In this section of your analysis, you want to provide the key facts an investor wants to know: brief history, products &/or services produced, and any other key statistics that you determine to be relevant to the overview.
You must reference the company's web site in your analysis. It's a good source for vision, mission, & strategic statements, organization & structure, current financial information, company promotion & marketing tools, product information, and more. Corporate information may be buried on the main web site - look for an "About Us" or "Company" or "Investors" link on the home page.
But remember: the main purpose of a company's web and annual report site is to promote itself, so "trust but verify" - all of the information on the company's achievements and performance can (and should be) be verified in external sources.
The most recent report (and sometimes previous reports) is usually available on the company's web site. The annual report is a great source for vision, mission, & strategic statements, organization & structure, current financial information, recent achievements, strategic plans, and more. The annual report is a legal requirement for public companies, but it's also a vehicle for retaining and attracting investors - always "trust but verify" using external sources.
Annual reports are also available from these sources:
A company profile is the first document you should seek after you locate the company's web site and annual reports. Company profiles can be useful in every section of your analysis and offer basic factual information (e.g., stock ticker symbol, fiscal year end, company history, key people) and third-party perspective on the company's strengths, weaknesses, and competitiveness. Different sources provide different types of company profiles, so look for one in each of the sources below (but be aware that not all companies will be included in each of these sources).
Company profiles from Business Source Complete offer a great deal of information about your company, beyond the basic facts. A full report will include the following sections (but keep in mind that not every report will be comprehensive):
| MarketLine Report | Medtrack Report |
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Tip: Check the date on the report - most reports are no more than a year old, but you'll want to update information in any report older than 3 months.
To find a profile:
APA Citation Format
References
MarketLine. (2012, May 18).BMO Financial Group. http://www.marketline.com/
Medtrack. (n.d.). Pfizer Canada Inc. http://www.medtrack.com/
In-Text Citation
(MarketLine, 2012)
Note: Provide the URL of the publisher's home page (in this case Marketline). Do not provide the direct URL to the report, or the name of the database (Business Source Complete).
Company profiles from Gale Business Insights can offer a great deal of information about your company beyond the basic facts.
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The categories of information vary according to the company, but typically, you'll find the following types of information:
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You'll also find links to related articles in newspapers, magazines, trade journals and academic journals on topics such as:
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Tip: Check the dates provided for the information; although most reflect the current year, some are older. In all cases, you'll want to make sure you haven't missed any important recent information about your company.
To find a profile:
If the company name does not show up in the dropdown list, click search and if a profile exists for the company it will appear in the search results. Pay attention to the type of company, ticker symbol, and location to ensure you are looking at the correct company profile.
APA Citation Format
References
Royal Bank of Canada. (n.d.). Gale Business Insights. https://link.gale.com/apps/profile/Company/JJDFFW834899002/GBIB?u=abbo55004&sid=bookmark-GBIB
Note: The link is found in the right top corner under 'Get Link'.
In-Text Citation
(Royal Bank of Canada, n.d.)
Reuters Investment Profile
While not available for every company, the Reuters Investment Profile offers a comprehensive profile of the company's financial performance and analysts' outlook for the company, from a well-respected source for rinancial and investment information. One of the benefits of this profile is that it provides explanations of the different measures. For example: "This section also includes the amount of Cash Per Share the company had at the time of its most recent quarterly or annual report. Most of the time, this number will be far below the stock price. In a healthy industrial company, a Cash Per Share figure that is close the stock price might suggest that investors are underestimating the worth of the company's ongoing business, thereby creating an interesting investment opportunity for you."
Look for a link to the profile in the Financial Performance section, below the Ratios. You'll also find a link to other reports related to financial peformance.
Passport GMID has two types of company profiles: a local company report and a global company profile (for large, multinational companies). A full report will include the following sections (but keep in mind that not every report will be comprehensive):
| Local Company Profile | Global Company Profile |
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Tip: Check the date on the profile - most reports are no more than a year old, but you'll want to update information in any report older than 3 months.
To find a profile:
APA Citation Format
References
Euromonitor International. (2023, September). Estée Lauder Cos Inc in Beauty and Personal Care (World) [Global Company Profile]. Passport. http://www.euromonitor.com
In-Text Citation
(Euromonitor International, 2023)
Note: Provide the URL of the publisher's home page (in this case Euromonitor). Do not provide the direct URL to the report.
Yahoo! Finance provides current information about a company's performance, as well as news, key developments, and key people; you'll find the following categories of information about your company:
To find a company profile:
To view footnotes for company statistics:
APA Citation Format
References
Telus Corporation (T.TO). (2023, September 20). Yahoo! Finance. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/T.TO/insider-roster?p=T.TO
Walker, A. (2023, September 20). Better buy for TFSA passive income: Telus stock or TD Bank? The Motley Fool. https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/better-buy-tfsa-passive-income-191500085.html
In-Text Citation
(Telus Corporation, 2023)
(Walker, 2023)
Note: When referencing the company's main web page on Yahoo! Finance, use the current date, since the information is reported as of that date.
Morningstar is an investment research company that offers both free and paid content on more than 6,000 investment funds available in Canada. The following information is available for companies listed on the site:
To find a profile:
Enter the stock symbol in the "Fund/Stock" search box at the top of the screen, then select a profile from the list (note that there may be more than one entry for your company, if it's traded on more than one exchange):
Stock Analysis offers much of the same type of company information as other company profiles, but it also offers some unique features, including forecast data from individual analysts and employee data.
To find analysts' recommendations:
To find data on employees:
APA Citation Format
References
TELUS Corporation (TU). (2023, September 20). Stock Analysis. https://stockanalysis.com/stocks/tu/
TELUS announces three-tranche note offering. (2023 September 5). Stock Titan. https://www.stocktitan.net/news/TU/telus-announces-three-tranche-note-wygis6oass6u.html
In-Text Citation
(TELUS Corporation, 2023)
(TELUS announces, 2023)
Note: When referencing the company's main web page on Stock Analysis, use the current date, since the information is reported as of that date.