Company Information Subject Guide

Definitions

There are two kinds of companies: private companies and public companies.

Public company/ corporation A company whose stock is held by the general public rather than by officers or employees of the company.

Private company/ corporation A company whose stock is held by the officers or employees of the company rather than the general public.

NAIC Code
Desk Collection HF 1042 .N67x 1997
North American Industry Classification System (NAIC). The United States has a new industry classification system. NAIC was developed in cooperation with Canada and Mexico and classifies North America's economic activities at 2-, 3-, 4- and 5- levels of detail and the U.S. version of NAICS further defines some industries to a 6th digit. It will help provide comparable statistics across the three countries.

SIC Code/NAIC code
All companies are assigned a SIC and/or NAIC code. A SIC code (Standard Industrial Classification Number) or NAIC (North American Industry Classification code) is a system of classifying economic activities by four to five digit numbers. The numbers were established under the supervision of the Bureau of the Budget for the purposes of gathering, tabulating, and analyzing data on the manufacturing areas of economic endeavor.

Standard Industrial Classification Manual Desk Collection HF 1041 .S8x 1987
This book will give you the definition of each SIC code. It is divided into manufacturing, retail, wholesale, and service industries.

CUSIP The Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures assigns all identification numbers and codes to securities. These numbers and codes are used in electronic reporting of markets and in the recording of all buy and sell orders.

Division An internal unit of a company, not incorporated.

DUN's Number The Data Universal Numbering System, a numerical method of identifying businesses designed and maintained by Dun and Bradstreet and published as a part of a list of firms, giving information on the firms, such as management personnel, finances, size, etc. Also called Dun's number or Dun's Market Identifier.

OTC (Over-the-counter) Securities transactions that take place outside an organized stock exchange. Most new issues of unknown corporations are handled over-the-counter.

Parent Company A company that exercises control over one or more subsidiary enterprises.

Subsidiary A chartered business owned by the company at 50% or more.

Trading Symbol
Also known as stock symbol or ticker symbol. A letter symbol for common stock assigned each company that trades on the stock exchange(s). There are two different sets of abbreviations or symbols for each company stock: newspaper symbols such as those found in the Wall Street Journal and the symbols used by the stock exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange. Tradingcharts.com and Pink Sheets allow you to search by company name to find the trading symbol and by trading symbol to find the company name.

Private and Public Company Resources

Best's Insurance Reports: Property-Casualty HG 9970 .P7 B4x (Ref.) A companion manual to the one above, for U.S. property/casualty insurers and branches of foreign insurance companies operating in the U.S. At the end are: a directory of other insurers, underwriting organizations, name changes and retired companies, the list of companies arranged by state, a list of the 200 largest American property/casualty companies.

Best's Insurance Reports: Life-Health
HG 8943 .B3 (Ref.)
A manual for U.S. and Canadian life/health companies, usually giving for each: a brief corporate history; management and operation; assets and liabilities; investment data; operating comment; Best's rating; statistics on company development; insurance in force; new business issued; accident and health written. At front is a list of state officials; at end a list of name change, retired companies, and reinsurance.

Brands and Their Companies
T 223 .V4 A253 (Reference Desk Collection)
This is a guide to over 230,000 consumer brand names, with the yellow pages in volume 2 consisting of a list of about 43,000 companies that manufacture or import the brands.

Companies and Their Brands

T 223 .V4 A25 (Reference Desk Collection)
Provides accesses too more than 282,000 consumer brands and about 51,000 manufacturers and distributors. Brands are presented first in an alphabetic sequence. Company listings follow in a separate section.

LexisNexis Academic Indexes thousands of domestic and foreign newspapers, as well as journals, and other publications in News, Business company reports and articles, Legal Research, Medical and Reference. The legal research category includes law reviews, law news, federal and state laws and cases. Mostly full text. Includes Hoover's full text. Coverage dates vary.

