Companies - News & Operations - BPL 5100: Business Policy

Find Company Profiles

Start your research with a company profile from one of these sources:

S&P NetAdvantage
The S&P Equity Research Reports are known for their excellent business summaries. The reports include analyst commentary, key financials and ratios, peer group analysis, Wall Street consensus estimates and the industry outlook.
Value Line
Company ratings and reports with over 10 years of historical data including sales, profits, and earnings per share. Reports include share price projections and a financial forecast.

Find Segment Data

Companies are not required to report the results of divisions or subsidiaries. They are required to report results of any grouping of products or services that represents 10% or more of total revenues, assets or income. Companies define these groupings and report the results in the 10-K report.

Bloomberg Professional
Search Bloomberg with these commands:
For Product Segments, enter ticker [EQUITY] FA PROD
For Geographic Segments, enter ticker [EQUITY] FA GEO

What Business is the Company in?

Companies typically define their business in the opening section of their 10-K report. In this report you can expect to find:

Description of the company's product lines and business segments
List of subsidiaries and geographic locations
Discussion of company strategy
Mention of contracts, raw materials used, and supplier or distribution channels
Names of the competition and discussion of competitive factors in the market
Mention of research and development or intellectual property issues that are important to company operations
Key government regulations in their industry
Outline of risk factors to consider in evaluating the company's business

Understand Company Operations

Read articles about the company. Use a variety of sources including trade journals and business magazines like Forbes, Fortune, and Bloomberg Businessweek. Read the latest news from the Wall Street Journal.

Business Source Complete
Over 3,000 business magazines and trade journals. Includes the Harvard Business review and SWOT analysis reports from Datamonitor.
Factiva
Global news.from newspapers, magazines, trade journal and wire services. Includes the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times.
ABI/INFORM Global
Over 1,800 business magazines, trade journals and scholarly journals. Includes the Wall Street Journal.

Business Source: How to Search

What is the Company's Strategy?

The company itself often offers details of its strategy. Here are some places to look for this information:

The 10-K Report - Read Item 1 - Business

The Annual Report - Read the Chairman's Letter to the Shareholders

The Earnings Call - Find these on the Investor Relations page of the Company website

News from Factiva - Search with the subject: Plans/Strategy

Interviews with the CEO - Search Factiva, Business Source or ABI/Inform

Who are the Competitors?

FitchConnect
Fitch identifies the key players in an industry with textual analysis and revenue data in their "Market Overview" reports and in their reports on the "Competitive Landscape."
S&P NetAdvantage
Standard & Poor's Capital IQ offers profiles of U.S. and international public companies. Jump from your company profile to "Peer Analysis" (link on the left) for Quick Comps - financial data and valuations for key companies in the sector.

Wall Street Research

Reports from bank analysts are especially useful for financial analysis and forecasts. Reports can also be event-driven and analyze mergers, spin-offs, management changes and other strategic issues.

Bloomberg Professional
After you enter the ticker for the Equity you wish to analyze, use the function code ANR for Analyst Recommendations or the function code BRC for analyst reports on that company.