GUIDE TO FINDING COMPANY INFORMATION

U.S. PUBLICLY-OWNED COMPANIES

Green Library, Florida International University

Main Company Info Page / Subsidiaries Info / Private Company Info / Government/Not-for-Profit Entities

You are looking for information on a publicly-owned company (the company has stock shares traded). This type of company has a responsibility to publish reports to stockholders (annual reports, proxy reports) and a legal responsibility to make reports to the SEC (10K reports, Registrations, 10Q, etc.) They are also more frequently covered by press articles in newspapers and news journals, not to mention many reference sources. A guide to company information is provided by the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Their online guide to investing is designed for beginning investors.) There are many sources of information on this type of company. Where to go first depends on exactly what type of information you want. Choose from the options below:

General & Quick Information	Organizational Information (including officers, structure, etc.)	Financial Information	Investment Information (including stocks, bonds, etc.)
Company History	Marketing	Industry	Back to Company Info Main Page

1. General information sources:

Thompson Analytics. This can be searched by company name, officer names, location of headquarters (address, city, state, zip, telephone exchange, etc.), or any financial measures. This database includes information gathered from reports filed with the SEC, including quarterly data.
Mergents Online or Mergent's manuals - begin by looking up the company in: Mergent's Complete Corporate Index (BUS HG4961.M6), which indexes these sets:
- Mergent's Bank & Finance Manual. BUS HG4961.M65.
- Mergent's Industrial Manual. BUS HG4961.M67.
- Mergent's International Manual. BUS HG5150.M6.
- Mergent's OTC Industrial Manual. BUS HG4961.M7237.
- Mergent's OTC Unlisted Manual. BUS HG4501.M62.
- Mergent's Public Utilities Manual. BUS HG4961.M7245.
- Mergent's Transportation Manual. BUS HG4971.M74.
These manuals contain material provided by the companies themselves, and therefore should not be considered objective. However, for a large but concise dose of information, they are rarely surpassed. Minimally, they will include a brief business history, officers, balance sheet, and outstanding debts (including all stock issues and bonds). Depending on how much the company pays the publisher, there may be as much information as is in the company's annual report.
An alternative is to use Standard & Poor's Corporation Records, available online through Net Advantage.
Business & Industry , available through Galenet, indexes trade journals and industry newsletters. Many of the articles indexed are available full text on the web.

2. Organizational information sources:

Organizational Structure & Officers:
These sources will not only show the relations of subsidiaries and major divisions to the parent and each other, but also list main officers, addresses, revenues, & SICs for the various subsidiaries and divisions. This information may also be available through the company's 10k report from the SEC's EDGAR database or through Thompson Analytics .

a. Directory of Corporate Affiliations. RRF HG4067.A219. A directory of U.S. & international companies with subsidiaries, with an index to subsidiary names.

b. America's Corporate Families. RRF HD2709.A4. D&B's equivalent to Directory of Corporate Affiliations.

Officers and biographical information:

a. One source of information on corporation officers and their backgrounds is the Proxy Report, available through Mergents Online. This includes compensation for top officers as well as for board members. The proxy report also includes any issues to be raised for a vote at the annual meeting.

b. The S&P Register, RRF HG4057.A4. Has top officers and their backgrounds. This source is also available online through S&P's Net Advantage.

c. Reference Book of Corporate Managements. RRF HD2745.D85. D&B's equivalent to the S&P Register does not cover exactly the same companies.

3. Financial Information:

The following sources are available through the Library's resources. They will provide detailed financial information about public companies. This information is drawn from the reports public companies are required to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

a. Mergents Online has annual reports, 10k reports, and proxy reports.

b. Both Thompson Analytics and Mergents Online has balance sheets, ratios, etc., gathered from various company reports including 10Qs.

c. See also the Mergent's manuals, listed above.

In addition, most of the materials under Investment Information, below, include some financial information.

4. Investment Information:

As a starting point, especially if you are inexperienced in investing, the SEC's online guide to investing is recommended. There are many types of investment guides, from those which present data for the investor's analysis to those which give recommendations for investments and divestitures. In addition, which investment tool you need is often determined by what your investment goals are. For instance, if you want to build a portfolio of investments and watch them accrue value over a period of time, you use certain types of investment guides. On the other hand, some investors are more interested in dividend yield. One person I know invested in a natural resources stock that steadily declined in price; however, over the 6-7 years of his investment it paid annual dividends more than double his original investment. The point is this: you have to make the decisions about your goals, and how best to achieve them. That requires research into the various ways of investing, which is beyond the scope of these web pages.

The following sources deal with investment-related information for specific companies. Some of the sources also include information for other investments, but that is not the focus of this page.

