Industry Trends and Projections
Finding Company and Industry Information

Print Sources Electronic Sources

Finding information about an industry is one of the first steps in developing many business reports or plans for homework assignments. Industries, important for the economy, behave differently, and their actions are useful in explaining the status of the overall economy. Industries are also helpful for investors, since companies usually follow their industries. Some sources listed below may arrange industries by an SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) or the newer NAICS (North American Industrial Classification System) code. To determine a code for the industry you are interested researching see Classification. If you need assistance in using any of these print or electronic resources ask a reference librarian at the Reference Desk (1st floor or by phone 405-744-9775) for help.

Print Sources

Major Print Sources:

Standard and Poor's Industry Surveys	Profiles of 52 industries, with a focus on current situation and outlook. Summary data on major companies, primarily public, is in table for easy use.	Reference Area 332.67 S785s
Value Line Investment Survey	Loose leaf publication that includes articles about 1600 publicly held companies and their corresponding industries.	Reserve Desk 332.05 V215
U.S. Industry Trade Outlook	An industry-by-industry overview of the U.S. economy, covering manufacturing and service industries to construction, agriculture and natural resources. Will not list individual companies. 2001 edition will only be available through the web.	Ready Reference* C 61.48
Mergent's/Moody's Industry Review	Contains comparative financial statistics on 3,000 public companies arranged in 137 industry groups.	Reference Area 332.67 M8174

(* Ready Reference refers to the collection of reference books kept behind the Reference Desk on 1st floor)

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Electronic sources

Many of the Library's electronic databases available, such as Proquest offer magazine and newspaper articles about the industry you are researching. To obtain an easy-to-read table reporting the financial information of an industry, select Factiva from the Library's A-Z List of Indexes and Databases.

When you come to the selection screen in Factiva (see below), click on the "Companies/Markets" tab:

This will take you to a screen where you can input the name or ticker symbol for the company. After you've entered your company information, click the "Search" button:

Click on the company name to display the financial information page for the company. This page includes various news items relating to the company as well as the financial reports. Scroll down to the "Reports" section and click on the "Comparison Report." This table will compare industry financial information to that of the company:

 

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