Researching Companies with a Negative Profit Margin
This guide is specific to Prof. Sossaman's Business and Technical Writing class.
Using the stock screener available at Hoovers.com, you can search for publicly traded companies with a negative profit margin.
To access Hoover's StockScreener:
- Point your web browser to http://www.stockscreener.com.
Searching for Companies
- In the Customized Search section find Profit Margin.
- Enter the range within which you wish to search. For example if you want to see those companies whose profit margin was between -5% and -10% you would enter -10 in the left box and -5 in the right box.
- Click on the Go button below the search field.
- You will be provided with an alphabetical list of companies that meet your search criteria. The corresponding profit margin will also be displayed, and is based on the company's most recent annual report.
- Results are displayed twenty at a time. To view the next set of results click Next 20 at the bottom of the list.
Retrieving Company Information and Annual Reports
- From the result list, click on a company name to bring up its Company Capsule. This provides basic background on the company.
To retrieve annual report information including Management's Discussion and Analysis:
- Click on the Financials tab.
- Click on the link to SEC FILINGS.
- Select the most recent 10K filing provided. The 10K is the annual report equivalent public companies must file with the Federal Government.
- When the table of contents appears, look for Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition to provide narrative information on the past year's events in the company.
To retrieve the annual report distributed to shareholders:
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