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Public vs. Private Company: Home

Sources to determine if a company is publicly or privately held.

Sources for Determining if a Company Public or Private

One good place to start for determining if a firm is publicly or privately held is Mergent Intellect, which provides the well-known “Hoover’s/Dun & Bradstreet” company profiles.  Another good quick option is LexisNexis Company Dossier, and a third would be ReferenceUSA.  What you'll be looking for is a designation of the firm as "Public" or "Private."  If the company is public, you will also see a stock ticker symbol.

It may also occur that your particular company is a subsidiary or division of a publicly-held company, such that you will not find financials, etc., on this division,  Instead you'll have to go to the parent, publicly-held firm for main financials, and see what possible information may be stated about segments or division performance.