Selected Company and/or Industry Sources

Informart A suite of databases from Financial Post Datagroup. Includes a wealth of information on Canadian publicly traded companies organized by key product category including Company Snapshots; Companies by Industry; Corporate Surveys; Predecessor & Defunct; Analyzer Search; Investor Reports (formerly blue sheets); Historical Reports (formerly yellow cards); Dividends; Crosbie Mergers & Acquisitions, and New Issues.

The Industry Reports section provides comparative data on the key Canadian public companies in each industry and provides general industry statistics and financial ratios. Also look at Companies by Industry for a list of companies within selected industries.

The Additional Databases link will lead you to Profile Canada for information on private companies.

Mergent Online: Provides information for over 60,000 global publicly traded companies. Company information includes detailed business description, corporate histories, financial statements (up to 15 years), ratios, long term debt, earnings estimates, and ownership information. Industry reports on approx. 22 industries are also included.   Historical company information is available in Mergent WebReports.

Marketline Advantage : The Marketline Advantage database is divided into Industry, Country, and Company. It covers SWOT company profiles for over 2500 public and private enterprises worldwide, accessing fast and reliable insights on thousands of industry sectors including Porter’s Five Forces analysis, accessing a top-level view of the business landscape in over 110 countries.

Lexis Nexis Academic: Provides access to documents and records from more than 45,000 legal, news and business sources.  Includes comprehensive company and industry reports, patent details, merger and acquisition analysis, bankruptcies, spin-offs etc.

Factiva: In addition to news and magazine articles, a good source for financial data, interactive charting and information on competitors.  Click on the Companies/Market link at the top of the web page and do a company search. Click on ‘Reports’ and select the type of report you want. e.g. Financial Health.

Google Finance: In addition to news, this website provides a broad range of information about stocks, mutual funds, public and private companies, including quotes and charts.  Also available are valuation ratios that give you industry and sector comparisons for your company.  Search and display your company.  Then scroll down and click on “more from  Reuters” on the left side of screen, and then click on the Financials tab at the top of the screen.

Investext Plus : A database providing global company and industry research and forecasts, reports from key brokerage firms. Currently over 140,000 documents are available in the database dating from 1994 to present.

Hoovers: A database with coverage of 65,000,000 public and private companies worldwide.  Includes an overview, competitors, financial information, SIC and NAICS codes, and links to the SEC filings. The Build a List feature allows you to identify companies by geographical area, industry codes, etc.

NetAdvantage: Standard & Poor’s database provides comprehensive information on business and investment information, offering on-line access to popular Standard & Poor’s research products such as Industry Surveys, Stock Reports, Corporation Records, The Register of Corporations, Directors and Executives, The Outlook, Mutual Fund Reports, etc. Also includes some Compustat data.

Bloomberg : is a real-time financial service that provides current and historical data, news and financial analysis of companies, stocks, bonds, and indices.Economic statistics are also available. Use Bloomberg to find BETA, WACC, Bond, Equity data, bankruptcy info, leveraged buyouts and more. Some industry information is available – use BI command.  Restricted to the York University Community and available in the Bronfman Library only. You can book a time to use Bloomberg

SEDAR: This website provides access to documents filed by public companies and mutual fund groups with Canadian securities regulatory authorities . Filings from 1997 to present are available.

EDGAR : The US Security and Exchange Commission’s database of public company information including 10k reports for public traded companies.

Industrial Classification Codes

The Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) is a useful tool for identifying key companies within an industry and conceptualizing the industry as a whole. SIC codes group together companies based on the goods and services produced.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) is an industrial classification system common to Canada, United States and Mexico. Gradually, the SIC system will be phased out in favour of the NAIC system. There are some differences however so if questions arise you will need to refer to:

Canada – NAICS 2012

SIC codes are still used in a number of databases and print reference resources. In some cases, the SIC codes used in Canada differ from those used in the U.S. A print version of the SIC table of codes is found in the Canadian Key Business Directory available in the Bronfman Business Library Reference Room. The Line of Business section groups Canadian businesses by SIC code. SIC codes for Canada are also available on Statistics Canada’s web site .

U.S. Census Bureau: NAICS

Industry Trends and Analysis

Industry Canada’s website for business and industry includes industry surveys, company directories, and patent and trademark databases. Much of the information on individual industries is found under Information by Industrial Sector and also via Canadian Industry Statistics . These are good sources for information on manufacturing industries and the high technology sector. This site has limited information on service industries.

Statistics Canada Publications . This is an index of all Statistics Canada publications available on the Internet as part of the York University Libraries depository library status. Divided into key subject categories including Primary Industries, Commerce and Manufacturing which all include publications of relevance to different industry sectors in Canada.

E-STAT and CANSIM : provide two different interfaces for access to Statistics Canada’s computerized database which containing over 730,000 time series. It is a detailed source of Canadian economic data collected by Statistics Canada and other agencies, including the Bank of Canada. Examples of the data available include the System of National Accounts, Labour, Manufacturing, Finance, and Agriculture.

Business Monitor Online : Contains quarterly surveys and forecasts for Canadian, U.S and foreign industries.

Damordaran Online: website of Aswath Damodaran, Professor of Finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. Contains updated tables of data related to the courses he teaches on valuation, portfolio management and applied corporate finance. Includes historical industry beta, along with a wealth of other data.

Plunkett Research: Provides research and trends analysis on a variety of industries, including energy, e-commerce, retailing and finance. In addition to the industry reports it includes statistics, charts and profiles of leading companies. Primarily US information.

Market Share Reporter: HF 5410 M33. A print reference tool for marketing research and economic analysis. The information is a compilation of market share reports from marketing literature. Over 2000 corporate, brand, product, service and commodity market and SIC code information is provided for North America. Latest edition in Bronfman Reference.

NetAdvantage : Standard and Poors. Detailed surveys of over 50 industries. Coverage includes industry trends, key ratios and a guide to analyzing companies in each industry. The focus is North American. This database also includes company information.

Value Line Investment Survey : Provides short introductory reports on each industry and detailed 1-2 page reports on the key companies in each industry. Located in the Bronfman Business Library Reference Room and the call number is HG 4501 V26.

Standard & Poors Analysts’ Handbook . Provides industry statistics and financial ratios for over 100 industries in the US. Includes income accounts and balance sheet items, as well as sales, profit margins, earnings, dividends, capital expenditures, etc… Available in the Bronfman Business Library Reference room and the call number is HG 4519 S772.