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Company Information
Companies are either public or private. Publicly-owned companies issue stocks; they are required to make quarterly and annual reports to their stockholders and also to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Information about public companies is readily available on the Internet, both from government filings and from many online content providers who wish to communicate with investors.
Warning: Stock-trading involves significant sums of money, and significant opportunities for fraud. You may be urged to invest in a particular stock as a deliberate theft (that is, the sellers of the stock know it is worthless but promise you the sky) or as an overdose of enthusiasm (that is, on the Internet "good news" travels so fast and to so many people that a tidal wave of enthusiasm may build without the stock necessarily deserving it).
Consider the source, the motivation and the stock: a) a company's own website will generally be truthful but one-sided; b) a neutral observer such as a government agency or reputable organization or publisher can provide balanced information; c) deliberate or rumor-fed manipulation of stock information is most likely with smaller and newer companies.
To find individual company web sites, try the company's logo or name inside "www" and "com;" here are a few Minnesota companies: Wells Fargo Banks, Northwest Airlines, Fallon McEllicott advertising, 3M.
Annual Reports:
AnnuaReports.com offers free annual reports and Form 10Ks of public companies.
PRARS: The Public Register's Annual Report Service ... "is America's largest annual report service. Company financials, including annual reports, prospectuses or 10k's on over 3,600 public companies are available without charge to the investing public."
Private companies generally do not have to disclose financial or other information. Larger private companies, such as Cargill, are often written about in business periodicals. Search for the company as a subject in the Business Source Premier on the the Online Databases page.
Neutral information providers:
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission maintains an electronically-filed database of quarterly and annual company reports: Edgar is the name of their site. (Because government information is not copyrighted, Edgar filings are available from many sources, e.g. www.edgar-online.com).
Commercial services:
Yahoo! Financial Center, the Hoover Handbook, Report Gallery, and Quicken's financial links.
General information gateways:
CNN/Money.
Use Business Source Premier on the Online Databases page to search for articles on the desired company or industry as a subject.
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