Comparing Historical US Equity Fundamentals Data Sources
Summary
This discussion outlines vendor and dataset considerations for researchers seeking historical US equity fundamentals. The requested features include broad export rights, coverage of firms that later disappeared through bankruptcy or mergers, financial statements with originally reported values, and long histories extending before 1990. It also asks whether a provider offers a comprehensive variable list or sample company profile.
The answers point to Morningstar’s equity fundamentals database structure, which was made available through Quantopian, and describe Compustat as supporting extensive exports, disbanded-entity histories, restatements, point-in-time data, and coverage reaching back to 1950. They mention that Compustat can be accessed through platforms including WRDS and Capital IQ, and refer to variable guides and a Compustat-CRSP data guide. These are vendor claims reported in the discussion, not an independent comparison; access, pricing, coverage details, and current availability may vary by product and region.
Key ideas
- Historical fundamentals research should check whether delisted and acquired firms remain in the dataset.
- Originally reported statements and restated values serve different research needs.
- The discussion describes Compustat as offering long coverage and point-in-time data.
- Morningstar and Compustat are identified as sources with database structure or variable documentation.
- The vendor information is a dated discussion and does not provide a systematic feature comparison.
Tags
Full text
# Data exported from Capital IQ, FactSet, Bloomberg, Compustat # Data exported from Capital IQ, FactSet, Bloomberg, Compustat I'm looking for reliable data on US equity fundamentals, but not sure which vendor provides these features: - Unlimited data export - Coverage of disbanded entities (bankruptcies, M&A) - Financial statements, including values initially stated by the company - Historical data prior to 1990 Does any of the vendors have a comprehensive list of variables available for each company through its platform? Or a sample profile exported from its dataset? I found one for Compustat and Zacks, but not for the others. Basic financials (earnings, net margin, price) are freely available, but vendors like Capital IQ have a more comprehensive coverage. Or maybe some vendor sells all historical data on US public companies as a single dataset? ## Answer by Anton Tarasenko (score 6) https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/22558 ### Morningstar Morningstar partnered with Quantopian, and the latter published the structure of Morningstar's equity fundamentals database: - https://www.quantopian.com/help/fundamentals Quantopian users can use this data for free. ## Answer by Anton Tarasenko (score 5) https://quant.stackexchange.com/a/22442 ## Compustat - supports unlimited data export - keeps the history of disbanded entities - provides restatements since 1950 + point-in-time data since 1986 - coverage since 1950 - list of variables (data guide) Compustat is a S&P subsidiary. It goes as a plugin for CapitalIQ (also S&P), WRDS, CRSP, and other platforms. Pricing starts from \$3k. A platform typically costs another \$10-20k and provides additional data (deals, management, macro). Access via data feed costs \$15k+. The prices depend on your region. Example of the variables available in Compustat via WRDS: - https://wrds-web.wharton.upenn.edu/wrds/demo/demoform_compustat.cfm Compustat + CRSP: - http://crsp.org/files/ccm_data_guide_0.pdf
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