This document provides an overview of the types of company information available depending on whether a company is private, non-profit, or publicly traded. It focuses on the extensive information publicly traded companies must disclose through required Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings like the 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K. These filings contain detailed information about a company's business operations, financial position, risks, and legal proceedings that investors use to analyze the company. The document describes how to find these filings on the SEC Edgar database or company websites and provides examples of additional sources like company profiles and stock reports that can help interpret the SEC filings.

1. FINDING, READING AND ANALYZING
COMPANY INFORMATION
LIB 230

2. What’s available?
• Depends upon the company or
organization
• Private: Not so much
• Non-Profit: Maybe quite a bit
• Public: Tons
• Why?

3. Publicly Traded Companies
• In order to raise capital on
a stock exchange must
disclose certain aspects
of their business to
shareholders as well as
the general public
• Securities law dictates
that operations, financial
position, risks be
disclosed
• Publicly traded companies
comply by filing a variety
of forms with the SEC

4. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC) Filings
• The most common
forms are the 10-K,
10-Q, and 8-K
• What about that
glossy annual report?
Not required. Some
companies don’t even
create them. Let their
10-K do all the talking

5. SEC Filings
• 10-K Annual filing
• 10-Q Quarterly filing
• 8-K Interim filing
• Proxy statement
• Look boring but they
are full of information
for investors

6. Reading a 10-K
• Item 1 Business
•
•
•
•
description
Item 1A Risk
Factors
Item 7
Managements
Discussion and
Analysis (MDA)
Item 3 Legal
Proceedings
Item 7a
Quantitative/Qualita
tive Risk Disclosure

7. Where do you find this information
• SEC cite (Edgar)
• Company’s website (investor relations)
• Publicly available so not really a library
database issue

8. What else is useful?
• Sometimes secondary sources can help you understand
the 10K
• Company Profiles from companies like Datamonitor or
Hoover’s summarize relevant information from 10-K’s
• Stock reports like Valueline or Standard and Poor’s
provide insight into financial performance and strength or
weakness of financial position

9. Example: McDonalds
• 2012 Annual Report
• 2012 10-K
• Investor Relations Page
• Datamonitor Company Profile
• Valueline Report

10. Example: Google
• Analyze the 10-K