equities research

Equities Research

“The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”

Equities Research: The Good

Business and the Economy well covered in media

Public companies have filing requirements

Good variety of sources to work with Same/similar info in different places

Archive (history) depends on source Presentation options (excel downloads?)

Equities Research: The Bad

Business and the Economy well covered in media lots and lots of information reliability/bias issues

Overlap Private companies

(parent/subsidiary issues) Complexity of sources Reliability of sources

Business Research: The Ugly

You Need a Plan

Research Process

Four Steps:

1) Nature and Extent of Information Needed

2) Access Information Effectively and Efficiently

3) Evaluate Critically and Incorporate into Knowledge Base/Value System

4) Use Information Ethically and Legally

Step One

Nature and Extent

Choose Your Topic Wisely public companies Canada

Banks Energy

United States Automotive Pharma Airlines

Abbott Laboratories

Industry Info

comparatorsIncome Stmt/Balance Sheet stock analysis

Financial

Drug PipelineManagement Team

History, background,

overview

Recent News

Abbott Laboratories

Industry Info

comparatorsIncome Stmt/Balance Sheet stock analysis

Financial

Drug PipelineManagement Team

History, background,

overview

Recent News

company website,Company profile,

book

news articles

Mergent, FPInfomart

company website, proxy

factiva, industry canada

Step Two

Access Information Effectively and Efficiently

Company Websites Company overview Annual Report Financial statements News releases Speeches Product information Management Team and more…..(all from the company’s

perspective)

Broadest Coverage Hoover’s Business Source Complete

Most In-depth Mergent (for US) FPInfomart (for CAN)

Filings SEC/EDGAR SEDAR

Company Research Databases

More Company Research Databases

Additional Information Factiva – global news and company reports GMID – market information Industry Canada – industry information Lexis-Nexis – a few analyst reports Datastream

Hoover’s

Hoovers

Business Source Complete

Mergent

Compare by Company or Industry/Sector

FP Infomart

Factiva

4079 hits!

Narrow by Industry Topic

Narrow by Geographic Region

Good idea to SEGMENT your search and do different pieces separately.

Companies/Markets Tab• Quotes• Charting• Company

Charting Menu

Build Your Own Company Report

Government Filing Sites

SEDAREDGAR

EDGAR (SEC DOCUMENTS SEARCH)

MARKET AND INDUSTRY INFORMATION

Global Market Information

Database

Industry Canadawww.ic.gc.ca

Economic Information Bank of Canada Federal Reserve National Bureau of Economic

Research Bureau of Labor Statistics Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Conference Board of Canada

Bank of Canadawww.bankofcanada.ca

The Fed (USA)www.federalreserve.gov

National Bureau of Economic

Researchwww.nber.org

Bureau of Labor Statistics

www.bls.gov

Economist Intelligence Unit

EIU for World Market

Information

Searching for Articles

Company News Searching: Hints

Too many results Limit by date Search head/lead where option

available Search specific company issues

follow-up on a press release Limit sources

weed out press releases use phrase searching (“general

motors”)

Company News Searching: Hints

Too few results Expand dates Search full text Expand keywords

synonyms alternate name forms (General Motors

versus GM) parent/subsidiary

Expand sources

Keyword Searching

Refresher??Slides here for reference only; this topic will not be

covered in class.

Constructing a Keyword Search

ANDOR$,*

“ ”

Boolean Operator AND AND = LESS records must include BOTH

concepts use “and” between required

concepts

avian flu AND vaccine

Boolean Operator OR OR = MORE records must include EITHER

concept use “or” between synonyms enclose synonyms in brackets.

avian flu OR bird flu

Wildcard Symbol Rather than:

engineer or engineers or engineered or engineering

Use the root of the word plus the wildcard symbol to find all variations of the word

Here’s how….

Shorten the words to the last common letter…

E N G I N E E RE N G I N E E R SE N G I N E E R I N GE N G I N E E R E D

Each database has it’s own wildcard symbol. $ ? ! * are the most common…

E N G I N E E RE N G I N E E R SE N G I N E E R I N GE N G I N E E R E D

E N G I N E E R *

Use the wildcard symbol on the end of the word root:

Quotation Marks Search: Hockey Night In Canada

retrieves: A day and night in the life of Canada, by John Hockey.

Better Search: “Hockey Night in Canada”

retrieves only the specific phrase

Step Three

Analyze and Evaluate

Analyzing Business Sources

Timeliness Reliability Bias Geography Perspective Source Purpose

The lies that PR people

tell are usually liesof omission rather

thanoutright

falsehoods. Eric SparlingAuthor of “Confessions of a Former

Spin Doctor”http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/

2000Q2/sparling3.html

Step Four

PresentAccording to your Professor’s Instructions

Nicole Doyle, Business Librarian

nicole.doyle@uoit.ca