Company Annual Reports

Company Annual Reports:

 
 1) Provide information unobtainable from other sources and obscure information on subsidiaries.

 2) Provide clues to the corporate culture and management climate of the organization.

 3) Provide the financial data that is required to be filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (for companies that sell stock, or public companies, as they are popularly termed).

 4) Present the company as it wants to be viewed; it is a public relations document.
 
 How to Get an Annual Report to Shareholders:

An annual report to shareholders, the principal document used by major corporations to communicate directly with their shareholders, can be obtained a number of ways:

 1) Mergent Online Database (JHU Accounts only)

2) Annual reports on microfilm, under SEC files and Q files (call number: Micro-fiche C no. 296), can be requested through our Audio-Visual Department.  Check the accompanying index in the A-V Department for coverage, beginning with the 1980's. Please allow time for their retrieval from the storage facility.

3) Ask the company for an annual report, often sent for free. View the company website for posted reports.

4) Try the free PRARS Service or the Disclosure Co. in Bethesda, Md., which provides annual reports and SEC filings for a fee.
 
 EDGAR (SEC Filings)
 
This service was part of a two-year program started by New York University in partnership with Internet Multicasting Service to provide free access to SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) filings. It has been taken over by the SEC. Publicly traded companies (those which sell stock) must provide financial data to the SEC periodically. The online archive indexes all EDGAR documents from 1993 to the present. As of November 4, 2002 foreign companies and foreign governments will be required to file their documents on EDGAR.
 
View information and filings via the SEC Home Page or via anonymous ftp at ftp://ftp.sec.gov/.
 
These filings are the basis of the financial data used in many print and electronic library sources.

Some library databases that include or link to actual SEC filings:

10-K Reports: Comprehensive annual reports filed 90 days after the end of a company's fiscal year.

10-Q Reports: Quarterly updates filed for each of the first three fiscal quarters.

8-K Reports: A report of unscheduled material events or corporate changes deemed of importance to shareholders or to the SEC.  It provides more current details on certain events than the 10-K or 10-Q reports. It generally must be filed within 15 days of the specified event. 

20-F Reports: Annual report/registration statement filed by most foreign issuers of securities traded in the U.S.  Report must be filed six months after the end of their fiscal year.

Proxy Statements: Proxy statements provide official notification to a company's shareholders of matters to be voted upon at the company's annual meeting. It also gives some salary and biographical information for top executives, although salaries are higher in actuality.

Prospectus: A document that must be made available to investors before the sale of any security is initiated.

Registration Statements: These are used to register securities before they are offered to investors and permit trading among investors.

Williams Act Filings: Forms which are submitted to provide disclosure for the purchase, by direct acquisition or tender offer, of substantial blocks of the securities of publicly held companies.

To view a more comprehensive list of specific filings, contact the Librarian for Business.