Locating Information on U.S. Companies

Parent/Subsidiary | Directories and Basic Info | Financials/SEC Filings/Annual Reports/Background | Stock Price | News/Articles | Private Companies | Chicago Companies | Company Histories | Market Share/Rankings| Other Business Research Guides

Parent vs. Subsidiary Companies

If a private or public company is a subsidiary or division of another company, it will not always be listed separately. When researching a subsidiary, look both under the parent company and the subsidiary. To determine whether a company is a subsidiary, check one of the following directories:

Directories and Basic Information

Directory information on over 12 million U.S. businesses. Searchable by multiple criteria.

The Kellogg School of Management subscribes to the Pro version for the NU community. Free version at www.hoovers.com (outside of NU domains) provides access brief profiles rather than full profiles of US public and private companies.

Search under "Business" then "Company Financial" and select report type under "Source"

Dun and Bradstreet directory containing nearly 160,000 US public and private companies with a worth of over $500,000. Includes cross-referencing by location and SIC code.

Provide current and historic financials directly from SEC filings, debt, and ratings on public companies.
Check Moody's complete corporate index L 332.05 M8167 to determine in which manual to find a company.

  • Transportation Manual L332.05 M8161
  • Industrial Manual L332.05 M8162
  • Public Utility Manual L332.05 M8163
  • Municipal and Government Manual L332.05 M8164
  • Bank and Finance Manual L332.05 M8165
  • OTC Industrial Manual L332.05 M8166
  • International Manual L332.05 M816

Includes alphabetical entries of approximately 90,000 companies, geographic listing, companies ranked by sales within SIC, companies state-by-state ranked by sales within SIC, and companies ranked by sales within NAICS.

Financials, SEC Filings and Background Information

NU Library has a large collection of company annual reports for public companies. In order to locate annual reports in the library, search in NUCat, the library's online catalog under the company name as the author of the report.

The Library also has a collection of historical SEC filings on microfiche for companies traded on the New York and American stock exchanges dating from the 1970s up through 1995. The fiche collection is located in the Periodicals Department. Please ask at the Reference desk for information on finding the type of filing you need. For more information on annual reports and SEC filings go to Locating Annual Reports on Public Companies.

Financial Databases (including holdings of SEC Filings)

Thomson Research NU Community
Includes SEC filings filed from 1997 to the present or earlier in some cases depending on company as well as other financial reports for US and international companies traded on US stock exchanges. Much data is exportable in Excel. Global Access also includes the SEC Database for US publicly-traded companies and Worldscope for international publicly-traded companies. Both allow searching of Disclosure Reports by financial criteria, business description, location, size and other criteria in order to create targeted lists of companies. Note: a plug-in is needed from the web to launch the SEC and Worldscope databases.

Mergent Online NU Community
Financial and background information on 30,000 US and foreign public companies, including annual reports back to 1997. Company information comprises that of all of the Mergent/Moody's Manuals except for the Municipal & Government Manual. Covers current information only. However, spreadsheet financials date back 15 years, annual reports date back to 1996 or 1997, and SEC filings date back to 1993.

Mergent Webreports NU Community
Electronic archive of corporate and industry documents, with an emphasis on company financial data.

Disclosure Select (Stand-alone CD-ROM, ask at Ref Desk) NU Community
Includes 10-K filings, selected annual reports as well as proxy statements filed with the SEC from 1995 to 1999. Older information can be found in the microfiche collection, which includes 10-K fiche for all NYSE and AMEX companies, selected proxies, registration statements and annual reports.

Investext Plus NU Community
Includes the full text of over 50,000 analyst reports prepared by Wall Street financial firms, and regional and international brokerage houses. Reports cover over 11,000 companies and 53 industries.

Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis) NU Community
Includes SEC filings in some cases back to 1987 and also includes Disclosure reports, S&P Corporate Descriptions, stock reports, and bankruptcy reports under "Business"and then "Company Profiles."

EDGAR
US Securities and Exchange Commission's database of SEC filings from 1994 to the present.

Hoover's Online NU Community
Contains company information and financials, SEC filings, IPO information, competitive analysis. Provides company lists filtered by R&D expenditures, income growth and other factors.

Financial Manuals and Stock Price Information

Daily Stock Price Record 332.605 S785 Reference Mgmt
Separate series for NYSE, NASDAQ, and American exchanges, most recent three years of all series in management corner, older in main stacks or on microfiche back to 1980.

Factiva NU Community
Click on the "Historical Market Data Center" to retrieve daily and weekly prices for up to one year, monthly prices for up to 3 years, and quarterly prices for up to ten years. Data is exportable to Excel.

Thomson Research NU Community
Search by company to retrieve stock prices and historic charts.

FinancialWeb

Moody's Handbook of Common Stocks L332.05 M8194 Reference Mgmt/ Schaffner

Moody's/Mergent's Manuals. Moody's Bank and Finance, Industrial, International, OTC, Public Utility, and Transportation Manuals L332.05 M81... (Call number varies by title.) Reference Mgmt

Stock Guide (Standard & Poor's Netadvantage) NU Community
Offers research data on over 10,000 common and preferred stocks, 750 mutual funds and 450 closed-end funds. Includes earnings and dividend rankings. Updated monthly online.

Stock Reports (Standard & Poor's Netadvantage) NU Community
Provides investment data, projections and analysis on 6,900 publicly-held companies. Updated quarterly online.

