|
Finding Annual Reports
This page recommends resources which help to answer the question:
- How do I find a company's annual report?
It also addresses retrieval of other financial filings and finding financial
data for companies in spreadsheet format.
Annual reports are published by publicly-traded companies to educate current
and potential stockholders about company activities and performance. They contain
discussions of the previous year's activities, plans for the coming year(s),
and financial data. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires
that companies distribute annual reports to their shareholders. Annual Reports
are also available freely to the public for most U.S. companies that offer stock.
The Differences between an Annual Report, a 10-K, and a Proxy
Companies file a variety of documents relating to their financial and operating
activities. This section provides a brief introduction to the most sought after
filings.
| FILING NAME |
PURPOSE &
CONTENT |
| 10-K |
The official annual financial
document that companies file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC). The 10-K contains detailed financial statements and financial footnotes.
While it does not contain charts, photos, or graphics, it does contain more
information than the typical annual report. It is particularly useful for
accounting research or for very specific information. Since it
is filed electronically, in text format, it is a searchable document.
It does not contain any graphics - so it requires less memory to view
(and comes up much faster over a modem). |
| Annual Report |
The official document companies
distribute annually to shareholders. Annual reports include financial statements
and highlights and a management discussion of the previous year. Companies
often also add in some graphs and photos to give the document a more polished
appearance. The annual report is briefer and easier to read and understand
than the 10-K. It is a nice document for researchers to start with, particularly
those just trying to get an overview of the company. It includes
charts and other images which sometimes contain critical information.
|
| Proxy |
A filing that contains items
on which shareholders vote at corporate annual meetings. Executive
compensation, for example, is usually contained within proxy statements. |
| Note:
Edgar's descriptions
of SEC forms explains the contents and requirements of each SEC
filing and discusses the various situations in which a company needs to
file. |
There are several ways to find annual reports when you are at the Management
Library; these are listed below. If, however, you are at home or looking for
a report outside of library hours, please consult the section of this guide
which discusses Web-Based Annual Reports
| DATE |
FORMAT |
LOCATION |
TYPE OF FILINGS
INCLUDED |
| 1995-Present |
Thomson
Research |
Web Service |
Annual Reports, 10-Ks, and proxy statements
as well other Edgar filings, extracted financials in spreadsheet format,
and more. |
| 1996/1997-Present |
Mergent
Online |
Web Service |
Annual Reports in PDF format (including
page previews that let you move quickly to a particular page). Includes
detailed corporate financial histories (with capital changes) and operational
histories. It also details property, subsidiaries, officers/directors, long-term
debt, financial statements, capital stock, and financial statements and
ratio analysis. |
| 1971-1995 |
Microfiche |
Library 3rd Level |
10-Ks, Annual Reports, and proxies from
OTC, NYSE, & AMEX companies |
| Pre-1971 |
Microcard |
Ask at Reference Desk |
Annual Reports |
- Thomson Research
Thomson Research
is a Library-subscribed web service which provides filings for companies
worldwide. Thomson Research contains SEC filings
for companies which trade on a U.S. exchange. In addition, Thomson
Research contains annual reports for companies not traded
in the U.S. Those reports are usually created in accordance with the laws
and accounting standards of the company's home country and may look very
different from U.S. reports. In addition, reports for companies not traded
in the U.S. are often in the native language of the country in which they
are traded. The Library's guide to Thomson
Research contains step-by-step searching instructions for the database.
- Mergent Online
Mergent Online is a
Library-subscribed web service which provides access to filings on publicly
traded companies. It contains annual Reports in PDF format (including page
previews that let you move quickly to a particular page) and includes detailed
corporate financial histories (with capital changes) and operational histories.
It also details property, subsidiaries, officers/directors, long-term debt,
capital stock, and financial statements and ratio analysis. The Library's guide to Mergent Online contains step-by-step searching instructions for the database.
- Edgar
Edgar is the official archival
filing database of the SEC. It is a free site from which all SEC filings
are publicly available. It is somewhat less user-friendly than Thomson
Research or Mergent Online. It also contains only SEC filings, like 10-Ks and 10-Qs. It
does not contain annual reports, since these are not filed electronically
with the SEC. However Edgar is a free site available even once you leave
Cornell.
- Other services
There are a multitude of web sites which provide access to annual reports.
Some of the more useful (and free) sites are indexed in our list of free web sites for Annual
Reports. This page contains links to specialty services like PRARS,
which will mail you a hard copy of an annual report in about 1 week, and
Japan Financials,
which provides reports for Japanese companies, written in Japanese.
| Note:
If you are looking for the most recent report for one company only, you
might simply want to search for the company's web site. (Look for a link to investor relations.) Many companies post
their most recent annual reports on their web sites. Some provide historical
reports as well. |
Spreadsheet Financial Data
If you simply need the 10-K's financial statements (not the management discussion
or notes, etc.), it can be awkward to try to cut and paste the data from the
text document into an Excel spreadsheet. However, some services have streamlined
this process for you. If you need data formatted for spreadsheet analysis,
try the following services:
Thomson Research
Thomson Research has
Spreadsheet Financials reports, which are pre-defined displays including
balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow data already extracted from
the statements and in .xls format. These reports provide up to 10 years of
annual or quarterly data for U.S. and international companies. Thomson Research uses
a canned financial statement template across all companies. This allows for
increased consistency across companies, but less detailed financial statements
for each company.
Mergent Online
Mergent Online also has spreadsheet-based
financial reports (search by company name or ticker symbol, then click the Create Reports tab). These reports provide up to 15 years of annual or quarterly
data for U.S. and international companies. Mergent Online uses the original format for
each company when building spreadsheets. This provides a greater level of
detail in the statements of each company, but provides reduced consistency
when comparing companies. Mergent Online also allows you to create spreadsheet-based financial reports for multiple companies simultaneously.
International Annual Reports
In many cases, it is appropriate to follow the same steps regardless of
whether you are searching for a U.S. company report or an international one.
However, here are a few extra tips for those hard to find international reports.
| FORMAT |
RESOURCE |
| Print |
- There is a collection of the print copies of
annual reports of large international companies interfiled (in alphabetical
order) with the U.S. annual report collection on the library's second
floor.
- It is sometimes possible to request a print copy of an annual report
by contacting the company directly
|
| Online |
- Thomson Research
and Mergent Online
contain reports for many international companies, whether or not they
are also traded on a U.S. exchange. Those reports are usually created
in accordance with the laws and accounting standards of the company's
home country and may look very different from U.S. reports.
- Search for the company's web site to see if the company posts its
annual reports online.
- Consult our list of free web sites for Annual
Reports. This page lists international, as well as U.S., sources
of annual reports.
|
|
