BQ-MICS
One company is rarely one business. BQ-MICS classifies US-listed equities across 11 sectors, 72 industry groups and 240 industries, and tags each company in every industry it genuinely operates in — with one tag marked Primary so a clean single-industry view is always available. Built and maintained by our equity research team, and available to license.
A classification built for research
The largest companies in the market run four or five genuinely different businesses at once. BQ-MICS is designed to represent that directly: classify the company as it actually is, tag every business it operates, mark one tag as Primary, and let the analyst choose the view the work requires.
Principle one
Every business gets a tag
A company belongs to as many industries as it genuinely operates in, and each tag is justified independently from that company's own disclosures. One tag is marked Primary, so single-industry aggregation is always available.
Principle two
Specific categories throughout
Every industry in the system describes an identifiable business. A company operating across several areas is represented by tags in each of them, which keeps the classification precise for companies of any breadth.
Principle three
Depth where it is earned
An industry exists where distinct large public businesses are tracked separately by investors. That is what produces 240 industries: the depth sits exactly where the public universe justifies it.
What a multi-industry profile looks like
Three companies, classified as they actually operate. Each tag is assigned independently from the company's own disclosures and ranked Primary, Secondary or Minor — so you can read the whole business, or filter to the Primary tag for a clean single-industry view.
Six distinct businesses behind a single familiar name.
6 classifications, each justified independently against the company's own disclosure. Advertising technology is the core, but the surrounding businesses — video, cloud, operating systems, devices, autonomy — are each large enough to be tracked in their own right.
A balance sheet, a trading floor and an asset manager under one charter.
6 classifications, each justified independently against the company's own disclosure. Six Financial Services industries under one charter. Each is tagged on its own merits, so the balance sheet, the trading floor and the asset manager are all visible rather than collapsed into a single label.
An automaker whose adjacent businesses sit in three different sectors.
5 classifications, each justified independently against the company's own disclosure. A cross-sector profile. The Primary tag sits in Consumer Discretionary, with material exposure recorded in Industrials and Technology rather than folded into the automotive line.
Three levels, and a code that stays put
Sector for the economic domain, industry group for analytical aggregation, industry for the actual business. Every level carries a stable code, and codes — not names — are what the taxonomy cross-references, so an industry can be renamed without affecting anything that depends on it.
The economic domain. 11 sectors, each with a fixed single-letter prefix and a definition carrying its own boundary guidance.
A grouping of related industries for analytical aggregation and wider peer sets. 72 groups in total, coded {SECTOR}G-NN.
The classification unit. 240 industries, each with a precise definition, its classification criteria, and an explicit statement of what belongs elsewhere and where. Coded {SECTOR}-NN.
Every industry ships with its boundaries
Definitions alone do not produce consistent classification — the questions that arise are about edges. So every industry carries an explicit statement of what does not belong in it, pointing at the industry where that activity does belong. Those statements are what make the taxonomy reproducible: two people applying it to the same company reach the same answer.
Sector definitions and depth
The sector set matches the eleven the market already thinks in, so nothing at the top of the tree needs relearning. Below it, each sector is developed to the depth its public universe supports.
Full industry group and industry definitions, including the boundary statement for each, are published in the methodology document below.
Four things multi-industry classification lets you do
Peer sets that hold up
Screen across all tags and a company appears in every peer set it belongs in. A business with a cloud platform inside it shows up alongside other cloud platforms, which is where you would want to see it when you are valuing that segment.
Industry aggregates, two ways
Aggregate on Primary tags for clean, non-overlapping industry totals. Then use the full tag set to see which large companies operate inside that industry without being defined by it, and how much of it they represent.
Exposure you can defend
Relevance-ranked tags let you weight a portfolio's exposure by whether a business is core, secondary or incidental to each holding, so sector weights reflect what the portfolio is actually exposed to rather than a single label per name.
Product and index construction
Stable codes, documented boundaries, a published methodology and notified structure changes are what a taxonomy needs to sit underneath something you ship. Display and redistribution licences cover exactly that.
