Langsdale Library, University of Baltimore

Investment Research

Company Research / Investment Research

When researching companies and industries for investment purposes it is important to remember that only publicly-traded companies are required to provide detailed financial information to the public. To get information on privately-owned companies, you will often be limited to periodical literature. For special hints in researching private companies, visit the Private Company Research page.

I. Resources available in Langsdale

A. Company Financial Statements.
Information on specific public companies is discussed in Researching Company Finances.

B. General Resources.
S&P's Analysts' Handbook. New York: Standard and Poor's, 1981-Present. X HG 4905.A66
Quarterly data for earnings, prices, P/E ratios, dividends and yields for composites and industry categories. Library holds 1998-2002.

C. Stock Information
1. S & P's Daily Stock Price Record. New York: Standard & Poor's.
For NYSE, 1972-Present. X HG 4915.S664
For ASE, 1972-Present. X HG 4915.S66
For OTC/NASDAQ, 1972-Present. X HG 4915.S665

2. S & P's Stock Reports. New York: Standard & Poor's.
For NYSE, 1973-Present., X HG 4905.S443
For ASE, 1973-Present., X HG 4905.S44
For OTC/NASDAQ, 1982-Present., X HG 4905.S444
After 1993, these titles were cominbed to form Standard & Poor's stock reports. Nasdaq and regional exchanges. XHG4905.S444

3. Value Line Investment Survey. New York: A. Bernhard. X HG 4501.V26. Current file in Ready Reference.
Reports on approximately 1,700 companies. Not every stock will be included.


E. Bonds
Mergent ... annual bond record. New York: Mergent FIS. 1999 to present. X HG 4905.M78.
Covers 56,000 fixed-income issues.

II. Resources available in Langsdale and remotelythrough our electronic database menu:

  • ABI Inform [on-campus] [help]
    Coverage: 1970 - present. Indexes more than 1,300 journals on business, management, with 75% full-tex    t.
  • Business and Company Resource Center [on-campus] [help]
    Coverage: 1979 - present. Profiles 400,000 companies. Provides company histories, business articles, industry rankings and analyses for selected public companies.
  • Business Source Premier [on-campus] [help]
    Coverage: Varies– present. Business Source Premier provides full text for nearly 8,350 scholarly business journals and other sources, including full text for more than 1,100 scholarly business publications. Coverage includes virtually all subject areas related to business. This database provides full text (PDF) for more than 350 of the top scholarly journals dating as far back as 1922. Funded by the Maryland Digital Library (MDL). Includes company profiles, many of which contain SWOT analyses.
  • Key Business Ratios [on-campus]
    Description: D&B's Key Business Ratios help you understand the true performance of a company, by benchmarking it against its industry peers. The 14 key business ratios cover all critical areas of business performance—solvency, efficiency and profitability. And, using an individual company's financial statements with Key Business Ratios, you can generate a comparison of a company's own business ratios with the industry.
    Time span: Current year.
  • Lexis-Nexis Academic [on-campus] [help]
    Coverage: 1970 - present. Features full text of many newspapers and periodicals.  Also offers business news, legal materials such as federal & state codes, case law and legal journals.
  • Mergent Online [on-campus] [help]
    Coverage: Current. Mergent Online contains the electronic versions of the Mergent (formerly Moody's) Manuals (Industrial, OTC, Banking and Finance, and International), covering over 10,000 U.S. companies and thousands for foreign companies. The financial data for most companies covers 15 years. Industry reports are included.
  • Morningstar.com Library Edition [on-campus]
    Description: Find a stock or fund to meet your needs, research current or prospective holdings or see how your investments work together. Morningstar's data reports cover more than 20,000 securities. Coverage: Historical data back to 1996.
  • Wall Street Journal [on-campus]
    Coverage: 1984 - present. Includes full text of Eastern edition of Wall Street Journal newspaper.

Access to these databases from home is available through the Researchport link on the database menu. Use of Researchport requires a current Library registration.

III. Resources on the Internet
We recommend trying our Business Research Links. Another good starting point for any Web research is a search engine such as Yahoo's Business and Economy:Finance and Investment category.

Stock quotes and financial news are available from Yahoo! Finance.

Other Web resources include:

Money Magazine Mutual Funds


IV.Ask a Langsdale Librarian.

You can call 410-837-4274 when the Library is open, email langref@ubalt.edu or chat at http://langsdale.ubalt.edu/info_services/contact.htm

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