It's a question that journalists and columnists hear all the time: where did you get that information? Most corporate executives are astonished at the amount and quality of information out there about their enterprises. So I thought I'd let my readers in on a few secrets concerning how I research companies.

Now there's no rocket science involved in this. Most of the information sources I utilize also are used by online investors, analysts, institutional investors and other journalists. That's why you need to know what they are.

Monitoring these information sources should be a critical part of every company's communications strategy. Real estate companies should be especially vigilant right now, when earnings look good but stock prices are lagging.

Taking advantage of these circumstances could result in a significant uptick in stock prices. But investors monitor their target investments via the Internet. Incorrect or unattractive reports about a company - especially those that are accessed on the Web - must be headed off or contradicted to ensure minimal damage.

So let's take a trip through the mind of a reporter checking out the real estate firm of Joe Bob & Kenny Wayne. First, I visit Hoover's Online.

A quick search on the firm's name pops up all kinds of wonderful information, some of which is free to the public and some that is restricted to members only. Free information on this site includes company name, address, business description, earnings, revenue, corporate officers and Web site. Also available are links to recent news stories and releases.

Now, access to SEC filings on the Hoover's site costs money. But there's no need to fret. Instead, I simply utilize the free SEC information available at edgar-online.com.

Required reading on this site includes the company's most recent quarterly earnings reports and any statements of ownership (Schedules 13 G and 13 D). Statements of ownership must be filed by anyone who has at least a 10 percent stake in a public company. These can be extremely revealing.

The next stop is Yahoo!. This site has an incredible stock quote section. Particularly good here are the insider information pages, stock charts, historical stock performance pages, earnings and other ratios and - my personal favorite - analysts recommendations. Again, all of this information is free.

Now for the real fun. I move on to Company Sleuth. This Web site pulls information from numerous sources that can tell executives exactly how their company is viewed in the cyber marketplace. Several of the links on this site we've already covered with Hoover's, Edgar or Yahoo, which tend to offer easier-to-use formats.

The most fun part of Company Sleuth is the message boards. Here you can see what investors, day traders, employees and random folks have written about publicly traded companies in news groups and chat rooms across the globe. This is the information that must be most carefully monitored by corporate America, although going after slanderers can sometimes do more harm than good.

My quick trip to cyberspace is finished up with a Dun & Bradstreet report. These cost bucks, as well as a subscription to D&B. Typically, I use these only on in-depth company profiles. They include a great deal of information that most journalists consider unethical to print, such as creditors, days in A/P, etc.

But they can be incredibly useful in pointing journalists in the right direction on a story. Just as individuals should check their credit report for misinformation, so should companies check their D&Bs.

Of course, there is much more in-depth online research that will reveal information about most large companies. But this overview should be a good start for you folks out there unaware of what gossip may be spreading about your enterprises.

Published: August 27, 1999

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