Company Information: Company Information

It is easier to find information about public companies (those that sell stock to shareholders) than about private companies (those that are privately owned by an individual or group). Public companies in the United States are required to file documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These include the 10K (annual) and 10Q (quarterly) reports. In addition, public companies issue an annual report to shareholders.

When looking for information about a company, consider both for information from the company about itself (e.g., the company Web page, SEC filings, press releases, etc.) as well as information about the company written by others (e.g.., newspaper articles, analyst reports, articles by business school professors, etc.)

Finding information about a company includes the following steps:

• Get an overview of the company; find out if it is public or private.
• Find the company web page.
• If the company is public, find relevant 10K and 10Q reports and annual reports to shareholders.
• Look for news and periodical articles to give you additional information. (This may be one of the only ways to find information on a private company.)
• For public companies, also look at analyst reports.
• Find competitors.

Many of the business information resources will give you all of these types of information.