Common options to search publicly-owned companies/corporations are by their full name or by their stock ticker symbol (TS). A TS is a unique company name abbreviation comprised of letters and numbers; they alternately identify a company name and its publicly traded stock daily reported through a particular market such as the NY Stock Exchange. Their format may be all alpha letters (1-4) only, or numbers, or a distinct combination of both. As a searchable identifier fields in many electronic resources, it is often more efficient (translate "less key strokes") for companies with complex formal names to search for them by TS rather than formal name key words. Eg., formal name: E.I. duPont de Nemours and Co. versus its TS symbol: DD.
Stock symbol and their trading exchange information are commone elements most brief company profile characteristics.
Ticker symbols if unknown may be found on some free websites like Market Watch or at NASDAQ among many options of choice.
Before exploring any of our e-databases it is important to know in general something about a company/corporation's status. That key consideration to researching and finding is knowing something about its status: public, private, or subsidiary.
Private companies do not issue publicly traded stocks nor do they file financial activity/ownership reports with the Securities Exchange Commission [SEC], and they share little to no financials with the public. Researching some apects of their operations may be difficult or challenging, be creative in approach and strategy. Many resources often combine to profile private company activities, acquisitions, ownership, etc..
Public companies are easier to research based on their vast amounts of internal financial and operational information filed as required by law with the SEC, the primary regulatory agency. Another performance indicator is their publicly sold/held ownership and pricing on shares of stock.
Subsidiaries. The public, parent-company owner of subsidiaries does not always issue vast amounts of information for each owned entity individually. Yet information does exist in the form of company announcements and the reporting efforts of news wire services and the business press media. As a researcher, you should examine documents/references of parent companies for subsidiary information or search specifically by name of the unit in our various business databases.
Some interesting links courtsey of the Library of Congress.
Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), authorized via the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, is the key federal oversight agency to track, regulate, and prosecute fraudulent practices, misrepresentations or rules violations within the U.S. securities industry. Companies issuing securities instruments (stock, bonds, etc) traded on exchange market, by law, must file periodic disclosure documentation on their ownership, operations, and disclose detailed financial information on a recurring basis, all information being considered public.
SEC concerns (of which there are many) essentially focus to: ensuring investor confidence; ethical personnel conduct; transparent/equitable security trading; stability within trading markets; and ownership transparency.
Selected SEC forms filing addressed elsewhere in this guide.
More information on this agency may be found at: www.sec.gov