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Accounting Resources: Annual Reports & 10-Ks

Locating Annual Reports

Annual Report - A yearly record of a public corporation’s financial condition that must be distributed to shareholders under securities and exchange commission regulations. Included in the report is a description of the company’s operations as well as its balance sheet and income statement.

Read for

  • President's Letter to Shareholders - good summary of past year's financial and strategic successes and failures and stated goals for coming year
  • Graphically presented financial highlights  - balance sheet & income statement
  • Description of company operations - awareness of corporate brands, marketing strategy, market segmentation, and competitive space
  • Sense of corporate style, culture, philosphy, marketing "look and feel"

Company websites often include 3-5 years of annual reports.  Even though they are developed for stock holders, they may have a corporate bias since the documents are public facing.

Mergent Online provides an overview of company history, ownership, financials, and includes an impressive historical collection of annual reports.

Step 1. Start at Mergent

Step 2. In the "company search" box, type the company name and click go

Step 3. Click "reports"

Step 4. Select an annual  report to view

Mergent Online Help Guide (HTML)

  • EDGAR
    Electronic versions of forms filed by U.S. corporations with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) from 1994 to present. Note that annual reports are 10-K forms for the SEC.

A variety of websites provide access to annual reports:

  • The Annual Reports Service
    It provides annual reports of thousands of companies across the globe. Searchable by industry, alphabet, or exchange.
  • AnnualReports.com
  • A listing of annual reports for major companies in the U.S. Searchable by company name, ticker symbol, sector, industry, exchange, or alphabet.
The following sources include links to foreign annual reports:

Locating 10Ks

10-K - Annual report required by the Securities and Exchange Commission of every issuer of a registered security, every exchange-listed company, and any company with 500 or more shareholders or $1 million or more in gross assets. The form provides for disclosure of total sales, revenue, and pretax operating income, as well as sales by separate classes of products for each of a company’s separate lines of business for each of the past five years. A source and application of funds statement presented on a comparative basis for the last two fiscal years is also required. Form 10-K becomes public information when filed with the SEC.

Source: Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms

Step 1. Start at LexisNexis

Step 2. In the "get company info" box type the company name and click go

Step 3. Select company

Step 4. Click SEC filings

Step 5. Click "recent SEC filings"

Step 6. In the "narrow results: term" box, type: 10-K

Step 7. Click list view

Step 8. Locate document

Step 9. Click to view 10-K document 

LexisNexis Academic User Aids

Step 1. Start at Mergent

Step 2. In the "company search" box, type the company name and click go

Step 3. Click "reports"

Step 4. Select a 10-K report to view

Mergent Online Help Guide (HTML)

Step 1. Start at the SEC website: www.sec.gov

Step 2. Click "filings"

Step 3. Click "company filings"

Step 4. Select "company or fund name, ticker symbol, CIK (Central Index Key), file number, state, country, or SIC"

Step 5. Type company name

Step 6. Select company

Step 7. In the "filing type" box, type: 10-K

Step 8 Click document to view 10-K 

Annual Report / 10-K Report Comparison

 

  Annual Report 10-K
General Information
  • Positive outlook
  • Created to motivate investors
  • Contains company moto / slogan
  • Contains encouraging letter from the Chairman/CEO
  • Contains actual financial data in official SEC format
SEC filing ?

Not an SEC filing

Official SEC filing
Available via...

Online, company website

Click here for more info

SEC or company information database such as Mergent or LexisNexis

Click here for directions
Document type Marketing piece Official document required by securities and exchange commission regulations
Length Short version Long version
Contains Basic overview  Detailed information such as risk factors, legal proceedings and management compensation
AKA "Glossy"  
Description Colorful pictures, nice glossy pages, visually appealing Black and white, no color pictures
Purpose Motivate investors, marketing piece

Required by SEC, significant to the investor