How to find Company information

Public Companies

There will be much more readily available informtion about public companies because they have to issue annual reports and file financial information with Securities and Exchange Commission.

Annual Reports

Company Home Page

Subsidiary Financials

SEC Filings

Annual Reports

Annual Reports are a corporation's financial statement prepared yearly for stockholders. Information typically included in an annual report includes a Chairman or President’s letter, description of main sales and marketing activities, management discussion and analysis, auditor’s report, detailed financial statements and 10-year summary of financial figures, list of subsidiaries and company addresses, and list of directors and officers. Many annual reports are “corporate works of art” and include detailed charts, tables, graphs, and photographs. The Annual Report provides a clear view of how the company views itself.

Annual reports of most large corporations are available to persons other than stockholders upon request and are often used as public relations vehicles. Besides giving comparative financial statements for the current and past years, some give divisional reports of past activities and future plans. Many companies will feature links to the digitized version of their annual reports from their company Internet site.

You can obtain copies of annual reports from the following sources:

• World Investor Link
  
  Order from a variety of newspaper annual report services including the Globe and Mail, Barrons, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times etc. Ordering may be done online or through their toll free phone number and it is a free service. Items shipped withing 24 hours. Most reports are available in digitized format online.
• Annual Report Gallery
  The Report Gallery boasts that it contains the "largest, most complete and up-to-date listings of annual reports on the Internet." Once a company is found, it can be viewed in HTML or PDF format. Free service.
• Global Reports
  
  Full color Annual Reports, Interims, and Quarterly Report Filings are available for more than 26,000 publicly traded companies in more than 69 countries, with history as far back as 1996. Pricing for individual reports varies depending on the year and country of origin.
   
• Public Registrar's Annual Report Service
  (PRARS) NASDAQ, NYSE, AMEX, OTC
  Request copies of annual reports from a list of over 3600 public companies. Requests are processed within 24 hours and shipped for free. Also features financial and press releases.



For Historical Annual Reports:



• ABI/Inform Complete
  
  The scope of the Annual Reports that are featured are "generally" 1985-2008. Most companies will feature the most current three years on their websites which makes them easy to access. Therefore, if you are looking for coverage in the mid-80's through the mid 2000's, ABI is worth a look.
  
  
  1. From the Advanced Search page, select: Browse
  
  
  
  2. Under Browse Featured Content, scroll down to Company Reports and select: ProQuest Annual Reports Collection
  
  
  
  3. You can search by company, industry, or date. Some companies will feature a long backlist of reports, while others will be quite limited.

Company Home Page

Company Home pages can provide a wealth of information including press releases, products, and services, company officers,company histories, stock quotes, annual reports, and more. The company's Internet site can also be used to verify print information, which can go out of date.

• Hoover's
  Hoover's, Inc., includes a database of 23 million companies, with in-depth coverage of more than 40,000 of the world's top business enterprises. For access to some of the in-depth reports, see: Lexis/Nexis
  
  

  TIP:	On a company web site, Annual Reports are frequently located under "Investor Relations." Other alternatives may include (but are not limited to) "Shareholder Information," "Earnings Releases," "Company Reports," "Company Profiles," "Financial Information," "Customer Service," or "About".

Subsidiary Financials

Public companies are not required to provide information about subdivisions, subsidiaries, or business units. Therefore, depending on the company, it might be hit or miss. Here are three methods to consider:

1. Larger companies or conglomerates provide business segment reporting as part of their annual reports and 10Ks.
2. Some large companies disclose information to investment analysts. Investment analysts reports are available from:
   • Business Insights Global
     Once you have located your parent company report, you will find Analyst Reports under the Investment Reports link.
   
   
    
   
   
   • Lexis/Nexis Academic
     
     This is the section of Lexis/Nexis known as Company Dossier
     First, search and select your parent company. From the left navigation area, under Financials, select: Analysts Reports.



3. In some cases, divisions or subsidiaries have their own Web sites with further information. Information about their strategies or sales figures can often be found in press releases from the subsidiary itself, and bits and pieces in business, trade, and news articles.

SEC Filings

Corporate financial reports and other disclosure documents are excellent sources for current financial statistics and for other detailed information about the operations of publicly traded companies. These documents include not only annual reports to stockholders but also the vrious reports that U.S. companies are required to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission: an Annual Report to SEC (called the 10-K); Quarterly Financial Report (10-Q); Report of Unscheduled Material Events or Corporate Changes (8-K); 10-C, which is similar to 8-K for OTC (Over The Counter) companies;

You can obtain SEC Filings from the following sources:

• SEC Filings and Reports(Lexis/Nexis)

From the SELECT SOURCE box, select the filing number you desire.
Search Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reports by company name, or Ticker Symbol. Only reports that match all the criteria you enter will be found.


• Securities and Exchange Commission
  This is the official site of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system. (EDGAR) All companies that are publicly traded in the U.S. are required to file registration statements, periodic reports, and other forms electronically through (EDGAR ). Here you'll find links to a complete list of filings available through EDGAR and instructions for searching the EDGAR database.You can do a company search for free.
  More SEC tips:
  If you’ve ever wondered where to find a certain piece of information about a public company—e.g., a list of subsidiaries, names of board of directors members, insider transactions, proxies, mergers, and executive salary data—this site does a superb job of telling you 1) on what form or filing you can find that information and 2) how and where to search it right there on EDGAR, all clearly explained.
• 10K Wizard
  An improved interface to the SEC filings. It contains information on 45,000 companies worldwide with archives through 1994. This is a fee-based service and you must have a subscription.
  
  

TIP:

If you have questions about financial statements and you are a little rusty about where to find "bits of information," Business Week magazine has an ongoing series on how to read and understand 10Ks, proxy statements and other financial statements called "The Fine Print."  The Fine Print: How to read those key footnotes behind the numbers. Unlocking the secrets of a Proxy Statement. TIPS for reading an Annual Report