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BUSA 3701 Career Research: Financials

Key Financial Ratios

Company and industry ratios are available at MSN Money website.  Type in your company name or stock symbol in the quote search box.  When the page loads, scroll down to the "Fundamentals" section.  There you will find ratios comparing your company to industry averages over the past year to 5 years.

 

You can also compare your company to the industry ratios through the Reuters website.  Search for your company by name or ticker symbol, then select the "Financials" tab.

 

Once the Financials page loads, scroll down the screen to view ratios.

Rank in Industry = percentile rank stocks return had in industry over a designated time period.

Industry Rank= Top industries favored by investors or the strength of stocks within that industry.

Sources of Financial Data

10K Reports - Annual report filed with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). 

10Q Reports - Quarterly reports filed with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC).

Annual Reports to Shareholders - The Public Register provides free annual reports of public companies trading on the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, and OTC exchanges. Orders are processed and mailed within one business day.

Company Financials - Several of the GALILEO databases provide annual and quarterly financial reports: 

  • Business Source Complete
  • ABI/Inform-Proquest

Proxy Statements - Companies often post their proxy statements on their web page.  Proxy statements must be filed with the SEC, so these may also be located by searching the EDGAR database.

SEC Filings - These forms are searchable in the EDGAR database

You can search information collected by the SEC several ways: