Interview Preparation: Researching Companies, Industries, and Stocks
These resources were selected for their authority, ease of use, and accessibility. If you need more assistance, see http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/business/refservices.html or email the research librarians: business@libraries.cul.columbia.edu
Additional resources can be found in CLIO, the library catalog.
We also recommend keeping in contact with the Office of MBA Career Services as they offer a number of other resources to assist you.
Contents:
Searching for Company and Industry Information in Journals or Magazines
ABI/Inform on ProQuest Direct
ABI indexes articles from over 1,700 business publications (academic, professional, and popular journals are all included) Approximately 700 of these titles are full text. ABI also provides Hoover's Company Capsules for companies. When a company's name appears in the text of an article, the name will contain a hyperlink that will direct you to the Company Capsule for the company. ABI Inform is updated daily.
Business Source Complete
Covers all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, finance, international business, econometrics and economics. Contains full text of the Harvard Business Review, California Management Review and other important journals. BSP also includes country reports from EIU and Global Insight as well as company reports from Datamonitor.
Factiva
Factiva is a good resource for finding company and industry information. Factiva contains 6,000 publications, including academic and trade publications, industry newsletters, international and regional newspapers, business magazines, and business newswires. In Factiva, use the default search screen to search for information about your company or an industry. Both databases are updated daily.
LexisNexis Academic
Lexis-Nexis offers access to thousands of information sources including the full text of newspapers
(foreign and domestic), magazines, wire services, newsletters, broadcast transcripts, and financial filings. Lexis Nexis updated daily.
TheDeal.com
Company Information
Financial and Operating Information
Bloomberg
Business Electronic Resources (Library Use Only)
Bloomberg offers comprehensive information on companies and their securities. Using Bloomberg you can retrieve overviews of companies, their financial information, ownership data, debt ratings, etc. To obtain company information, type:
Ticker Symbol <Equity> <Go> (i.e. IBM <equity> <go>)
This brings you to a menu of options leading to detailed company descriptions, earnings estimates, analyst coverage & recommendations, etc.
OSIRIS
OSIRIS is a comprehensive database of listed corporates, banks and insurance companies around the world. In addition to the income statement, balance sheet, cash flow and ratios it contains news, ownership, ratings, earnings estimates and stock data. Covers over 120 countries, includes 25,000 publicly listed corporates (10,000 US and 15,000 non US) 1,500 banks, and 350 insurance companies.
Thomson ONE Banker w/ StreetEvents
Thomson ONE Banker provides access to financial data on public companies, as well as merger and acquisition information and market data. Users can search and screen across databases to identify companies that meet your specific investment criteria as well as conduct peer analysis.
Stock and Analyst Reports
Reuters Research On Demand [formerly Multex]
Reuters Research on Demand contains full-text investment research reports supplied by leading investment banks, brokerage firms, and third party providers.
Standard and Poor's Stock Reports (available through Standard and Poor's Net Advantage)
Thousands of stocks are profiled and the search interface allows you to screen stocks by P/E Ratio, Earnings Per Share etc. This is a good tool when researching off-campus. For more detailed stock screening, use Bloomberg or Datastream.
Value Line Investment Survey
Current issues in reference stacks: HG4501 .V262
ValueLine contains stock reports for thousands of publicly traded companies. Each report contains financial data, ratios, analyst commentary, quarterly sales, EPS, dividends, capital structure, beta, price projections, insider & institutional decisions, and a long term price chart.
Annual Reports and SEC Filings
See also the research guide: U.S. Corporate Filings and Annual Reports
There are many resources available to help you find company reports and filings. The following table indicates the reports and filings contained in each database. Directly below the table are descriptions of each of these resources and information about how to access them.
| |
Annual Reports |
10K |
10Q |
Proxy Statement
(DEF-14A) |
| Bloomberg |
*Sometimes |
Yes (1993-Present) |
Yes (1993-Present) |
Yes (1993-Present) |
| Company Home Pages |
Usually Yes |
Varies |
Varies |
Varies |
| LexisNexis |
Yes (1987-Present) |
Yes (1987-Present) |
Yes (1987-Present) |
Yes (1987-Present) |
| Thomson ONE Banker w/ StreetEvents |
Yes (1990 - Present) |
Yes (1990 - Present) |
Yes (1990 - Present) |
Yes (1990 - Present) |
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Company Histories
International Directory of Company Histories [Available via Business and Company Resource Center]
Print available in reference stacks: HD2721 .I581988
The International Directory of Company Histories delivers exactly what the title promises, company histories. Each history is generally two or more pages in length, all include a brief bibliography. To be included, companies must have at least $500 million (US) in annual sales or be a leader in their industry. A comprehensive index for the series is found in the latest volume.
Notable Corporate Chronologies [Available via Business and Company Resource Center]
Presents concise chronologies for approximately 1800 of the most significant corporations currently operating in the U.S. and abroad. Coverage focuses on both major, established companies and on notable newcomers who have had a major impact on the American or world economies, standard of living and lifestyles.
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Industry Overviews and Market Research
Business and Company Resource Center
Business & Company Resource Center brings together a variety of global business information. Resources in the database include: Company profiles (including corporate parent/sibling relationships), Industry ranking, Products and brands, Stock prices, Investment reports, Industry statistics, Corporate chronologies and histories, Consumer marketing data, Emerging technology reports, Industry newsletter news and analysis, and Business journal news and analysis.
