Tips for Better Google Searches
Search for the Company Name or Ticker symbol via Google to access company produced materials.
When searching via Google combine limiters with keyword to return specific results. Below are a few examples:
"How to Search Google Like a Pro: 10 Tips & Tricks for Google and Beyond" -- an article from The Guardian
Following are company resources organized by type, which include a) company profiles & overviews, b) analyst reports, and c) SWOT analysis reports. To get started:
Business Insights: Global provides an international perspective for over 500,000 companies. Profiles include total revenue, number of employees, companies with similar revenue, related industries, business description, company type, contact information, officers, variant name(s), brands, case studies, company chronology, company histories, market share reports, rankings, news and more.
From the home page, click on "company" or search by company name or ticker symbol in the search box. "Company" is the default search option in the drop down menu next to search box.
Mergent Intellect provides profiles for more than 85M companies, including both international and domestic public and private companies. Each company record includes a company synopsis, location type (e.g. headquarters), company type (e.g. public), number of employees, primary SIC/NAICS codes, and total number of family members. Additional information includes financial, industry, and executive details (when available).
Enter the company name, ticker, or URL into the search box, then click the magnifying glass symbol to execute the search.
Nexis Uni company profiles include an overall snapshot, current news, brands, competitors, company hierarchy, executives, financial overview, SEC filings, company reports, industry knowledge, company activities (e.g. mergers), investment research, legal and more.
To access these profiles, click the "Business" box under "Discover topics," then click "Company Dossier." A new search form will appear with options to search by "Company name" or "Ticker symbol." Enter the company name or ticker symbol and then click the red "Search" button.
Morningstar Investment Research Center provides research on more than 30,000 stocks, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), along with analysts' reports on publicly traded company stocks.
To access these reports, click on the "Companies" tab and type the ticker symbol or company name in the search box and hit [ENTER]. Once the record for the company appears, click on the "Stock Analysis" tab for the most recent analyst report on the company's stock.
Value Line Research Center offers access to one-page reports on approximately 1,700 companies and more than 90 industries. Each company report contains, among other things, Value Line's Timeliness, Safety, and Technical ranks, financial and stock price forecasts for the coming 3 to 5 years, an analyst's written commentary, and much more.
To access these reports, connect to the Value Line Research Center and type the ticker symbol or company name in the search box and select the company below. Once the company information appears, look to the upper right-hand corner for "PDF Reports" and click on it -- a list of report dates will drop down. Choose the date of the report you wish to view and click on it -- a separate PDF file will load into an additional browser tab
The following free Web resources also offer company analyst reports:
Business Insights: Global provides company and industry information for over 300,000 companies, which also includes SWOT analysis reports.
To access these reports, connect to the database and click on the hyperlinked text, "SWOT reports," below the "Global Company and Industry Intelligence" heading. An alphabetical list of companies with SWOT reports will appear. To narrow your search, type in the company name into the "Search Within Results" box. Click on the company name or PDF icon.
Business Sources Complete provides full text and abstracts of articles in journals, magazines, newspapers and periodicals, as well as company profiles and SWOT analysis reports.
To access SWOT analysis reports, click on the "Company Information" option in the top left-hand corner of the screen, then search by "Company Name" or "Ticker Symbol." If a SWOT analysis report is available for the company, it will appear on the left-hand side under the "Related Information" heading.
Nexis Uni provides access to news, legal, and business sources including journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs, newspapers, and legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes.
To access SWOT reports, click on the "Advanced Search" option, then select "Company Profiles" from the "specific content type." Enter the term "SWOT" in the search box, the boolean operator "AND" and the company name in parenthesis, like this: SWOT and (Microsoft Corporation).