What Is Compustat?
Compustat is an entire database of elementary financial and market knowledge on each and every full of life and inactive international corporations, indices, and industries.
The type of knowledge published by means of Compustat incorporates International Industry Classification Necessities (GICS), pricing wisdom, source of revenue wisdom, insider and institutional holdings, and other knowledge directed at patrons, analysts, economists, lecturers, and other researchers.
key takeaways
- Compustat, published by means of Same old and Poor’s since 1962, is a broadly used financial database and information provider.
- The supplier covers masses of companies global all through numerous markets.
- With knowledge relationship as far back as 1950, Compustat is a primary provide of intelligence for financial market execs, patrons, and lecturers.
Understanding Compustat
Compustat is a primary computerized provide of market intelligence and company wisdom—and one of the oldest: It is been produced by means of Same old & Poor’s (S&P) since 1962. Its registered identify is an amalgam of “computer” and “statistics,” reflecting how novel the construction will have to have seemed to Space Age shoppers.
The supplier compiles raw financial tales filed by means of every public company, every year and quarterly. This incorporates provide income, expenses, assets and liabilities, and former tales of the identical wisdom to facilitate trend analysis. Stock value history may be available.
The Compustat database is used by institutional patrons, universities, portfolio managers, and analysts. Together with publicly available knowledge, Compustat incorporates datasets proprietary to Same old & Poor’s, at the side of stock tales and credit score rating ratings issued by means of the corporate.
Compustat mainly draws its wisdom from SEC filings, which it standardizes to allow for upper comparisons. It nutritional dietary supplements this knowledge with additional wisdom property as sought after.
Explicit Problems
Every report built-in into the Compustat database is reviewed by means of analysts for adherence to its reporting and presentation formats. Automated methods perform a wide variety of within wisdom tests that help further ensure wisdom consistency.
For example, source of revenue in an annual report most often presentations the collected total of all incoming cash, on the other hand in a Compustat report, it may be adjusted to tell apart between source of revenue from precise operations and source of revenue that resulted from one-time-only events (which the corporate report would most likely only checklist in footnotes or nutritional dietary supplements). Or take the street products referred to as worth of product sales: In some corporate tales, they replicate direct cash outlays, while in others they arrive with material allocations for a lot of types of depreciation. Inside the latter case, Compustat’s standardized reporting would distinguish the depreciation portions and checklist them one after the other.
Compustat Data and Products
Compustat offers subscribers numerous databases. The two number one ones are North The U.S. and International, on the other hand there are a selection of add-on databases as neatly. Overall, the following knowledge is available:
Fundamentals
- Compustat Wisdom at the side of Compustat North The U.S., Compustat International, Compustat International, and Compustat Stage-in-Time wisdom devices
- Industry classification and universe regulate by means of GICS, NAICS, and SIC
- Key market identifiers, at the side of CUSIP, ISIN, and SEDOL
Integrated Databases
- Per 30 days and day-to-day pricing wisdom
- Same old & Poor’s and other primary Index Wisdom
- Estimates wisdom from Capital IQ and Thomson I/B/E/S
- Qualitative content material subject material at the side of trade descriptions, officer knowledge, and executive compensation
- Corporate Actions and Insider and Institutional Holdings
Proprietary Wisdom
- Capital IQ qualitative wisdom
- Same old & Poor’s Stock Research
- Same old & Poor’s Industry Surveys
- Same old & Poor’s Issuer Credit score rating Ratings
How Compustat Works
Compustat Stats
Some fun data in regards to the Compustat database:
- Covers 56,000+ corporations global
- Covers 88,000+ securities, more than 45,500 of them non-North American securities
- Accommodates corporations from 112 international locations
- Represents 98% of the field’s total market capitalization
- Has annual wisdom relationship once more to 1950; quarterly wisdom from 1962 (U.S. corporations)
- Has wisdom relationship once more to 1979 for international corporations
