Investment Resources for Business 342

Corporate Filings/Annual Reports     |      Bonds      |     Stocks      |      Money Markets

A. Corporate Filings/Annual Reports

 I. Snapshots

For a quick profile of a public company's financial position, use one of the following:

CBS Market Watch (http://cbs.marketwatch.com/tools/default.asp?siteid=mktw)

Reuters Investing (http://www.investor.reuters.com/StockEntry.aspx?target=/stocks)

Hoovers Online (http://www.hoovers.com)

Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/)

II. Annual Reports

Annual reports to shareholders and 10-K reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission may be obtained from three primary sources:

The SEC's EDGAR (http://www.sec.gov/edgarhp.htm)  web site contains many kinds of reports for many companies (not all) from 1994 onwards. EDGAR filings are also freely available from the private sector, e.g. at the Free EDGAR Website (http://www.freeedgar.com/) .

Many companies now publish their annual report to shareholders on their corporate Website. Look for links to current reports at the Annual Report Gallery (http://www.reportgallery.com/) .

SEC filings are also available via the library’s subscription to LexisNexis Academic.  Coverage is from 1987 onwards.

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B. Bonds

I. Sources For Company Information

You can read the credit ratings definitions from Moody's Investors Service (http://www.moodys.com/cust/ratingdefinitions/rdef.asp) or see a summary table from Bonds Online (http://www.bondsonline.com/asp/research/bondratings.asp)  for the four major rating agencies.

Yahoo! Finance Bond Center (http://finance.yahoo.com/bonds/)

II. Sources For Similarly-Rated Firms

You can refer to the Blue Pages in the old Moody's Manuals, (HG4961 .M65) which are very detailed. For yields by selected rating groups (Aaa and Baa only), refer to Selected Interest Rates from the Federal Reserve Board (http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/H15/data.htm) . Scroll down to the middle of the page to find the links for daily, weekly, monthly, and annual data.

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C. Stocks

I. Sources For Company Information

Annual stock prices for more than 1,500 companies are available in the Value Line Investment Survey which is in the Reference Area - Ref HG4501 .V26.

Historical stock quotes are available from:

BigCharts Historical Quotes - http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/historical/  (close only - Jan 85+)

Yahoo Historical Quotes - http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=GE(open, high, low, close - Dec 81+)

Create your own charts with Sharp Charts from StockCharts.com. (http://stockcharts.com/charts/SharpCharts/index.html)

II. Sources For Industry Information

You can also refer to the industry sections of the Value Line Investment Survey, referred to above.

Standards and Poor Industry Surveys - Ref HC106.7 .S71

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D. Money Markets

There are many different kinds of interest rates, including those for deposits and loans. The most common debt instruments referred to for risk-free rates are:

3-month (13-week) Treasury Bills

1-year Treasury Notes

Interest rates and yields for these Government securities and other debt instruments may be found online at:

• FRED II, the Federal Reserve Economic Data database of the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis (http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/)
• Selected Interest Rates H.15 Daily Update (http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/H15/update)
• Selected Interest Rates (http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/categories/22)
• Treasury Bill, Note, and Bond Auction History historical data – (http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/annceresult/query/query.htm)

For further assistance please contact Librarian Katie Sanders.

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