Gabelli Sophomore Consulting Challenge (CCIP): 4 - Financials & SBUs (SEC)

You have been assigned a public company for the CCIP, which means that the financial documents of that company have been submitted to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as is required by law.

The SEC maintains a database of those financial records and makes them available for free to the public.  The database is called EDGAR.

Private companies are not required to submit financials to the SEC, so their financials will be much more difficult to find.

Image of the website for EDGAR, the SEC database, with a red arrow pointing to the words "How to Research Public Companies."

The SEC collects a wide variety of information on public companies in order to ensure that investors are adequately informed about company activities, management, organization, financial stability, partnerships, and plans. Since 1971, the SEC has required disclosure in the areas of environmental and civil rights.

In the Spring of 2022, the SEC "proposed rule changes that would require registrants to include certain climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports, including information about climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition, and certain climate-related financial statement metrics in a note to their audited financial statements." (from the SEC press release about the proposed rule)

Most business databases provide financial information (that they obtained from the SEC).  Your team should consider the tools and supplemental analysis provided by a database when selecting information. Strategic business units (SBUs) are often reflected in the company's organizational structure or financial information.

• Examine the footnotes of financial records, especially if you notice different data for the same company and the same reporting period.
• Some databases provide tools that make it easier to compare companies with different fiscal years or currencies.
• Databases may also help you identify similar companies based on various criteria.
• Some databases provide more comprehensive financial information than others (additional ratios or breakdowns).
• Some business information providers hire analysts to create projections based on their research.
• Some databases make it easier to download and manipulate financial data for use in spreadsheets, graphs, charts, and other data tools.
• Some databases have assistive technology embedded in the database to make the information provided more accessible.

A List of Fordham Library databases that provide company financial information.