FINDING, READING AND ANALYZING COMPANY INFORMATION

LIB 230

What’s available?• Depends upon the company or

organization• Private: Not so much• Non-Profit: Maybe quite a bit• Public: Tons

• Why?

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

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

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

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/Qualitative Risk Disclosure

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

database issue

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

Example: McDonalds

• 2012 Annual Report• 2012 10-K• Investor Relations Page• Datamonitor Company Profile• Valueline Report

Example: Google• Analyze the 10-K