Standard and Poor's Net Advantage is one of the most powerful databases for accessing information about companies and industries.   It consists of many investment publications, such as:

Bond Guide	Information on over 12,000 corporate, convertible, and foreign bonds.  Searchable over the previous 12 month period.
Corporation Records	In-depth financial information on over 12,000 U. S. and Canadian publicly-held corporations and  821 foreign corporations.
Dividend Record	Reports on dividend payments, stock splits and stock dividends, rights distributions, etc. on over 20,000 issues and is updated quarterly.
Earnings Guide	Provides detailed earnings information for approximately 5,000 publicly-traded stocks.
Industry Surveys	In-depth economic and business information on 52 major U. S. industries.  Includes Monthly Investment Review, which provides investment advice on 115 key industries.
Mutual Funds	Profiles over 11,000 mutual funds.  Provides 10 years of historical data, comparison reports.
The Outlook	Contains S & P's analyses of stock market trends.
Standard & Poor's Register	Directory of corporations and their executives.  Provides contact information, including names, titles, addresses, telephone numbers.
Security Dealers of North America	Detailed listings on over 4,500 main offices and 11,000 branches, 45,000 key personnel
Stock Guide	Profiles over 11,000 common and preferred stocks, listed and NASDAQ.
Stock Reports	Detailed information and analysis on approximately 5,500 publicly-traded companies.

 

Guide to Conducting Industry Analysis

From the Net Advantage homepage, click on Industry Surveys in the left-hand menu.

Use the LOOK UP feature to select an industry.

Click on LOOK UP, and highlight the industry.  For example, select COMPUTERS-SOFTWARE, click on ADD. You may select additional industries by going back to the list and highlighting the industry and then clicking ADD.

When finished selecting the industry or industries, click on GO.

When you have retrieved the Industry Survey, for easier reading, you can use the right mouse button to OPEN FRAME IN NEW WINDOW.

The INDUSTRY SURVEY consists of:

CURRENT ENVIRONMENT--a review and forecast, emerging trends and recent developments that may signal long term trends.

INDUSTRY PROFILE--major players and market share data, market development, raw materials situation, labor environment and regulatory trends.

HOW THE INDUSTRY OPERATES--business-/economic cycles to which it is subject, competitive landscape, raw materials, distribution, regulation, and legislation.

KEY RATIOS AND STATISTICS--key ratios and statistics that benchmark the industry's health.

HOW TO ANALYZE A COMPANY--evaluates the health and profitability of a company in the industry.

GLOSSARY--key terms used in the industry.

INDUSTRY REFERENCES--may include trade periodicals, trade associations, market research firms, and web sites of interest to this industry.

COMPARATIVE COMPANY ANALYSIS--tables with historical financial data, revenues and income, profitability ratios and balance sheet ratios for leading companies in the industry.

MONTHLY INVESTMENT REVIEW--tracks investment performance of key industries.

Note: You must click on each category to view the contents.  

From the left hand menu, you can also select back issues of Industry Surveys in either html or pdf format.  The pdf format is useful especially is you want to print charts and graphs.

After viewing the Industry Survey, select INDUSTRY INVESTMENT REVIEW from the left hand menu.  This will open a pdf file.  The Industry Investment Review gives a snapshot financial analysis of the industry.  

From the left hand menu, you can select the EARNINGS SUPPLEMENT.  The EARNINGS SUPPLEMENT provides an overview of the earnings from select Standard and Poor's 500, MidCap, and SmallCap companies.  Includes S & P's rating system.

From the left hand menu, choose COMPANY/INDUSTRY INDEX--TRENDS AND PROJECTIONS.  This provides a review of the current economy, including gross domestic product, interest rates, corporate profits, employment, consumer confidence, consumer price index, housing market,  etc.  Can also search prior issues.

Guide to Conducting Company Analysis

Return to the SEARCH screen by selecting SEARCH from the menu at the top of the page.  From the left hand menu, select CORPORATION RECORDS.  Corporation records can be searched by company name, ticker symbol, city, state, revenue, number of employees, or SIC code. 

You can use the LOOKUP feature to search within these fields.  

Select search by TICKER.  Enter GE.  This search will result in a screen giving the basic corporate description.  This includes the company name, address, phone numbers, corporate background, primary SIC codes, income, assets, and principal officers.

From the left hand menu, select FULL REPORT.  In addition to the corporate description, this provides bond ratings, primary and secondary SIC codes, corporate background, earnings history, full financial information, news, officers/directors, recent financial statements, stock information, subsidiaries.  The DIVIDEND GUIDE will provide annual dividend information.  

The EARNINGS GUIDE will show earnings estimates for this company.

In addition, you can look at earnings for RAPID GROWTH STOCKS, SIGNIFICANT EARNINGS ESTIMATE CHANGES for the current or prior months.  

From the left hand menu, you can select STOCK GUIDE to provide information on stock performance over five years.  

Select STOCK REPORTS for a more comprehensive look at the company's stock.  This includes an overview, an analyst report, and a business summary. 

You can also look at NEWS HEADLINES concerning your company, the INDUSTRY OUTLOOK, and the WALL STREET CONSENSUS.  

The WALL STREET CONSENSUS provides analyst recommendations and opinions.  

The full STOCK REPORT may also be retrieved as a pdf file.

For additional economic information and company projections, select the OUTLOOK from the left-hand menu.  The OUTLOOK is a newsletter that provides S & P's analysis of the stock market and offers an explicit investment policy.  You can search the OUTLOOK  by issue or by company.