Which companies are classified
- US-listed equities. Companies listed on US exchanges, identified by SEC CIK, so a classification survives a ticker change or a rename.
- Classified from primary disclosures. Each company is classified from what it says about its own business in its own filings and investor materials.
- Historical companies retained. Companies that have since been acquired or delisted keep their classification, so a backtest or a historical industry aggregate runs against the market as it was.
- Exactly one Primary tag, always. Every classified company carries one Primary industry, which guarantees a clean single-industry view for any company in the universe.
- The full taxonomy applied. Every company in the universe is classified against all 240 industries, so no part of the structure exists only on paper.
How a company gets classified
Every classification is made by our equity research team against the written taxonomy, from the company's own words, and is recorded with the reasoning that supports it.
Read the company's own disclosures
Classification begins with the business description a company gives in its own annual filing, alongside its segment reporting and investor materials. Each company is assessed on its own evidence.
Identify each distinct business
Our analysts separate out every activity the company genuinely operates, rather than reducing it to whichever one is largest. A cloud platform inside a retailer is a business in its own right and is treated as one.
Assign against definitions and boundaries
Each activity is matched to the industry whose definition and classification criteria it satisfies, then checked against the boundary statements of neighbouring industries to confirm its placement. Where a business spans two sectors, a documented tiebreaker determines which takes the Primary tag.
Rank relevance and record the reasoning
Tags are ranked Primary, Secondary or Minor, and each is recorded with the reasoning behind it, citing the disclosure it was drawn from. Every assignment is traceable to a document you can read yourself.
Quality control before release
Assignments pass through review before entering the dataset: consistency against the definitions, agreement between the tags and the recorded reasoning, cross-sector consistency for companies tagged in more than one sector, and confirmation that a Primary tag is present.
Relevance tiers
Every tag is ranked, so you choose how wide a net to cast — Primary only for clean industry aggregates, the full set for exposure analysis.
| Tier | What it means | How it is identified |
|---|---|---|
| Primary | The core activity — the company would be a fundamentally different business without it. | Leads the disclosure, treated in detail, and carries the bulk of revenue. |
| Secondary | Real and operational, but not the defining activity. | Given substantive space in the disclosure, clearly subordinate. |
| Minor | Present, and material enough to warrant a tag. | Disclosed briefly, without detailed treatment. |
Maintained on a defined cycle
BQ-MICS is versioned, reviewed on a schedule, and changed only with notice — the conditions a taxonomy has to meet before it can sit under production work.
Company review
Re-reviewed on evidence
A company's classification is revisited as new annual disclosures arrive, and on material corporate events — a large acquisition, a divestment, a spin-off, or a stated change of business. A company that changes what it does is re-tagged on what it filed.
Structure review
Annual, and evidence-led
The structure is reviewed annually. Industries are added where several companies share a business model no existing industry describes, and consolidated where a distinction has stopped carrying analytical weight.
Consistency
Checked across the full taxonomy
Because boundary statements in one sector reference industries in another, every change is verified across all 11 sectors at once: that each reference resolves, that codes are unique, and that every industry sits under a defined group.
Change management
Versioned and announced
Each release is versioned, and licensees are notified of structure changes before they take effect, with a mapping from the previous version wherever codes have moved. Live integrations are never changed underneath.
Names built for how people search
Industry names carry into search boxes, screener dropdowns and URL slugs, so every name in BQ-MICS is held to three tests.
The search test
A name passes if “{name} stocks” reads like something a person would genuinely type. Names are written the way the market refers to the business.
Clean in a URL
Names lead with the strongest keyword and keep the remaining scope in the industry's definition, so they translate directly into slugs and page titles.
Every name stands alone
Names appear in flat lists with no sector beside them, so the disambiguating word stays in the name: “Residential REITs”, not “Residential”.
The taxonomy, the mappings, and the reasoning behind both
You receive the definitions that produced the classifications and the reasoning behind every assignment, which is what makes the dataset auditable rather than something taken on trust.
