This list summarizes most of the key resources listed on the pages of this guide. It serves as a checklist of sorts for the various types of sources you will likely need for your project.
This should be your first stop when researching a company - it's a good source for:
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.
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).
Public companies around the world (and, in many countries, private companies, too) are legally required to file documents containing financial and other information with the government. These filings, as they're typically called, are then made publicly available.
For companies operating outside of the U.S. and Canada, you'll need to search the web for company filings [country].
Third-party and employee reviews of a company can reveal much about a company's culture and leadership. The following sites provide reviews of companies that can help determine if a company is meeting its aspirational views of itself.
Industry profiles offer an important context for your company's situation. Are the critical issues your company is facing unique to the company, or prevalent within the industry? Are there critical issues faced by your company's competitors that are not an issue for your company? Are there industry trends that are not reflected in your company's strategic directions or reports to investors? Industry profiles will give you a chance to gauge your company's situation against the larger industry.
The following databases are good places to search for news, articles, reports, reviews and other sources related to a product, brand, company or industry.
Newspapers can be a good source of information about a company or industry. Most newspapers have a business section that focuses on local business as well as business news in general. A good source of information for:
There are a vast number of web sites offering financial news. These are some of the most well-known.
Not all product review sites are created equal, and it's good to treat product reviews with a healthy skepticism. There are essentially two types of review sites:
Both types of review sites are valuable. The best strategy is to read multiple reviews from both types of review sites and look for patterns of agreement or disagreement. Here are a few that we can recommend: