How to research a company

The ease and quantity of information you are able to find on a company depends a lot on whether it is a public or private company, large or small, local, national or international, as well as a number of other factors. It also depends on what kind of information you are trying to find.

The first thing you need to determine is if the company is publicly held. Of the millions of companies in the United States, only a small handful are public companies.

• Publicly held companies are those that you and I can purchase shares of stock (shares of ownership) in. Stock can be purchased through a broker on any day that the stock market is open.
• Privately held companies are those that are owned by a limited number of people (founder, key employees, and/or investors). You and I cannot purchase a share of the company.

There are several resources you can use to determine if a company is publicly held.

• Use Business Insights [1] (Library card required from home) and search on the company name. The company entry will indicate if the company has public or private ownership.
• Use Google to pull up the company's web page. Look for a link to "Investor" or "Investor Relations." This is sometimes under the "About Us" tab.
• Ask one of the librarians [2] in the Business & Career Center for assistance.

Publicly Traded Companies

It is relatively easy to find information on publicly held companies as they are required to file reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These reports in turn are made available to the public.

• These reports can be accessed by SEC's EDGAR database [3].
• Standard & Poor's NetAdvantage [4] provides financial summaries of company SEC reports and provides their own analysis of the company. (Library card is required to access from outside the Library.)

Publicly held companies for the most part are the largest and most influential companies. Consequently, their actions and products are well covered by newspaper and magazine reporters. The library subscribes to several databases that can help you find articles about the company you are researching.

• Business Source Premier [5] will provide you with the full text of articles taken from a wide range of business magazines and trade journals. Company reports and market research reports are also provided in this database.
• Business Insights [1] is another database that provides full text of press releases and trade journal articles. A company history is also provided for some companies.
• ABI/INFORM [6] is an excellent database to find articles from a very wide range of magazines, popular, trade and academic.

(Library card is required to access all of these resources from outside the Library.)

Private Companies

It is much more difficult to find information about private companies as they are not required to make information about themselves public. The size of the company often determines how much information is going to be found.

• Start with the Reference USA [7] database. This database is a directory of more than 12 million businesses. You will find here, not just their contact information, but also:
• owners/manager's name
• estimated sales
• number of employees
• link to their website
• square footage of location
• years in business
• Although Business Insights [1] does not have nearly as many companies listed as Reference USA, it gives concise summaries and overviews of large companies around the world.
• If the company is large enough you will be able to find articles about them. Start with Business Source Premier [5]. One of the things that makes this database good to use is that it gives you access to the articles in trade magazines. Trade magazines are:
• written specifically for the people working in a particular industry or trade
• tend to have news of companies not covered elsewhere
• tend to cover smaller companies
• tend to be more current

(Library card is required to access all of these resources from outside the Library.)

Local Companies

If the business you want information on is a smaller local company, there are specific resources that could be of help to you. Take a look at the guide on Local Business and Economic Information [8] in the Business and Career Center.

Company Websites

Don't forget to look at a company's own website. A Google search will help you find a business's website. Often you can learn a great deal about a company (products, services, locations, contact names, history) from their website. Remember though, this is not unbiased information.

For additional information, contact an H&R Block Business & Career Center librarian by phone, 816.701.3717, or by e-mail, bcc@kclibrary.org [9].