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If you are doing company research and you want to find information about a
public company, a good database to start with is
EDGAR from the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All public
companies have to file their annual reports as well as other types of reports
with the SEC. These reports are freely available and contain financial
information, executive compensation, subsidiaries of a corporation, major
investors and legal proceedings. Some of the major reports are:
- 10K -- This is the annual report for a company. It contains
financial information as well as executive compensation.
- 10Q -- This is the quarterly report for the company that also
contains financial information, but on a quarterly basis rather than annually.
It gives you an opportunity to see how the company is doing throughout the year
rather than waiting until the end of the fiscal year.
- 8K -- This is a report of unscheduled events or corporate changes
deemed important to shareholders or the SEC such as acquisition/disposition
of assets or bankruptcy or receivership.
- DEF 14A -- This form is the proxy statement which contains
information regarding matters that are to be voted on by the security holders.
This form contains information about the background, holdings and compensation
of the company directors, officers and insiders.
EDGAR contains public company reports from 1994 to the present. The database
can be searched using the company name, ticker symbol, or keywords.
DOL employees: For the actual, unedited text of annual reports (including amendments) filed by U.S. public companies with the
Securities and Exchange Commission from July 1987 to October 1997, use the Westlaw database SEC-AR. The database covers
companies on the New York and American Stock Exchanges, as well as over 2,000 NASDAQ National Market Share companies.
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