Management Library

Most company databases will provide financials, history, ownership, transactions, recent news, and similar information for companies. Company profiles, SWOTs, and analyst reports are available via several sources. These reports can be helpful when interviewing and for valuation assignments.

A few top starting points for company profiles and SWOTS include:

• Business Source Complete - Select SWOT Analyses from the source type
• ABI/INFORM  - Do an Advanced Search by company name, date range, and keyword (e.g. SWOT).

A few top starting points for analyst reports include:

• Factiva - Navigate to Companies/Markets > Companies. Search for your firm and view the latest 3 analyst reports in the Analysis and Profiles section.
• Barclays Capital is available on a dedicated terminal at the Management Library.
• Nexis Uni - Use the Guided Search for Company. Enter your company name in the search box and select Analyst Reports from the drop-down menu.
• Workspace has equity analyst reports and company profiles. There are a limited number of accounts to access these reports. Contact us if you have any questions.

For historical company profiles, The International Directory of Company Histories provides lengthy histories on U.S. and international companies as well.

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What is an Annual Report?

Annual reports are published by publicly-traded companies to educate current and potential stockholders about company activities and performance. They contain discussions of the previous year's activities, plans for the coming year(s), and financial data. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that companies distribute annual reports to their shareholders. Annual Reports are also available freely to the public for most U.S. companies that offer stock.  

The Differences between an Annual Report, a 10-K, and a Proxy

Companies file a variety of documents relating to their financial and operating activities. This section provides a brief introduction to the most sought after filings.    

The Differences between an Annual Report, a 10 - K, and a Proxy

Filing Name	Purpose and Content
10-K	The official annual financial document that companies file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The 10-K contains detailed financial statements and financial footnotes. While it does not contain charts, photos, or graphics, it does contain more information than the typical annual report. It is particularly useful for accounting research or for very specific information.
Annual Report	The official document companies distribute annually to shareholders. Annual reports include financial statements and highlights and a management discussion of the previous year. Companies often also add in some graphs and photos to give the document a more polished appearance. The annual report is briefer and easier to read and understand than the 10-K. It is a nice document for researchers to start with, particularly those just trying to get an overview of the company. It includes charts and other images which sometimes contain critical information.
Proxy	A filing that contains items on which shareholders vote at corporate annual meetings. Executive compensation, for example, is usually contained within proxy statements.

 

More Details on SEC Filing

Note: Edgar's descriptions of SEC forms explains the contents and requirements of each SEC filing and discusses the various situations in which a company needs to file.

 

Annual Reports and Filings Available via the Library

 

Annual Reports and Filings Available via the Library

Date	Location	Type of Filings Information
Current reports and filings	Company website	Sometimes finding the most recent annual reports and filings is a easy as searching the Web for a company's investor relations webpage.
1884-present	ProQuest Historical Annual Reports and Mergent Archives	Thousands of annual reports from more than 800 leading North American companies available online in PDF format.
Current reports and filings	Capital IQ and Workspace	Annual Reports, 10-Ks, and proxy statements as well other EDGAR filings, extracted financials in spreadsheet format, and more.
1996-Present	EDGAR	U.S. regulatory agency system for retrieving most filings of publicly traded companies.
Current reports	PRARS	The Public Register provides free annual reports of public companies trading on the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, and OTC exchanges.
1971-1995	Ask for assistance	10-Ks, Annual Reports, and proxies from OTC, NYSE, & AMEX companies in microfiche format.
Pre-1971	Ask for assistance	Covering 1953 - 1970, the library has a collection of annual reports on microcard available at the Annex and for delivery to libraries on-campus. A listing is available for download on eCommons.
Varies	Annual Reports at Academic Business Libraries	Purdue's Annual Reports at Academic Business Libraries database indexes the annual report collections of the following universities: Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, Purdue, Stanford, University of Alabama, UC Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania, University of Western Ontario, Yale, and NYPL.
2001-Present	EDINET	Electronic Disclosure for Investors NETwork contains filings and financials for Japanese companies (website is in Japanese.)
varies	Guidestar	Annual filings of non-profits to the IRS.
1997-Present	SEDAR	Annual and interim financial statements, compliance reports, and proxies for Canadian companies.

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More than 5,000 company rankings can be found in Business Rankings Annual available via Business Insights Essentials.

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Try article databases such as Business Source Complete, Factiva, LexisNexis, and ABI/Inform. Each contains thousands of full-text newspapers and business periodicals. Also take a look at the company's press releases webpage.

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articlescompany

Find financials of publicly traded companies in databases like Bloomberg, Capital IQ, and Workspace. These will provide downloadable financials as reported or in a standardized template. These resources also contain ratios and metrics such as beta, EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), ROE (return on equity), and WACC (weighted average cost of capital) or at least the data needed to calculate them. In a case like Bloomberg, type in the data you want in the command line and select from the suggested functions. In Capital IQ and Workspace, sometimes the ratios and metrics are available in the Financials/Valuations section or on the company overview, and sometimes they are available via the Excel API. If the company is private, little or no specific financial information beyond sales figures may be available about the company. Try to find articles via Factiva or NexisUni. Both contain thousands of full-text newspapers and business periodicals; you may be able to locate articles which quote company officials discussing the firm's finances.

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