The taxonomy
- All 11 sector definitions, with boundary guidance and the cross-sector tiebreaker
- All 72 industry groups, with code and name
- All 240 industries, each with its definition, classification criteria and boundary statement
- Stable codes, cross-referenced by code rather than by name
The company mappings
- Company identifier, including SEC CIK, and company name
- Sector, industry group code and name, industry code and name — one row per tag
- Relevance rank on every tag: Primary, Secondary or Minor
- The recorded reasoning for each assignment, citing the disclosure it came from
Methodology and industry definitions
The complete methodology — hierarchy, classification rules, naming conventions, review and governance — with the full sector, industry group and industry definitions. Free to read, no licence required.
License BQ-MICS
Two annual subscriptions, divided on the question that matters commercially: does the classification stay inside your organisation, or does it reach your users?
Non-display
Internal research, screening, analytics and backtesting
Annual subscription
- Full taxonomy definitions across all 11 sectors
- Complete company mappings, all tags
- Relevance rank and recorded reasoning on every tag
- Methodology document
- Taxonomy updates and change notices through the term
- Internal use across your organisation
Display and redistribution
Client-facing products, publishing and onward distribution
Annual subscription
- Everything in the non-display licence
- Show BQ-MICS classifications to your own users
- Embed it in your product, app, terminal or research
- Redistribute the classification onward
- Publish it in client-facing and commercial materials
- Attribution to Business Quant required
Licences can be fitted to the use case — enterprise-wide seats, delivery format, coverage scope, custom fields, or a mapping to reconcile against a structure you already report against. Tell us what you are building and we will price it.
Business Quant Multi-Industry Classification System, including its structure, codes, industry names, definitions, boundary statements and company mappings, is the proprietary work of Business Quant and is protected by copyright and database rights. Use of it requires a licence; see our terms of use and data sources.
Frequently asked
Can one company be classified in several industries?
Yes, and most large companies are. A company that runs a retailer, a cloud platform, a marketplace, a media service and a payments business receives a tag for each, and every tag is justified independently from that company's own disclosures. Exactly one tag is marked Primary.
How do I get a single industry per company?
Filter to Primary tags. Every classified company has exactly one, so a Primary-only view gives you a clean, non-overlapping cut of the market for industry aggregates and index-style work. Use the full tag set when you want to see a company's complete range of businesses.
How granular is it?
240 industries organised into 72 industry groups across 11 sectors. An industry exists where distinct large public businesses are tracked separately by investors, so the depth sits where the public universe actually justifies it.
What does it cover?
US-listed equities, classified from each company's own disclosures and identified by SEC CIK so that a classification survives a ticker change. Companies that have since delisted or been acquired keep their classification, so historical work runs against the market as it was.
How is it kept current?
Company classifications are reviewed as new annual disclosures arrive and on material corporate events such as a large acquisition, a divestment or a spin-off. The structure itself is reviewed annually, and industries are added where several companies share a business model no existing industry describes.
Are the codes stable?
Yes. Every cross-reference inside the taxonomy points at a code rather than a name, so an industry can be renamed without affecting anything that depends on it. New industries take the next available code within their sector, and existing codes stay where they are.
Can it be mapped to a structure we already report against?
In most cases yes. The hierarchy is documented end to end, with a defined boundary for every industry, which makes building a mapping to another reporting structure a straightforward exercise. Tell us what you need to reconcile against and we will scope it with you.
Where can I see it in use?
The sector and industry labels across Business Quant come from BQ-MICS. The stock screener and the industry financials tools are the most direct places to see it applied to real companies.
Can I read the methodology before licensing?
Yes. The full methodology, together with every sector, industry group and industry definition, is published as a PDF on this page and requires no licence to read. Machine-readable definition files and the company mappings are provided under licence.
How much does a licence cost?
$1,200 per year for non-display use, and $5,000 per year where you need to display the classification to your own users or redistribute it. Both are annual subscriptions and include the full definitions, the company mappings and the methodology document.
License BQ-MICS
Tell us how you intend to use the classification and we will confirm the right licence and get you the definitions and company mappings.