To get company information in Lexis Nexis, type your company name or ticker symbol (if public) into the "Get Company Info" search box:
Choose your company from the list of results. You'll get a company "snapshot," which will include company brands, competitors, financial information, current news, and more:
These Profiles are detailed reports which include a company's history, key employees, SWOT analysis, and more.
Searching for specific company information is also possible in Business Source Premier, if you type in your company name and slect "CO Company Entity" from the drop-down limiter next to the search box.
The Securities and Exchange Commission maintains the EDGARS database, which holds public company financial document filings. The most useful of these are a company's 10-K annual fillings, which include a financial summary of the past year (via financial document filings) and a forecast of performance for the year to come.
Type your company name in the search box and look for the "10-K" report. They usually come out in March or April, but can also appear in the summer or fall.
Company websites often have a lot of good information. Look for an "FAQ" or investor/ shareholder information links.
Make sure you know if the company has a parent company or not (e.g. Burt's Bees is owned by Clorox). Also, sometimes what we perceive as a company is just a brand (Frito-Lay is a a brand for PepsiCo, not a company). Good brand/company websites will disclose this information.
More things to consider:
WARNING: Keep in mind that all of the information that you want may not be found at the company web site. Big corporations pay fancy consultants lots of money to complete market research; often, companies aren't willing to share the information that has cost so much to obtain.