This database may be used in a variety of ways, as indicated in part by the tabs Basic Search, Advanced Search, and EDGAR Search. Results from any of these searches can be added to a company analysis list and used to compare a number of companies on a variety of criteria.

Basic Search allows you to access a company's business summary; financials (annual or quarterly), balance sheet, income statement, retained earnings, cash flow, or all financials, including segments, prelims, generated, restated, ratios, and analysis; Edgar filings, in text or Excel format; recent news, annual reports for the past eight or so years; research, including earnings estimates, institutional holdings, and insider holdings; equity and corporate bond portraits, including dividends; and tear sheets/fact sheets.

Advanced Search is more complicated, requiring the completion of a seven-step process:

• Box 1:  Select a Category/Subcategory:
  • Executives (Directors Name, Officers Name)
  • Financials (Cash Flow from Operations, Income from Continuing Operations, Long-Term Debt, Net Income, Total Assets, Total Liabilities, Total Revenue)
  • General Company Information (Auditor, City, Country Code, Legal Counsel, Number of Employees, Region, State/Province, Stock Exchange, Subsidiary, Years Incorporated/Founded)
  • Industry Codes (Any NAIC, Any SIC, Primary NAIC, Primary SIC)
  • Ratios (Current Ratio, EDBITA of Revenue, Gross Margin, Long Term Debt to Equity, Profit Margin, Quick Ratio, Return on Assets, Return on Equity, Revenue to Total Assets, Total Liability to Equity, Working Capital to Total Assets)
  • Textual Search (Business, History, Joint Ventures, Property)
• Box 2:   Select an Operator:
  • Contains
  • Starts With
  • Equal To
  • Does Not Equal
  • Greater Than
  • Less Than
• Box 3:  Set Value
• Box 3a:  l Select a Fiscal Year End: From 1990 to Latest
• Box 4:   Add Criterion (which inserts a value in the next box)
• Box 5:   Refine Search Criteria (finds matches on all criteria or on any criteria)
• Box 6:   Select Appropriate Databases:
  • U.S. Company Data
  • U.S. Company Data Archive
  • International Company Data
  • International Company Data Archive
  • Index (by Country)

EDGAR Search provides access to Securities and Exchange Commission filings, with links to EDGAR definitions, EDGAR filing types, and the S.E.C. central index key lookup. In EDGAR search, you can search by company name, ticker symbol, central index key, or search via free text in all EDGAR documents. In addition, you can search by date or date range of filing, and by filing type, including 10-Q, SC-13, 10-K, S-8, DEF-14A, 424B2, and other (which may be specified).

There is also a Codes Reference, with SIC, NAICS, U.S. and Canadian state/province, region, exchange, and country codes. From Advanced Search, use Help, in the upper right corner, for more guidance.

Example #1:   To locate all companies in this database, in France, using Advanced Search:

• Box 1:   Select a Category/Subcategory:
  • Category:  General Company Information
  • Subcategory:   Country Code
• Box 2:   Select an Operator
  • Equal To
• Box 3:   Set Value
  • FRA (for France, from the Country Code list)
• Box 3a:   Select a Fiscal Year End: From 1990 to Latest
• Box 4:   Add Criterion(which inserts a value in the next box)
  • Click Add Criterion, to move the Country Code in Box 3, Set Value, to Box 5, Refine Search Criteria.
• Box 5:   Refine Search Criteria (finds matches on all criteria or on any criteria)
• Box 6:   Select Appropriate Databases:
  • International Company Data
  • International Company Data Archive

  The result is a list of 749 companies, arranged alphabetically by company name. This list is added to the right column under Recent Searches.

Mergent Online Guides:

• Mergent Online:   This brief guide is from the Horn Business Library at Babson College.

• Quick Reference Guide for Mergent Online:   This guide, in two PDF pages, is from the Business Library at the University of Western Ontario.

• Mergent Online Tutorial:   This guide from California State University, Hayward, explains how to search for company information in this database.

• Research Aids: Mergent Online:   This guide from the University of Baltimore covers how to search this database, in both the basic and advanced modes.