Here are three, free sites where you can find competitors. These web addresses are for Stryker: Hoover's Online provides a company's top three competitors: http://www.hoovers.com/free/search/simple/xmillion/stryker/--ID__14815--/free-co -factsheet.xhtml Yahoo Finance compares four direct competitors plus their industry in terms of 12 factors: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/co?s=SYK Smart Money compares 4 competitors plus the company you are interested in on 25 factors plus ranks them on 9 factors [JAVA needed]: http://www.smartmoney.com/eqsnaps/index.cfm?story=competition&symbol=SYK I use Hoovers alot and then get industry-wide PTPM and ROE data (5 year ave & TTM) from Reuters.com for my stock comparisons. Armin Fields ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Re: What Web Sites Do You Use for Competitors? From: "econard" Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2005 20:51:23 -0800 X-Message-Number: 17 Gary Simms wrote: > I'm just taking a survey of web sites you find useful to look at a company's competitors. I've used S&P subindustry reports for close competitors, but want free sites. Besides the sources that you and Dan have listed, here are a few others: - The annual Proxy statement The company lists the companies it thinks are it main competitors. The company also sometimes lists it competitors in the Item1. Business section of 10-Q. Then go to Yahoo, MSN etc. for comparisons - EdgarScan: There are two distinct separations, or ways to get what you want Enter the ticker/ scroll to bottom for top 3 competitors 1.SIC Industry listings Type in the ticker symbol/company name. At the top of the next page click the SIC industry.link. This will take you to a list of all thecompanies in the industry. The companies are ranked by a variety of metrics (pull-down list.) Each column's listings are hyper-links. You can play around with it -- click on each column of a company and you will see the results. 2. The "Benchmark Assistant" - Competitor Comparisons - Click link in the middle of the main page and then enter the ticker. - Click the the "Benchmark Assistant" hyperlink under the heading "Extracted Financial Data". This brings you to a java applet that gives you a graphical representation of selected financial data, for the past 10 years. - Click on the "Companies" tab that's on the applet. - This will list the company whose ticker symbol you entered as the "Selected" company. - Click "Find Peers" button at the bottom. This will list the industry competitors. - Choose the closest ones, and you'll get a side-by-side comparison of them as it relates to the selected financial data. For example, the default graph you first see is "Total Operating Revenue." But from there, you can choose "Asset Turnover Ratio," "Current Ratio," "Days in Accounts Payable," "Gross Margin," "Gross Profit, "Inventory Turnover," and dozen's (144) more ratios. - Hoovers - top 3 competitors: http://hoovers.com Enter the ticker/click "Fact Sheet" at left & scroll to bottom for top 3 competitors. - Reuters - Comparison to industry, sector & S&P 500: http://www.reuters.com/ Enter the ticker symbol/Go/"Ratios" - SmartMoney - Competitors page: If the URL gets truncated, try: http://www.smartmoney.comEnter Enter ticker/click "Competition" at the top of the page Lists several competitors and 25 parameters for each stock. You can also choose additional stocks to compare. Sector and industry maps at Smart Money: http://smartmoney.com/maps/ If this URL doesn't work, go to Click on the "Maps" link at the top of the home page. The graphical representation gives a visual overview of the relative size of all the companies in the sector/industry in a way that a mere list can not. (I am not sure if this part of the web site is free -- I think it is now subscription-only access.) I am not aware of any other site that compares estimates for future growth, but am not sure how accurate the estimates are. Also has historical comparisons. - Wright Investor's Service - top 3 competitors: www.wisi.com - Yahoo - competitors: http://finance.yahoo.com/ Enter ticker/scroll down and click competitor. Ellen