Is a Company Public or Private?
- Yahoo FinanceGo to Yahoo Finance and search a company names. Company reports for publicly traded companies will include a ticker symbol which indicates it is traded on a stock exchange. Example: Target (TGT)
- Ticker Symbol Lookup - NASDAQ.comSearch for ticker symbols on multiple exchanges.
- EDGAR.govFree access to more than 21 million public company filings. Select "Search for company filings" then select "Company or fund name, ticker symbol, etc." EDGAR will only provide public company information.
Annual Reports
Annual reports are published by public companies discussing their products and financial position for the previous year. Annual reports typically include the following:
- A letter from the "Chairman of the Board" to the shareholders
- Financial statements including sales, stock, and marketing data
- Information about products and subsidiaries
- A list of directors and officers of the company
For private companies that are subsidiaries of public companies, annual reports are often the only way to locate information about their operations.
Go to Google and type (using quotations) "Name of company" and "annual report.”
- Annual Reports61,384 annual reports from 5,273 companies worldwide
- The Public Register OnlineCreate a free user profile to view over 5,000 online annual reports or 10-K presentations.
Public Company Rankings
- America's Top Public Companies In 2017Article by Corinne Jurney, Forbes Magazine.
- Fortune 500Fortune 500 companies represent two-thirds of the U.S. GDP with $12 trillion in revenues, $890 billion in profits, $19 trillion in market value, and employ 28.2 million people worldwide.
- Company List (NASDAQ, NYSE, & AMEX)Browse companies by name, region or industry.
- 50 largest companies in the world by revenueArticle by Jeff Desjardins, Visual Capitalist
Apr. 26, 2017, Business Insider
