Other Online Company Research Guides
Yahoo – Finance!
Produced in collaboration with Edgar Online, Market Guide, and Thomson Financial Solutions, this site provides an extensive company profile, income and balance statements, top institutional and mutual fund stock holders, stock quotes, recent insider trades, profiles of officers and directors including biographies, compensation and stock options, recent SEC filings, and contact information and links to corporate Web sites. While 33,502 companies and funds are in this database, detailed information is only available on slightly over 9,000.
Hoovers Online
Hoovers covers over 12 million global companies, both public and private, and over 300 industries. It provides a brief description of the company’s activities, its contact information, Web site, main officers, financial statements and annual sales, number of employees and top competitors. It also provides links to SEC filings and stock quotes, news from Knight-Ridder and other wire services, company press releases, headline news from Dow Jones (paid subscription required for full text) and political contribution data. Industry profiles provide a snapshot of the industry, a list of companies and related SIC codes. For $49.95/month, subscribers can get full profiles which also include a history of the company, its subsidiaries, affiliates, all major competitors, brand names, historic financial data and full board of directors.
Corporate Information
This site offers the ability to search multiple corporate directories such as Yahoo, Hoovers, Bloomberg, etc., simultaneously. It also provides company profiles and financial data from Wright Investors’ Services. Free registration is required to use the Wright profiles. Plus, it offers overviews of industries and links to industry-specific news stories and Web sites searchable by industry and country.
Dun & Bradstreet Electronic Business Directory
One of the best sources of information on a company is a Dun & Bradstreet report. These are available at the company’s main Web site but they can be expensive (e.g., $112 for a comprehensive report). You can, however, get some basic information on a company by looking it up in the free Electronic Business Directory. The report includes contact information, a link to the company’s Web site, industry, estimated annual sales and number of employees. It also includes the major officers and competitors. An EBD search can also be helpful in identifying which location is the headquarters for a company that may have multiple branches with identical names. The EBD can often be the only source of information on smaller private firms. Clicking on “Search Options” within the primary search interface box permits additional searching by phone number, type of business, or D-U-N-S© Number.
Directory of Corporate Affiliations
This source is available online on a pay-as-you-go basis. You can run a search for free on a company name, and get city and state of all companies with that name and whether they are branch or headquarter locations. A full report on the company costs $3.50 and gives the firm’s contact information, officers, SIC industry code, brand names, state of incorporation, and other details. For $6, you can get the corporate hierarchy showing all branch names and locations.
