These resources are great for finding out key companies operating in an industry and/or identifying one company you want to research.
Note - if you need absolutely accurate company financials for your coursewor, do not use Yahoo Finance or Business Insights: Global. Instead use any of the resources under the Financials & SEC filings tab of this guide.
Option a: Browsing
Yahoo Finance
Path = pick an Industry, then once in the industry, use Company Index
Try the Explore Organziations or the 1-Click Lists tab. This resource specializes in public and private US companies, news/media companies, associations and nonprofits.
Option b: Look ups:
Business Insights: Global. Try a company name in the search box. Click on a company name in the results list, you will see detailed profile information. Public companies have a ticker symbol, the exchange, SIC and NAICS codes, company website, and fiscal year will be noted.
Mergent Online Do a company search, then either inspect the results for that company or look up what's under the ‘competitors’ or the ‘equity reports’ tabs to find additional companies.
Leadership Libraries Directory
Simply use the search box.
Option c: Create Company Lists
Nexis Uni
Use the "Search by Content Type" dropdown and choose the Company Dossier link. Once on that page, choose the tab "Create a Company List" or "Compare Companies."
Business Insights: Global. Under the Companies tab, use the Company Finder search
Mergent Online
Do a company search, then either look up what's under the ‘competitors’ or the ‘equity reports’ tabs
Use 1-Click Lists tab, the Build-a-List tab, or the Search -- All Organizations tab and then choose a Advanced or Simple search. This resource lets you create a list by organizaiton size, industry, job function, geography, or executive biography.
This resource only works with IE browsers, however it has strong list-building capacity under the Research tab. Great public company coverage and some private company coverage. Investext content include investment analyst reports.
Update: there is an IE plugin for Chrome users that will run ThomsonONE/Investext in that browser. Get the free IE Tab and Adobe Acrobat plugins from the Chrome Web Store. Use the default IE Tab settings, but also add and save these locations to the Auto URL section: http://uclibs.org/PID/146162 (the main UCSD url to Investext); cut & paste these in: *.thomsonone.com, *.thomsononeim.com, *.thomsononeib.com (these allow for pop-ups, navigation, displays, etc).