Research Guides: Management of Multinationals in Crisis: The Company

Find a Company Profile

Many databases profile public companies in easy-to-read short reports. These database include profiles of international and U.S. companies.

S&P NetAdvantage
The S&P Equity Research Reports are known for their excellent business summaries of U.S. public companies. The reports include analyst commentary, key financials and ratios, peer group analysis, Wall Street consensus estimates and the industry outlook.
Mergent Online
Profiles of U.S. and non-U.S public companies. Provides company history, subsidiaries, competitors, debt and capital stock profile, officers/directors, and financial data.
Fitch Solutions BMI (formerly FitchConnect)
Company profiles of large multinational companies in over 70 global markets.
EMIS
EMIS offers comprehensive coverage of emerging markets. Start at the Company tab and search by company name. From the "Company Overview" page choose "Reports" to find brokers reports, ratings reports, annual reports and other company profiles.

Understand Company Strategy and 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.

Factiva
The best global business news database. Search both U.S. news and foreign news sources. Includes all editions of the Wall Street Journal as well as breaking news from Reuters and the Dow Jones Newswire and transcripts from BBC, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and CNN.
Business Source Complete
Use Business Source Complete to find articles from magazines, trade journals and the business press including Fortune, Bloomberg Business Week, Forbes, and Investor's Business Daily.
ABI/INFORM Global
Use ABI/INFORM to find articles from magazines, trade journals and the business press including The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Barron's, and The Economist.

How to Use the Company Website

Critical information for researching a company can be found on the company's Investor Relations pages. What can you expect to find?

Annual Reports and SEC Filings

Companies post their latest Annual Reports and SEC filings (the 10-K, 10-Q and others) here. If you are looking for older historical reports, go to the SEC website at SEC.gov which makes available all reports filed since 1986.

Press Releases

Press releases are the official statements of the company about key events. Coming from the company's PR office, these releases provide the company point-of-view. They are not neutral statements, nor do they offer unbiased analysis.

Earnings Conference Calls

CEO and CFO discuss the company's quarterly results in conference calls with analysts and institutional investors.

Transcripts or Videos of Investor Conferences

Company management make presentations at investor conferences sponsored by major banks like JP Morgan and Citigroup. These often focus on new products or services.

How to Use SEC Filings

U.S. companies file an annual report, the 10-K, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Foreign companies listed in the United States, trading as ADR's, also file an annual report, the 20-F, with the SEC. All reports filed with the SEC are available on the SEC website in their EDGAR database.

SEC filings are also available in many databases including S&P NetAdvantage and Thomson ONE.

S&P NetAdvantage
Access U.S. SEC filings, Canadian SEDAR filings and filings from Australia's ASX. View SEC filings online or in PDF, download financials to excel, or search the text of filings.

SEC -EDGAR
The EDGAR database at the SEC contains all company filings made since 1984. Search by ticker or company name.

Search the Text of SEC Filings

Westlaw (Thomson Reuters)

Use Westlaw to search the text of SEC Filings. From the home page, choose "EDGAR Filings and Disclosures"

Fill in the Search form with your keywords. Scroll down and enter the company name or ticker. Scroll down and choose "All 1934 Act Results" to search the 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K and other key filings.

Examine the Results. Use the search bar on the left to search within the results if needed.

Your search terms will be highlighted in yellow in the results

Select a document and jump through the pages to see your search terms.