Subject Guides: Company Research: Starting Points

Business Librarian

Katie Hut

she/her/hers

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Subjects: Business, Economics

Industry Ratios

Benchmark a company's performance!

Key Business Ratios
Provides access to industry benchmarking data based on aggregated financial statements of public and private companies in 800 lines of business in Dun and Bradstreet’s (D&B) database. Features 14 key business ratios for the critical areas of business performance – solvency, efficiency and profitability. Ratios are arranged by the U.S. Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes.

In support of the University's budget mitigation efforts, AU Library had to make cuts to our collection and cancel some resources. Unfortunately, Key Business Ratios will no longer be available after January 28, 2026.
We recommend these resources as alternatives:
RMA eStatement Studies
Mergent Market Atlas
For more information about the library’s cancellation process, please see the Scholarly Resource Cancellations Subject Guide.
RMA eStatement Studies
Provides industry norms for over 600 industries. Reports are broken down by asset range and region. Provides five years worth of data.

Researching a Company

Before you start researching a company, think through these three questions:

Is the company public or private?
Public companies issue stock. Public companies must divulge much more information than private companies.
What does the company say about itself?
Read a company's financial statements and annual reports, which are usually located on the company's website.
What do others say about the company?
Read news articles, investment reports, and other secondary sources to fill in the gaps.

Key Company Overview Databases

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. **
Hoover's
Propriety information on more than 65 million public and private companies, along with executive biographies, three years of select financial information.
Mergent Market Atlas
Provides 15 years of financial and 20 years of equity information,current ownership, links to EDGAR filings, public annual reports and detailed company history, descriptions.
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.**

Key News and Journal Databases

ABI/Inform (Business and Management)
Contains bibliographic citations, abstracts, and full text of articles appearing in international business and management publications, academic journals, and trade magazines published worldwide.
Business Source Premier
Major business resource that provides access to scholarly and peer-reviewed articles from all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance and industry information, in addition to market research reports. Articles, many of which are full-text, are from thousands of scholarly business journals.