Value Line Investment Survey L332.05 V215, Expanded edition L332.05 V2152
Reference Mgmt
Includes one page summaries on over 1,700 public companies. Information includes financials and ratios and their forecasts, stock price data and performance, line of business, analyst information, quarterly sales, EPS, dividends, capital structure, safety and pricing chart.

Walker's Manual of Unlisted Stocks L338.74025 W184 Reference

News and Journal Articles

ABI/Inform (ProQuest version) NU Community
Indexes and abstracts of more than 1,300 business and management titles. The full text of the articles are included for nearly half of the citations in the database in a variety of formats, including text, text and graphics, and PDF. Under Search Methods, choose Guided and then choose a search by company under the drop-down menu.

Academic Universe (Lexis Nexis) NU Community
Full text general, business, financial and legal news information service for several thousand publications. Go under the Business segment and choose either Business News or Industry & Market. The Guided Search option then allows for search by company name.

Business & Industry Database NU Community
Indexes and abstracts and from nearly 1,000 major U.S. and international trade journals, general business publications, and national & regional newspapers and newsletters. The full text is included for 75% of the articles. Limit search by company name.

Business Source Premier NU Community
Full text and bibliographic information from regional, national and international business and trade journals. Industry and company profiles from Datamonitor, market research reports from MarketWatch and country reports from CountryWatch.

Factiva NU Community
Full text of U.S. and international research and news articles from newspapers, newswires, magazines, trade journals, and company and industry financial reports. The Business Newsstand includes current day's news and allows browsing and searching of the past 90 days' publications. The Publications Library contains over 6000 full-text sources. In the Publications Library, choose Search by Company to search for public companies. Private companies are best to be searched by keyword.


Private Companies

LexisNexis Academic NU Community
Search under "Business" then "Company Financial" and select Private Companies under "Source"

Reference USA (formerly American Business Disc) NU Community
Directory information on over 12 million U.S. businesses. Searchable by multiple criteria.

Lexis Nexis Corporate Affiliations 338.74 D598 Reference Mgmt / Schaffner

Hoover's Handbook of Private Companies 338.74025 H7894 Reference Mgmt / Schaffner

Hoover's Online NU Community access to Pro version
The Kellogg School of Management subscribes to the Pro version for the NU community. Free version at www.hoovers.com (outside of NU domains) provides access brief profiles rather than full profiles of US public and private companies.

Million Dollar Directory L338.405 D897mi Reference Mgmt
Dun and Bradstreet directory containing nearly 160,000 US public and private companies with a worth of over $500,000. Includes cross-referencing by location and SIC code.

Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Executives and Directors (Standard & Poor's Netadvantage) NU Community
Searchable directory of information on 105,000 companies (92,000 are privately-held).

Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies L338.4025 W2661
Reference Mgmt / Schaffner
Includes alphabetical entries of approximately 90,000 companies, geographic listing, companies ranked by sales within SIC, companies state-by-state ranked by sales within SIC, and companies ranked by sales within NAICS.

Chicago/Illinois Companies

Certified List of Domestic and Foreign Corporations (...authorized to do business in the State of Illinois) 338.7 I29 Government Publications

First Chicago Guide. 332.67 A111 Reference Desk

Harris Illinois Industrial Directory L338.09773 H314 Reference Mgmt/ Schaffner

Illinois Manufacturers Directory 381.005 I292 Reference Mgmt/ Schaffner

Illinois Services Directory 338.0025 I29 Reference Mgmt/ Schaffner

(Crain's)Top Business Lists (Chicago, IL) L338.74025 T673 Reference Mgmt/ Schaffner

Chicagobusiness.com
Chicago-area companies' lists and rankings (although not full lists) as well as some full text of Crain's Chicago Business.

Standard & Poor's Register of Corporations, Executives and Directors (Standard & Poor's Netadvantage) NU Community
Searchable directory of information on 105,000 companies (92,000 are privately-held). Limit search to Chicago area.

Company Histories

Historical summaries of public companies may be found in filings such as Annual Reports.

Notable Corporate Chronologies L338.7 N899 Reference Mgmt/ Schaffner

International Directory of Company Histories L338.88025 I61 Reference Mgmt

ABI/Inform (ProQuest version) NU Community
Searches back to 1971.

ABI/Inform Archive Complete NU Community
Searches back to 1905 for earliest business journal coverage.

Business Periodicals Index 016.381 B9795 Reference Stacks / Schaffner
Index of business publications back to 1958.

Company Annual Reports 1972-1984 NU Community
Available through Lexis Nexis

Company Annual Reports 1984 – 1995 NU Community
Available through LexisNexis

Industrial Arts Index 016.6 I38 Reference Stacks
Includes indexing of business publications from 1913 to 1957.

Mergent Online NU Community
The history section for each public company report includes a chronology.

Rankings and Market Share

Many of the directories mentioned above contain indexes that rank companies according to various criteria. Many journal articles include rankings and market share information. Search in ABI/Inform or Business & Industry Database for company rankings. More information can be found in the sources listed below:

Business & Industry Database NU Community
Select ranking from the document type menu or market share from the concept terms menu.

Business Rankings Annual L016.33874 B9792 Reference Mgmt / Schaffner

Market Share Reporter L658.835 M345 Reference Mgmt / Schaffner

Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies. L338.4025 W266ba Reference Mgmt / Schaffner

 


c-doyle4@northwestern.edu

Last updated: 04/14/08