
Designed for the beginning investor, this guide has 4 parts:
* Investment Basics
* Investment Strategies
* Building a Portfolio
* Studying a Stock

Mutual Fund Search
Published by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, this resource allows investors to access information on a large collection of mutual fund companies, fund listings and exclusive planning, tracking and monitoring tools.
Yahoo! Mutual Funds Center
A good starting point for mutual fund research, with a glossary, a Mutual Funds 101 tutorial, a screener with over 40 categories, mutual fund calculators, a company and fund index, mutual funds by family, and the latest mutual fund data, including top performers and historical fund data.