Library: Corporate Finance: Annual Reports

Annual Reports - Contents

Annual Reports are a corporation's financial statement prepared yearly for stockholders. 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.

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
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.

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 various 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:

Securities and Exchange Commission
This is the official site of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's database named, EDGAR. (Electronic, Data, Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval System). All companies that are publicly traded in the U.S. are required to file registration statements, periodic reports, and other forms electronically through EDGAR.

Nexis Uni

1. From the Guided Search area, [What are you interested in?]. highlight Company Info.
2. In the next box, [Search in all Company Information for:], type your company. For example, Home Depot.
3. In the next box, [..and show me], use the down arrow and highlight: SEC filings.

4. In the Results page, use the Timeline filter in the left column to limit the time frame.

Where can I find an Annual Report?

On a company's home page.

Home pages can provide a wealth of information including:

press releases
products and services
company officers
company histories
stock quotes
annual reports, and more.

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

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.
Public Register
The Public Register provides free annual reports of public companies trading on the NYSE, NASDAQ, AMEX, OTC and TSX exchanges. Orders are processed and mailed within one business day.

Historic Annual Reports

ABI/INFORM Collection
Most scholarly and comprehensive way to explore and understand business research topics. Searches three ABI-INFORM databases: Dateline, Global, and Trade and Industry. Covers business and economic conditions, corporate strategies, management techniques, as well as competitive and product information. Its international coverage gives researchers a complete picture of companies and business trends around the world. Search nearly 8,000 publications worldwide, almost 80% available in full text. The database contains complete runs of key business and management journals, providing a unique historical perspective from 1923-present. Full text coverage of the Wall Street Journal is also included from 1984-present.

Watch this video to see how to access historic annual reports from ABI/Inform.

You can search by company, industry, or date. Some companies will feature a long backlist of reports, while others may be quite limited.

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