Company FAQ

Although some of the tools on this page include investment advice, please go to
the Stock page for more complete coverage of investment advice sources.

Public companies: Complete data: openbook.gif (2469 bytes)

Company websites: Many companies offer access to their recent annual reports and/or 10-K's on their web sites. Search using your favorite search engine, or try Hoover's Online, which usually has links to corporate web sites.

Thomson ONE Banker: this library subscription database provides alot! The original SEC filings themselves, but also the financial data in spreadsheet format, for the current year and a ten-year compilation.

SEC Filings (EDGAR): direct from the Securities and Exchange Commission itself. More limited searching capabilities, but this is free and 'straight from the horse's mouth'. Here is a link to descriptions of the most common filings.
(By the way, EDGAR stands for 'Electronic Data Gathering and Retrieval'. This program for the electronic filing of SEC documents began in 1993; electronic filing then became mandatory in mid-1996. In other words, prior to 1996, the online documents are a lot fewer and farther between.)

Compustat (Standard & Poor's Research Insight) Available only in Memorial Library and in the David Straz Hall computer lab.
A sophisticated and complex numeric database of standardized financial data on 7,000+ active companies and 5,000+ inactive US companies. Up to 20 years of historical data, contains financials, industry composites, and investment performance data; several hundred different variables for each company. Requires Excel for fullest use of data.

Public companies: 'Extracted' data (aka summary data):
The following sources provide financial data extracted from the original SEC documents; in other words, summarized from the original SEC filings. These are great if you don't want to take the time to figure out the various databases and web sites that provide the original SEC filings.

Mergent Manuals (formerly called Moody Manuals) Annual, with monthly updates in print, weekly updates online.
Each entry in this set includes a brief corporate history, subsidiaries, officers, directors, comparative income statements, and balance sheets; the set covers 18,000+ companies. Use the Mergent Complete Corporate Index to locate a particular company within the set.

Mergent Company Archives Manual Raynor REF HG 4028 .M4 M43
(A new manual, it "contains the final statistical record of 2,700 companies which have merged, were acquired, went bankrupt or otherwise disappeared as private companies from 1996 forward.)
Mergent Corporate News Reports Raynor REF HG 4961 .M63 (monthly update services)
Mergent Bank and Finance Manual Raynor REF HG 4961 .M65
Mergent Industrial Manual Raynor REF HG 4961 .M67
Mergent Municipal and Government Manual Raynor REF HG 4931 .M6
Mergent OTC Industrial Manual Raynor REF HG 4961 .M675x
Mergent OTC Unlisted Manual Raynor REF HG 4905 .M856x
Mergent Public Utility Manual Raynor REF HG 4961 .M7245
Mergent Transportation Manual Raynor REF HG 4971 .M74
Mergent International Manual Raynor REF HG 4009 .M66
Mergent Complete Corporate Index Raynor REF HG 4961 .M66

padlock.gif (1596 bytes) Private companies' financial data:
Financial data for private companies is scarce, often no more than an estimated figure for annual sales. Since private companies are private, they are not required to disclose their financial data. (In the same way, private individuals also do not have to disclose their tax returns.)

Here are some of the few sources where you may find financial information on private companies:

Magazines & newspapers: sometimes in press releases or news articles, there will be sales or revenue information for private companies. Click here for a list of article databases.

National directories:

Hoover's Handbook of Private Companies (Raynor REF HG 4057 .A28616)
Ward's Private Company Profiles (Raynor REF HG 4009 .W374)
Ward's Business Directory of US Private and Public Companies
(Raynor REF HG 4057 .A575)
D&B Million Dollar Directory (Raynor REF HC 102 .D8)
Local / state directories:

ReferenceUSA: Under the heading "company size", this database provides an estimate of annual sales for all companies.
Wisconsin Business Service Directory (Raynor REF HD 9981.7 .W6 W57)
Wisconsin Manufacturers Directory (Raynor REF HD 2328 .C57)
Illinois Manufacturers Directory (Raynor REF HD 2328 .I47)
Illinois Services Directory (Raynor REF HD 9980.3 .I47)

Ratios (a.k.a. operating, financial, or accounting ratios) piegraph.gif (3071 bytes)

Ratio analysis, i.e. calculating and using ratios, is one means of assessing a company's performance. Ratio analysis helps provide answers to questions such as "is the company profitable?", "if so, how profitable?", "can the company pay its bills?" "is the company operating efficiently?", and so on.
Ratios must be used in context: either compared to previously calculated ratios (monthly, quarterly or annually), compared to ratios for other companies, or to ratios for the industry. They allow one to see trends, and changes in trends. Ratios are calculated from different data elements pulled from a company's financial statements.
Below are several websites that have good introductions to ratios, how to calculate them and how to interpret them.

Financial Ratio Analysis (from Biz/Ed, a UK business and economics educational website).

Financial Ratios and Quality Indicators (from the SBA's Online Women's Business Center).

Ratio Analysis: This tutorial from Investopedia.com has good explanations of the significance and use of the various ratios, but also has very annoying ads.

Finding industry ratios:
Industry ratios are simply ratios for data aggregated from the financial statements of several or many companies, rather than a single company. Compare ratios for one company to the aggregate ratios for its industry in order to see the 'health' of your company.
There are three standard, scholarly sources for aggregated industry ratios. They are organized by either SIC or NAICS codes.

Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios by Leo Troy.
(Raynor REF HF 5681 .R25 A45)

Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios, from Dun & Bradstreet.
(Raynor REF HF 5681 .R25 I53)

RMA Annual Statement Studies from the Risk Management Association, formerly Robert Morris Associates (Raynor REF HF 5681 .B2 R6). For explanations of the ratios directly from the organization that started ratio analysis, click here.