By Chris Cochran
Finding information about publicly traded companies in the US has never been easier. For the most part, companies want to share information about themselves as both a marketing tool and a way to bring in more investors. Publicly traded companies are also required to provide their financial and other regulatory information to the US government. In this blog post, I’m focusing on open information resources about publicly traded companies in the US for the general researcher and knowledge consumer.
1. Investor Relations page on a company’s website. Publicly traded companies will normally have a page on their website that deals specifically with information for investors. The investor relations page should be easy to find on a company’s homepage, but you can always pop this search string into your preferred web browser to find a direct link to it: “<company name> investor relations” (minus the quotes).
What can you expect to find? There’s a lot of information gathered on those pages and typically includes:
- current and historical stock prices
- annual reports
- quarterly earnings reports
- quarterly earnings call transcripts and recordings
- a company’s SEC filings, including the 10-K and statements of insider transactions
- press releases with updated investor and company operational news. In some cases, you may be able to sign up for an email alert when new press releases are posted.
2. Public libraries. Depending on their size and budget, many public libraries provide access to company and stock price information through subscriptions that are free to library card holders. Resources such as Morningstar and Value Line are two of the most popular. Some libraries may have additional databases like Gale Business: Insights (global company and industry news, data, and reports), and Mergent (financials and corporate histories from active and inactive companies).
3. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Publicly traded companies are required to file various company documentation with the SEC. These documents become available through the SEC’s EDGAR database. Many of these same documents will be found on a company’s investor relations page as well, but the EDGAR database allows you to search in one place if you’re looking at several companies. EDGAR may also have older filings that don’t appear on a company’s investor relations website. Your information needs will determine which sites are best to use.
4. News resources. Financial publications or other major news publications like the Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times have a strong focus on all things business and finance. These resources not only provide day-to-day company information, but they also cover medium-sized and larger companies with in-depth news, research, and profiles. Some content may be available for free on the publication’s website – it seems to vary by article type. Access to some of these major publications is also frequently provided by public libraries.
Medium and large cities in the US frequently have separate business news publications to cover the region or the state. I’ll put a plug in here for American Cities Business Journals, which has 40 business newspapers covering 44 markets in the US. Their publications are a good news resource to check when you’re looking for a local perspective. They do a great job covering companies headquartered in the market. Free information from these resources may be limited, but your local library may provide access.
Another effective news tool is setting up a Google alert for regular updates on a company you’re interested in. You’ll need a free Google email account in order to set up an alert. The process is easy, and you can set the frequency for receiving alerts. I’ve found this to be an effective free tool for following companies and getting updates to news that may affect stock prices or corporate policies.
5. Yahoo Finance. Yahoo as a brand gets a bad rap because it is a legacy internet company, and therefore may not be considered “cool.” The name may be a little clunky, but the Yahoo Finance website is generally well-regarded. You’ll need to create a free Yahoo account to really make use of all its features, but as a one-stop shop for financial and stock information, it’s pretty strong. Current and historical stock prices are there, along with other financial analysis, original and aggregated news, and some peer analysis.
I’ve only focused on free (or “almost” free) open sources of information in this blog post. There is a wealth of subscription-based or “fee” services that provide similar and more in-depth information and analysis, which I’ll explore in a future post. But for the general consumer or researcher, these free resources are good places to start.
Have you found a great resource for company information that’s free (or mostly free)? Share it with us in the comments section below.
An Inquiring Mind 