Faulkner's Advisory for IT Studies
Virtual library of reports covering IT infrastructure, telecom, data networking, wireless communications, security, enterprise systems, the Internet and World Wide Web, as well as technology vendors. FAITS also links to technology and business news resources such as Nando Net, The New York Times, Financial Times, NewsBytes, and the BBC.
Forrester Research
Forrester's research publications analyze a range of technology areas such as new media, computing, software, networking, telecommunications and the Internet, and project how technology trends will affect businesses, consumers, and society. Forrester reports include industry statistics, as well as graphs and charts.
Global Market Information Database
GMID contains over a million demographic, economic and marketing statistics for 205 countries worldwide. The database also contains 6-year historic market size data for more than 330 consumer products in 52 countries, plus 5-year forecasts. Coverage: 1977 to present, forecasts to 2016.
Reuters Research On Demand [formerly Multex]
Reuters Research on Demand contains full-text investment research reports supplied by leading investment banks, brokerage firms, and third party providers.
Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys [via S&P Net Advantage]
Each survey is divided into two parts. 1) the basic analysis which contains an examination of prospects for that industry followed by composite industry data & a comparative company analysis 2) the current analysis which contains the latest developments and some industry and company statistics.
Value Line Investment Survey and the Value Line Investment Survey Expanded Edition
Current issues in reference stacks: HG4501 .V262
1-2 page summaries including information on the timeliness of the industry; relative strength, statistics, and an overview of the industry by an analyst.
Sources Containing League Tables
Thomson ONE Banker w/ StreetEvents
League Tables for the Last Year for M&A, Equity, Debt issues or Loans
- Click on the Deals tab on the menu bar at top of the screen and then click on League Tables in the appropriate tab [Choose from M&A, Equity, Bonds or Loans].
League Tables for deals for a specific financial or legal advisor for a specific time frame
- Click on the Deals tab on the menu bar at the left and then click on Advanced Search from the menu on the left.
- Choose the appropriate category [Equity, Debt or M&A]. Hit the Continue button.
- From the Advisors/Fee menu choose Target or Acquiror Financial Advisors and search for the advisor. Then click Apply to Search.
- Under the Deal Info menu choose Date Announced or Date Effective if you wish to limit your search to a specific time frame.
- When done click Execute Search.
- To output your results click on Rankings at bottom of screen and choose from the League Table folder. Add to search and click Execute Search.
Bloomberg
Business Electronic Resources (Library Use Only)
For Equity or Debt League Tables:
- Enter LEAG and hit the GO key
For M&A League Tables:
- Enter MA and hit the GO key . Click on #7 M&A League Table Search
Biographical Information on Industry Persons
Biography Resource Center with Marquis Who's Who
Full-text biographical information on over one million people throughout world history and from all over the world. Information taken from many standard biographical directories, articles from 250 magazines, and more than 900,000 "thumbnail biographies" from the Marquis Who's Who publications.
Bloomberg
Business Electronic Resources (Library Use Only)
To find biographical information in Bloomberg, simply type an individual's name and hit the <HELP> key. This will retrieve corresponding records in the people section of Bloomberg.
Factiva
Factiva can be a good source of biographical information. Search for information using the individual's name in the news section of the database. If the name is common, add other keywords to refine your search (e.g. Intel, if they work for Intel).
LexisNexis Academic (click on People)
Lexis-Nexis offers access to thousands of information sources including the full text of newspapers
(foreign and domestic), magazines, wire services, newsletters, broadcast transcripts, and financial filings. Lexis Nexis updated daily.
How do I Screen Stocks?
Bloomberg
Business Electronic Resources (Library Use Only)
You can use Bloomberg to perform advanced screens of stocks and companies. To get to the screening interface enter ESRC <GO>. Follow the prompts to build a search.
D&B Million Dollar Database
Provides information on approximately 1,600,000 U.S. leading public and private businesses, including company and industry information such as SICs, size criteria (employees and annual sales), type of ownership, principal executives and biographies, annual US sales dollar equivalent. Allows screening on many variables inlcuding location, employee size and industry.
OSIRIS
OSIRIS is a comprehensive database of listed corporates, banks and insurance companies around the world. In addition to the income statement, balance sheet, cash flow and ratios it contains news, ownership, ratings, earnings estimates and stock data. Covers over 120 countries, includes 25,000 publicly listed corporates (10,000 US and 15,000 non US) 1,500 banks, and 350 insurance companies.
Standard and Poor's Stock Reports (available through Standard and Poor's Net Advantage)
Thousands of stocks are profiled and the search interface allows you to screen stocks by P/E Ratio, Earnings Per Share etc. This is a good tool when researching off-campus. For more detailed stock screening, use Bloomberg or Datastream.
Thomson ONE Banker w/ StreetEvents
Thomson ONE Banker provides access to financial data on public companies, as well as merger and acquisition information and market data. Users can search and screen across databases to identify companies that meet your specific investment criteria as well as conduct peer analysis.
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 All electronic services are restricted to current students, staff, and faculty at Columbia University, Teachers College, and Barnard College with a valid CUNIX ID and logon.
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