Library Help: Teaching and learning

The best tool we have to identify a list of companies from their names is in S&P Capital IQ Pro, in the Excel version. It has a template which you can download to paste in a list of names, press a button, then get the best match result for a company and its S&P CIQ ID which you can then convert with formulas to ISIN, GVKEY or CUSIP. Take care to check that the matches are correct.

Steps to convert a list of company names to Capital IQ ID:

1. Access the S&P Capital IQ Pro Excel add-in.
2. Log into the add-in with your Capital IQ username and password.
3. Click the 'Template Library' button.
4. In the 'Search Templates' field at the top-right, type 'identifier' and press Enter.
5. In the results list, click 'Identifier Converter'. It will save to your Downloads file. Open it (and close the template library).
6. The Identifier Converter template opens. Click 'Enable Editing' at the top of the screen.
7. Scroll down to the list of companies, there are 11 examples given. To check it works, type in 'tesco' in the next blank row (cell C51) and press Enter. There is no result yet.
8. Scroll back up and click the 'SEARCH RESULTS' button around cell E25. Wait for the search to complete.
9. Scroll down again, check that your search for Tesco has matched correctly.
10. Now you have the SPCIQ ID, you can use these in subsequent queries. Copy-paste the IDs to a new workbook you wish to carry on using Capital IQ formulas.

See also

• Accessing S&P Capital IQ Pro (Excel version)