LexisNexis Corporate Affiliations. HG 4057 .A219 (Reference Desk Collection)
Covers major public and private businesses in the United States and throughout the world. The principle of organization for the set is geographical (by parent company) and hierarchical (by company reportage). All subsidiaries of a parent company, no matter where they are located, will be found in the same volume as the ultimate parent. Details

Mergent Online Contains data on U.S. and international publicly owned companies. Company reports include the history, business, properties, officers and directors, income, long-term debt, capital stock, latest news stories and more. Company annual reports are included for U.S. and international companies in PDF format. Financial data can be retrieved in text or spreadsheet format with searchable EDGAR SEC filings dating back to 1993. Private company reports cover over 4 million U.S. businesses containing business address, SIC codes, estimated number of employees, and estimated revenue. Updated daily.

Million Dollar Directory
HC 102. D8 (Reference Desk Collection)
Contains U.S. public and private businesses with an indicated worth of over $500,000. For each firm it usually gives officers and directors, line of business, SIC code, approximate sales, number of employees, stock exchange abbreviation, stock ticker symbol, division names, bank, accounting firms, and legal counsel. The first three volumes contain the alphabetical listings and the next two volumes are Series Cross Reference by Geography, indexing the company by location, and Series Cross Reference by industry, indexing the companies by SIC codes.

NetAdvantage Standard & Poor's is an international investment research and commentary database. Includes independent credit ratings, indices such as S&P 500, risk evaluation, stock reports, mutual funds research, company descriptions and financial data. Includes information from S & P publications such as: Industry Surveys (U.S. & Global), Stock Reports, Mutual Fund Reports, Bond Reports, Company Profiles (U.S. & Global) Records, The Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives, The Outlook, Credit Week, Earnings Guide, Dividend Record, Stock Market Encyclopedia, and Security Dealers of North America.

Principal International Businesses HF 54 .U5 P74 (Ref. Desk Collection)
A comprehensive foreign directory, section 1 lists approximately 55,000 leading companies, arranged alphabetically by 143 countries. For each it notes chief officer, line of business, cable/telex, SIC number, year founded, approximate sales and number of employees, whether company exports or imports, and whether it is a subsidiary. Sections 2 and 3 are indexed by SIC and by company.

MarketLine Business Information Centre This database compiles business information using primary and secondary research to create 10,000 company, 2,000 industry, and 50 country profiles. MarketLine includes daily updates of relevant news, comments and analysis, company history, and a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) within company profiles.

ThomasNet T 12 .T6 (Ref. Index Shelves)
Formerly the Thomas Register, this is a free index of industrial products and services for manufacturers from United States and Canada with company and product information. Links available to company Web sites, CAD drawings, and catalogs give detailed buying and specifying information, including some pricing.

Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies
Includes private and public companies listing for each, when available: year founded, description of products/services offered, approximate sales, number of employees, SIC codes, officers, fax number, stock exchange, ticker symbol, whether private or public, or a subsidiary, and lists the companies by location (zip code). In addition the directory contains ranked lists of the 1,000 largest privately held companies, and the 1000 largest public companies. Ranks companies by sales within four-digit SIC, within four-digit SIC code for states, and by sales within six digit NAICS. Also located at the Reference Desk: HG 4057 .A56 (Reference Desk Collection)

Public Company Resources

CAROL: Company Annual Reports On Line
Includes annual reports for companies in the US, Europe and Asia. Also links to other investor information sources, such as news, professional organizations, and foreign stock exchanges. Access is free, but you have to register to see annual reports.

EDGAR Contains searchable 10K Reports and other filings from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hoover's Online
This business directory lists public, private, international and emerging company profiles with links to company Web sites, as well as other business related links. Only parts of this free online directory are available to nonsubscribers. The full text of Hoover's is found in the database LexisNexis Academic.

Company Histories

Hoover's Handbook of American Business HG 4057 .A28617 (Reference Desk Collection)
Company profiles contain a concise statement of the nature of the business, its history and the products and services it delivers; also a list of major projects, sales, names of officers, number of employees, ranking in the Fortune, Business Week, and Forbes annual ranked lists, names of competitors, and a Hoover's rating.

