Subject Guides: Company Research: Financial Data

What Information Is Available?

Publicly traded companies are required to disclose detailed financial information so that investors can make informed decisions.

Privately held companies are not required to disclose detailed financial information, therefore most figures for private companies are only estimates. Also note public companies are not required to separately disclose financial information for their private subsidiaries, so while financial information for the subsidiary will be made available as part of the company, it may not be broken down by each subsidiary.

Public Company Data

Mergent Online is the easiest source to use for finding company financials. It has the last 15 years or quarters available and allows easy export to Excel.

Compustat
Accessed via the Wharton Research Data Service (wrds), Compustat Global and North America provide time series data on a multitude of financial data points.
Hoover's
Proprietary information on more than 65 million public and private companies, along with executive biographies and industry descriptions.
**Access limited to 51 concurrent users. Please click on 'Rolling User' > 'Logout' when exiting to release the session for another user.**
Mergent Market Atlas
Provides corporate information on over 50,000 US and foreign public companies, current and historical (past 15 years) firm descriptions, statistics, financial information and ratios, annual reports, mergers, acquisitions, disposals, joint ventures, long-term debt, capital stock, and insider trading.
Market Atlas replaces Mergent Online, which was discontinued in August 2025.

Private Company Data

Remember that figures are most likely estimates rather than actual.

Hoover's
Includes information on some private companies.
Mergent Market Atlas
Includes information on some private companies.
PitchBook
PitchBook tracks the private and public equity markets. It provides data on the venture capital, private equity and M&A landscape, including information about funds, limited partners, service providers, founders, investors and buyers.
* Problem logging in to PitchBook? Select Log in with SSO. *
PrivCo
PrivCo is a source for business and financial data on US-based major privately held companies, including family owned, private equity owned, and venture backed companies. PrivCo covers more than 180,000 private companies, including financial data, more than 70,000 M&A transactions, and more than 50,000 funding rounds. It also includes more than 10,000 investor profiles.
**Create an account for personalization using your AU credentials or access the database by clicking the 'Direct Access' button on the landing page.**

Nonprofits

Note that Guidestar's coverage isn't complete and it doesn't provide financial information on all of the nonprofits it includes.

GuideStar Pro
Search for reports on non-profits, including organizations and more than 3.3 million individuals. For some groups, up to 5 years' worth of IRS tax forms, balance sheet, and income and distribution data is available.
** This database can only be accessed when connected to the secure campus network (includes AU VPN). **
** Users must create a personal account to access downloads of up to 1,000 records per month from search results. **