General investment tools:

See the various Mergent's Manuals, listed above under I.
The Corporation Records on S&P Net Advantage are similar to Mergent's Manuals. In fact all the materials on S&P Net Advantage are intended to aid users in making investment decisions.
Stock prices:
For complete stock prices (as well as commodity prices), there are two current sources:
- The Wall Street Journal. Most recent at RES; older in PER AP2.W3; oldest in MIC AP2.W3.
- Financial Times. Current in PER AP3.F5; older in MIC AP3.F5.
In addition, you may wish to check the exchange's web site. Many stock exchanges provide recent price information for the stocks included. To locate the website of a specific stock exchange, check out this website:

FCS-NetFinancial page.
For the historical record of U.S. stock prices, the Green Library has 3 series put out by Standard & Poors. These usually arrive at the library in the middle of the calendar quarter following the dates they cover.
- Daily Stock Price Record: ASE. BUS HG4915.S66.
- Daily Stock Price Record: NYSE. BUS HG4915.S664.
- Daily Stock Price Record: OTC. BUS HG4915.S665.
Bonds & Dividends:
- Dividend Record. Published by Mergent, formerly by Mergent's. BUS HG4908.M6.
- Standard & Poor's Dividend Record and Bond Guides on S&P's S&P Net Advantage ; older in BUS HG4908.S76 and BUS HG4905.S435, respectively.
- Directory of Companies Offering Dividend Reinvestment Plans. REF HG4028.D5D57 1997.
Evaluative Reports:
- Stock Reports, currently available on S&P Net Advantage, include charts, data, various ratios, beta, corporate and industry analyses, and an investment rating.
- Value Line Investment Survey, located at the Reference Desk, covers selected companies, based on investor interest, and arranged by industry. Each industry is covered once a quarter. The company reports include a chart, data tables, and analysis, as well as beta and recommendations to buy, sell, or hold. Use the Index issue to find which of the 13 weekly issues includes your company. There is also an issue which explains how to use Value Line to maintain your portfolio.
- Investext provides investment house reports. These may cover a single company or may cover an industry. In the latter case, the major public companies in that industry will be described, and often the market share of each will be given.

5. Company history:

The first step to find company histories is to check if the FIU Library has a book on the company. For that you need to search by SUBJECT in the Library Catalog. If we have a book, make sure you copy down both the complete location, including library and collection, as well as the call number.

Next, check out some of the following publications:

Encyclopedia of American Business History and Biography. (Search title in LUIS for available volumes and their individual call numbers.)
International Directory of Company Histories, available through Business & Company Resource Center. Older volumes at: REF HD2721.I57.
World Class Business. REF HD2755.5.M384 1992.
Also check the beginning of the entry in Mergent's manuals. Each manual also has a "News" volume for current events.
In addition, the company's annual report may have an account of the company's history on special occasions. Check every year, since such a history is usually published to celebrate some milestone (such as the company's 25^th, 50^th, etc. anniversary).

6. Marketing:

Finding out about the company's marketing can be one of the more difficult things to research. One source to not overlook is trade journals. These can best be accessed via the database, Business & Industry

, available through Galenet, indexes trade journals and industry newsletters. Many of the articles indexed are available full text on the web.

Standard Directory of Advertisers, REF HF5805 .S7, provides a listing by industry and by geography, of companies in the U.S.A. and Canada spending $200,000 in national or regional advertising each year. It includes which advertising agency handles the account, how much is the current budget, and on which media is it being spent.

Business Newsbank, available through the general NewsBank site, may also have articles about local advertising campaigns. This database of local newspaper business sections and regional business journals (including The South Florida Business Journal) is an excellent source for information on local business activities.

7. Industry:

One of the things investors need to know is how their company is doing compared with its industry! Just knowing if a company is doing well tells nothing. If the industry is doing well there might be better investments elsewhere within the same industry. If the industry is doing poorly, a company just barely maintaining its position might be an excellent long-term investment. In balancing these and other "what ifs", the investor needs to know information about the industry.

One of the best sources for industry information is Industry Surveys, available through S&P Net Advantage, . These frequently updated reports and analyses of various industries include comparative charts of financial ratios for the leading companies, divided by sector. Older issues are available in print in BUS.
U.S. Industry and Trade Outlook. DOCS DESK C 61.48:. This annual publication is written in part by Dept. of Commerce employees and in part by Standard and Poor's employees. It includes many more industries than the Industry Surveys, including smaller break downs. It also provides projections of where the industry is going in the next 3-5 years. It does not provide information on individual companies.
Value Line Investment Survey, located at the Reference Desk, covers selected companies, based on investor interest, and arranged by industry. Each industry is covered once a quarter and the section of company pages are preceded by an industry page including narrative analysis and a table which projects near-future developments.
Investext provides investment house reports. These may cover a single company or may cover an industry. In the latter case, the major public companies in that industry will be described, and often the market share of each will be given.

Main Company Info Page / Subsidiaries Info / Private Company Info / Government/Not-for-Profit Entities

LOCATION SYMBOLS

A&I = Abstracts & Indexes (2^nd flr)	ERC = Electronic Research Ctr (2^nd flr east)
AV = Audio-Visuals Desk (5^th flr)	MIC = Microforms (4^th flr)
BUS = Business Services (2^nd flr)	REF = Reference Collection (2^nd flr east)
DESK = Ref. desk (2^nd flr)	RES = Reserve Room (2^nd flr lobby)
DOC = Government Documents(2^nd flr south)	RRF = Ready Reference (2^nd flr east)
DOCS DESK = Government Docs. Desk(2^nd flr south)	UGEN = General Collection (5^th-7^th floors)

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U.S. PUBLICLY-OWNED COMPANIES