Company Research 201

Tutorial directions

The tutorial will include TASKS to help you learn the concepts and tools.

*You control the speed of the tutorial, by selecting the forward and back arrows at the bottom of this window.      

*Navigate to any section by using the Table of Content (highlighted in yellow) at the top of this window.

*Some links will open as new browser tabs. So keep this window and the new tab open.  Close the new tab once section is complete.

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Tutorial Subject Overview

INTRODUCTION

To understand a public company it is ideal to find information from it AND from third-parties (e.g. analysts, research companies, news). Understanding what information you need will drive your research.

This tutorial will provide an overview of finding company information including

• Corporate reports (e.g. 10-K)
• Financials & Ratios
• Third-party reports (e.g. SWOT)

Articles and News is covered in the reports section.

Corporate Reports

Public corporations are required by law to publish an annual report and file other documents with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).  The annual report (10-K) is a comprehensive report on a company's activities throughout the preceding year. Annual reports are intended to give shareholders and other interested people information about the company's activities and financial performance.  There are three ways to find the annual report, among other required documents.

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Corporate Reports

1. Corporate Website (free)

Most corporations publish their annual reports and other documents on their sites.  You can usually find these documents in the "About" or "Investor Relations" sections.  The document are usually PDF or HTML files.

Task - Example - Click on UPS (opens in new tab) to review the annual report (leave tab open) on its site.

NOTE: Corporations use the annual report as a marketing tool as well, so the narrative is not completely objective.  Also, it is worth looking at the corporate site's news/press releases.

*Leave tab open, return to tutorial tab

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Corporate Reports

2. SEC EDGAR (free)

The federal government agency places the corporate documents on the open web for all to view.

TASK - a) Click on SEC EDGAR (opens in new tab) and search UPS, b) find the 10-K (Interactive) and compare to the one from the UPS site.

Note: The financials are the same between the two sites, but UPS's version includes a well-designed document with a narrative and EDGAR defines each line of the financials.

*Leave tab open, return to tutorial tab

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Corporate Reports

Mergent Archives collects current and historical annual and industry reports, industry ratios, equity reports, etc. All documents are in PDF. Use SEC EDGAR or Morningstar (see below) to get a spreadsheet of financials.

TASK: Click on Mergent Archives and use left search box.  Enter the company name Intel. NOTE: select from auto-populated list, DON'T use your "Enter" key.

The annual report and other company details are in PDF format. This is an ideal tool for "historical" information on public companies. It also includes Bond and commodity resources

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Corporate Reports

You have at least three options to get corporate reports, which source you use depends on the type of information (e.g. annual report, corporate documents, financials) and in the format you need.

*Close the UPS and SEC EDGAR tabs.

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Company Financials & Ratios

INTRODUCTION

In the previous section we discussed some of the financials and ratios in Mergent Archives, this section cover one other sources for company financials and ratios and other useful company data.

This section will provide an overview of these two investment resources...

• Morningstar

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Company Financials & Ratios

Morningstar (library database)

This database provides financials, ratios, and analysis to help investors make decisions.

TASK:

• Click on Library homepage (opens in new tab)
• Select the "Databases" button
  
• Select "M" from A to Z list
• Select Morningstar from the list
• Search for Honeywell International

In the Honeywell record there is a wealth of information

• Review the other tabs, especially Analysis, at the top of the page.
• Select the Key Ratios button, near the top of the page (next to Quote),
• Now select the Full Key Ratio data link

You will also notice there is some overlap with the information in Mergent, but they are distinct.

*Leave tab open, return to tutorial tab

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Third-Party Reports

It is always good to get reports/analysis from experts outside of the company because they will provide a different view (Morningstar provided analysis). There are many research firms that analyze companies. This section will cover

• MarketLine reports and articles in Business Source Complete
• Reports and articles in Business Insights: Essentials

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Third-Party Reports

MarketLine Reports

 TASK:

• Click on Library homepage
• Select the "Databases" button
• Select "B" from A to Z list
• Select Business Source Complete from list to enter database
• Mouse over "More" top gray bar
• Select Company Profiles
• Search Caterpillar Inc OR another company
• Select the name to view record
• Select the PDF to review/download report
• Notice the SWOT and other info in the report
• Go back to record page, look at the left bar to find articles on the company, especially Trade publications, and other information.

Task

• Now select New Search (gray bar, top left)
• Search - Caterpillar and trends
  NOTE: some company names are common words so you may need to add another keyword (e.g. industry or product name) to get better results.
• Review results and use left bar to limit

*Leave tab open, return to tutorial tab

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Third-Party Reports

Business Insights: Essentials

Task

• Click on Library homepage
• Select the "Databases" button
• Select "B" from the A to Z list
• Select Business Insights: Essentials
• Search Caterpillar
• Select Caterpillar Inc
• Review the information on the page and left bar
• Compare with MarketLine information

These reports, articles, and more from both databases provide you a more complete picture of the company.

*Close the MarketLine/Business Source Complete tab

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Review

This tutorial provided you an overview of various resources to discover information (financials, analysis, reports, article, etc.) about public companies. 

These and other resources can be found on the

Company & Industry Research guide
*bookmark it on your personal computer.

Quiz

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