International Directory of Company Histories Online This multi-volume directory is available as part of the Gale Virtual Reference Library and consists of over 8,500 historical profiles of the world's largest and most influential companies. Included is a list of subsidiary companies, and sources for further reading. To limit your search to this directory, (in Gale Virtual Reference Library) type "International Directory of Company Histories" as a publication title (pu) in the advance search box from the drop down menu. HD 2721 .I58x (Reference Collection) vols. 1-92

Company Rankings

Business Rankings Annual
A bibliographic guide to more than 8,000 ranked lists of companies and other subjects that appear in over 1,000 periodicals, newspapers, financial services, statistical annuals, and other sources. It is arranged by specific subject, and the data about each usually includes the criteria for the ranking, the names of the top 5 or 10 in the ranking, the source (including date and page). At the end of the print volume is an index by subject and ranked company, and a separate bibliography of the sources (such as Fortune). HG 4050 .B88 2009 (Reference Desk Collection)

State Directories

Other state directories are located on the index shelves in Reference with the call number T----

Michigan Manufacturing Directory: Desk Collection T 12 .D588x
Includes a geographic section by cities in Michigan which includes when established, SIC codes for the company, owner/officer(s), number of employees, annual sales, telephone number and sometimes computer system, if company offers medical benefits, and square feet. Also has an alphabetical index by company name, alphabetic product section and SIC codes numbers with descriptions.

Michigan Industrial Directory: Ref. T 12 .H36x
Includes a statistical information section of a county-by-county analysis of employment and classification of companies by SIC; a geographic section sorted by city in alphabetical order (tells you if it is privately owned); a numerical index of SIC classifications, and alphabetical index of SIC classification by company.

Organizations & Contacts

Business Organizations, Agencies, and Publications Directory A guide to more than 40,000 organizations and publications worldwide that serve business and industry.

Article Databases

ABI/INFORM Global An index of over 1,800 publications with abstracts, and full text from over 700 of these titles, selected from newspapers, trade publications, and journals on business including, for example, administration, economics, computers, finance, human resources, management, and marketing. Full-text of Wall Street Journal articles available from 1984. Otherwise coverage is from 1971 to the present with some older material available. Updated daily.

Business and Company Resource Center The Business and Company Resource Center provides information for domestic and international companies and associations, including information on corporate hierarchical structures, company financial information and earning estimates, investment reports, corporate chronologies and company histories, industry rankings, market share data and more.

Business NewsBank Provides hard to find local, regional and national business news articles containing in-depth company, industry, product and executive news, both private and public companies from more than 500 business journals, newspapers and wires. Coverage is from 1993 to date. Updated daily.

General Business File ASAP An index of business publications that includes trade publications, newspapers, journals, broker research reports, and company profiles, some articles with full text and images. Coverage 1980 - present.

Trade and Industry Contains business periodicals and newsletters with a trade or industry focus providing users with industry news, product and competitive information, marketing trends, and more. Includes in-depth coverage of companies, products, executives, trends, and other topics for more than 1,200 publications, most in full-text. Coverage: 1971 to date.

Wall Street Journal (Eastern edition) A U.S. daily financial newspaper that covers news and trends relating to business, industry, finance, the economy, and international commerce. Provides extensive price and other data for securities, commodity, options, futures, foreign exchange, and money markets. Full text in HTML format from 1984 to the present, but does not include data from tables and graphs. Just abstracts from 1982 to 1984.
Microfilm: HG 5 on the Lower Level, 1920-date.
Print copies:current copies at the Central Reference Desk and Science Reference Desk until the microfilm arrives.

Wall Street Journal (1889-1989)
Search the full-text articles of this national business newspaper from 1889-1989.

Wall Street Journal Index
HG 1 .W26 (Reference Index Shelves)
Eastern Edition. Each issue of these indexes is in two parts: corporate news and general news. The annual cumulation is in two volumes: volume 1 indexes corporate news and, at the end the green pages are an annual index to articles in Barron's; volume 2 indexes general news. At the end of this second volume are short lists of articles in a series, special reports, plus tables giving daily Dow Jones Averages for the year. The library retains the paper copy of the newspaper until the microfilm copy arrives, usually about three months. 1955-present.

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Donna M. Ring
donna.ring@wmich.edu
269-387-5153
Last updated: November 2008