Capital IQ Desk Manual

© Rotman Financial Research and Trading Lab

Capital IQ Rev 1.0

Capital IQ Rev 1.0


Page 1 of 8

Introduction Capital IQ is a web and Excel-based financial research application produced by Standard & Poor’s. To use

the software, you have to login to your account at the Capital IQ homepage: www.capitaliq.com. All MBA

students are entitled to their own Capital IQ account that they can access from anywhere. To get this

account, please visit the Rotman Finance Lab. Alternatively students can use the workstations in the

Finance Lab and use the auto-login feature on a FRTL workstation in order to access Capital IQ.

My Capital IQ Upon login, you should be at the My Capital IQ page. Every Capital IQ page follows the same layout:

Top menu bar: accesses functions like My Capital IQ, Company Intelligence, Market Analysis, Screening.

Left menu: more options for each of the functions.

Body: displays selected information.

Search bar: allows you to search for the name of a company or person.

Capital IQ Rev 1.0


Page 2 of 8

Note: Since Capital IQ is an Excel-based se, all information on the website can be exported to Word and/or Excel file

formats. This can be done by clicking on the Microsoft Word icon and the Microsoft Excel icon located at the top

of the page you wish to export.

Company Profile One of the most useful tools in Capital IQ is the Company Intelligence page. This page provides

comprehensive information on over 60,000 public companies, 685,000 private companies 10,600 private

capital firms, 312,000 transactions and 985,000 professionals worldwide.

To use this tool, click on the Company Intelligence tab located at the top of the page then select the Search

Profiles option on the left menu. To search for a company, type in the name in the Search For box and click

Go. Choose the desired company from the list of search results and click Go.

This Company Intelligence page of the company provides details on the selected company, which includes its

Business Description, Stock Quote and Financial Information. To access these pages, choose from the desired option

on the left menu.

Capital IQ Rev 1.0


Page 3 of 8

Company Financials To access company financials, start by clicking on the Company Intelligence tab and search for the

company. Once you are at the Company Profile page, you can view the company financials (Income

Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow) by choosing the options listed under the category

Financials/Valuations located on the left menu.

Note that the financial statements can be exported to

Excel documents. This can be done by clicking on the

Microsoft Excel icon located at the top of the page.

Some of the pages may have the Microsoft Word

export function, which is shown by the Microsoft

Word icon .

On the financial statement pages, you can

view more details on each of the numbers by

hovering over or clicking on any hyperlinked

numbers. Hovering over the numbers shows

details on the period end date and the filing

date. Clicking on the numbers allows you to

audit Capital IQ’s calculations.

The data for the Company Financials date

back to the year 1991. This can be accessed

by clicking on the [View <|<<] button located

above the financial statement.

Capital IQ Rev 1.0


Page 4 of 8

Mergers and Acquisitions First, go to the Company Profile page by clicking on the Company Intelligence tab and search for the

company. Once you are at the company page, you can access Mergers and Acquisitions information by

clicking on M&A/Private Placements under the category Transactions on the left menu.

The page displays announced/closed date, transaction type, target company’s role and all participants in the

deal. Click on the Announced Date link to view more transaction details.

The Customize View section at the top of the page allows you to filter transactions by the target company’s

role, to include cancelled deals or other transactions. Make your selections under this section and click Go.

Capital IQ Rev 1.0


Page 5 of 8

Analyst Estimates To view the Analyst Estimates of the desired company, go to the Company Profile page through the

Company Intelligence tab. For Analyst Estimates, under the category Estimates, click on Consensus.

This Consensus Estimates page summarizes analyst’s predictions for the company, which is provided by

Reuters. The page displays current pricing information, average analyst recommendation, average target

price and long-term growth rate %.

Capital IQ allows you to choose to view data by Data Point or Period using the drop-down in the middle of

the page. You can also view related Key Developments by clicking on the Pre-Earning Announcements

link.

Capital IQ Rev 1.0


Page 6 of 8

Screening Capital IQ has a Screening tool which allows you to find comparable companies, people, key developments

or transactions according to a wide selection of screening data points.

To access this tool, click on the Screening & Analytics tab at the top of the page. At this page, you can

choose to screen for Companies, Fixed Income, Key Developments, Person and Transactions which are

listed on the left menu.

The Screen Builder page allows you to select options to

filter down the information and retrieve the result that

matches your criteria. Clicking on each link for each

criterion opens up the category field at the bottom of the

page.

When given a list of available company characteristics,

choose the desired items you wish to screen on and move

them to the Selected Items field. Then click Add

Criteria.

To edit any of the screening criteria that you

have entered, click on the Edit link next to the

criterion. To delete any criterion, check the box

under the Delete column and click Delete.

To view the results, click on the number of

matches which will allow you to see the names

of your matches as well as all of the criteria

that you screened for.

To save your results, open the View and Save Screening Criteria section and open up Save Screen

Options. Enter a file name you wish to save the screen as and click Save.

Capital IQ Rev 1.0


Page 7 of 8

Microsoft Excel Add-In Note: The following functions require the Capital IQ Excel Add-In; therefore, it is only available on the FRTL

Workstations.

To view the historical prices of a stock, click on the Screening & Analytics tab at the top of the page.

On the left menu, under the category Charting, click on Daily Time Series.

Under Chart Options, select your desired

Time Frame and Frequency. Scroll down the

page and enter the ticker of the company you

wish to view. Click Go and select the

company from the Search Results. Click Add

and repeat the process if you wish to add

another company. Once you are done adding

the desired companies, scroll to the top of the

page and click on the button Generate

Chart in New Browser or Generate Chart.

Once the chart is generated, you can

retrieve historical stock prices data by

clicking on the Excel icon at the top of

the page. This should transfer the data on

the page to an Excel worksheet. To view

the historical prices, click on the Chart 1

Data Tab located at the bottom of the

Excel worksheet.

Capital IQ Rev 1.0


Page 8 of 8

In addition to viewing historical prices, the Capital IQ Excel Add-In can retrieve numerous real-time financial data

from the Capital IQ database and input it into the Excel spreadsheet.

To use this function, click on the Add-In tab at the top of the Excel page. Once the tab is open, click on the Capital

IQ drop-down and select Formula Builder.

The Formula Builder enables you to choose the type of financial information you wish to retrieve for any ticker. Input

the symbol of the ticker in the box beside ‘Enter Identifier.’

Select the information you wish to view and double-click to add it to the selection. You can also set the

period date for the information you want. Once you have set it to your desired options, click OK and the

data should appear on the Excel spreadsheet.

Documents

Capital IQ Desk Manual