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Com­pustat

Ac­cess con­sist­ent and struc­tured ac­count­ing and mar­ket data for more than 80,000 lis­ted com­pan­ies. It is an ideal tool for quant­it­at­ive ana­lys­is, bench­mark­ing and stud­ies of cor­por­ate fin­an­cial per­form­ance over time.

Access Compustat via WRDS

Facts

Coverage
Primarily data for the United States and Canada, though selected modules cover global markets
Period
1950-
Access
Campus + remote access - (registration needed for access)
Provider
S&P Glob­al Mar­ket in­tel­li­gence via Whar­ton Re­search Data Ser­vices
Subjects
Finance Investment Economics Companies Market Key figure

Struc­tured ac­count­ing and mar­ket data for fin­an­cial ana­lys­is

What is Compustat?

The database is provided by S&P Global and accessed through WRDS (Wharton Research Data Services).
Compustat covers more than 80,000 active and historical listed companies across the world with particularly strong coverage of the United States and Canada.

Its main strength is consistent and standardised datasets ready for quantitative analysis and comparison across companies and time. In Compustat, standardised accounting and market data are based on SEC filings.

Examples of data available in Compustat

  • Annual and quarterly accounts: balance sheet, income statement, cash flow
  • Financial key figures: profitability, leverage, growth, earnings per share and more
  • Segment information: geographic and business segmentation

CBS has access to selected Compustat modules via WRDS

  • North America (annual and quarterly accounts, market data, equities)
  • Global (accounts and equities for companies outside North America)
  • Bank (accounts for banks)
  • Historical Segments (segment data)
  • Execucomp (executive compensation in the United States)
  • Snapshot (core accounting items and key figures)

When is Compustat useful?

It is particularly well suited for empirical analysis, benchmarking and advanced econometric studies.

If you are examining equities and corporate performance or development over time, it is highly relevant. Market analysis, equity data and key figures can easily be exported to Excel.

You can also integrate Compustat with other WRDS databases such as CRSP to analyse links between accounting data and share prices.