01. Basic Information

1.1 Which exchange does it trade on?
1.2 What is its stock symbol? (This is useful shorthand for searching)
1.2 Location of headquarters (address, phone, fax)?
1.4 URL of company web page?

There are a number of places to get started online to find this basic information including Yahoo Finance, MSN Money, Google Finance.  Although we prefer Yahoo Finance, these sites provide slightly different information, but we would encourage you to get to know one of them well and use it as your first stop when conducting your research.

Spend some time and get to know the company web site. Typically, the information you are looking for is in the “Investors Section”, but become familiar with what information is available in all sections of their web site.

Dun and Bradstreet is the major firm that provides credit reports to businesses; they have over 195 million records worldwide. For large firms there may be a D&B report for the parent company as well as a number of divisions or locations.

UMass Resources (for UMass students only)

Business Source Complete and Mergent Online are excellent sites for gathering basic information.