researching company financial information prof. jason r. sowards august 30, 2010
TRANSCRIPT
Researching Company Financial Information
Prof. Jason R. Sowards
August 30, 2010
AGENDA
Finding a CompanyBusiness Resources on the WebCompany Web siteEDGARBusiness Databases (from ZSR)Industry ResearchNews Research
To illustrate resources, we will use Target Corporation (TGT) as our example
Finding a Company
Locating a company that is publicly traded on a stock exchange is most easily found by visiting the stock exchange web site
Each major American stock exchange has a list of companies that are traded on it. Examples:NASDAQ
• http://www.nasdaq.com/asp/symbols.asp?exchange=Q
NYSE• http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lc_ny_name.html• Also allows you to search by industry if you don’t have a particular
company in mind
Business Info on the Web
There are many places on the Web to find reliable business informationGoogle FinanceYahoo! FinanceReuters
Many of these provide financial information as well as “real time” stock quotes (usually delayed by no longer than a few minutes)
Business Info on the Web
Will direct you to the ticker symbol for the company
Almost all of these resources will provide news relating to your company as well as RSS feeds
Business Background Information
You may encounter terms and concepts you don’t know.
Handout provides reference to an online glossary and Zimmerman’s Research GuideSample entry from
Zimmerman’s for Proxy Statements
Company Upcoming Events
To stay abreast of upcoming releases, Google Finance lists events for some companies.
Earnings Conference Calls—when available, there is a link to listen to the CFO (or equivalent) talk about the current state of the company
Company Web Sites
An obvious place to begin, but companies actually put a lot of important information on their web sites:Financial and legal infoContact InformationWhether parent or
subsidiary
10k vs. Glossy PR tool
SEC’s EDGAR
EDGAR = Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval
Electronic filing of public company informationBecame mandatory to file with EDGAR in 1996The SEC licenses data available on EDGAR to
commercial vendors (such as Westlaw, LexisNexis, and Edgar Online, Morningstar (formerly10k Wizard))These products provide more sophisticated searching
capabilities and manipulation/analysis of data—much more than is available with free EDGAR from the SEC web site
Finding Information on EDGAR
Forms for US-based companies:10-K – the annual report
• Reported annually on the fiscal year of the company• Financials are audited
10-Q – the quarterly update to the 10-K• Updates the 10-K• Financials are not audited
8-K – the “stuff happens” form• Filed any time there is a “material” event that may have an impact on whether an individual might invest in the company
Researching Publicly-Traded, Foreign-Based Companies
Not all companies that are publicly-traded on US stock exchanges call the United States homeExample: Honda Motor Company (HMC)
For those companies, check out:Form 20F – foreign equivalent of the 10KForm 6K – foreign equivalent of the 8K and 10Q
Foreign-based companies may provide access to the SEC filings, or at the very least, documents that are the basis for the SEC filings, even if they aren’t identified by the SEC form identifier.
EDGAR: TGT
Which company am I looking for?Central Index Key (CIK)
• Helps identify companies with the same or similar name• Helps with companies whose name has changed
On EDGAR, it’s very beneficial to start with the ticker symbol—use that information to first locate your company
Then utilize a form search to locate 10-Ks, 10-Qs, and 8-Ks (or equivalent forms for foreign companies)
Finding Information on EDGAR: Points to Remember
Be careful searching on EDGAR—hyphens in forms matter (10-K good; 10k bad)
Also, should you ever see “/A,” that means that it’s an amended version of that form (e.g., 10-K/A)
If you come across forms you do not recognize and wonder if you need to read them, refer to the list of SEC forms provided in your handout to determine what is included in those forms
Industry Information
To fully understand the context in which your company operates, you must also do a little bit of industry research
This can be accomplished by reading industry-specific publications as well as reports written by industry experts
You gain information on major players in the field, issues impacting the industry, and even potential litigation impacting the industry as a whole
Industry Information
Gain an overview of your industry by reading an industry report on the web:IBIS World (screenshot follows – works
only while on campus)• http://www.ibisworld.com/launch.aspx
Others available on the industry research guide from WFU MBA (under industry background tab)
Business Databases at ZSR
ZSR makes available several company and industry databases
Some “big” business sources are included:Hoover’sCorporate AffiliationsMorningstar (library edition)(formerly 10k Wizard)
Thomson One Banker (works only with IE)
News
The undergraduate library subscribes to many business newspapers and journalsUtilize the “Find a Journal” feature of their web siteBrowse by area is also available (Business & Economics)
Email alerts from Westlaw and LexisNexisBoth services provide access to business press
publicationsWall Street Journal available only on LexisNexisSegment/field searching and date restrictions
Also note news sources that have RSS feeds
Westlaw & LexisNexis
Both services contain business information newsIn Westlaw, there are tabs you can add for business,
company, and industry newsNot all features of these tabs are part of our subscription!
In Lexis, you have more options for business as part of our subscription, including EDGAR Online
Also, pay attention to the “i“ next to databases—they let you know coverage and helpful search tips
Also, once you have created a successful search to retrieve information, you can have an email alert set up to run that same search for you with results emailed to you
More Links
2 additional links you may find interestingALA’s Best of the Best Web sites for American
Corporations (includes financial data and directories)• http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/sections/brass/
brassprotools/bestofthebestbus/bestbusinesswebsitesamerican.cfm
ALA’s Best of the Best sites for Financial Markets and Investments• http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rusa/sections/brass/
brassprotools/bestofthebestbus/bestbusinesswebsitesfinancial.cfm
These are resources collected by business librarians across the country for their quality and credible information
