Company & Industry Information: SEC/Financial Information

Many companies are required to publicly disclose certain financial information.  The best place to look for this information is from the Securities & Exchange Commission.  The SEC website provides FREE access to company financial reports going back to the mid-1990s with the EDGAR database. 

You can also find financial information from commercial databases such as Lexis Plus (individual login required), Mergent Online, and Mergent Archives.

For more information on the securities laws in general, please see our guide on Business Organizations & Securities Law.

What is the SEC?

The SEC is the federal government agency that oversees the enforcement and administration of federal securities laws.

The SEC has 4 divisions:

1. Corporation Finance
   • Examines registration documents filed with SEC
   • Drafts most of the SEC rules and disclosure forms and guides
2. Division of Trading and Markets
   • Oversees the operation of markets and broker-dealer registration
3. Division of Investment Management
   • Oversees investment company and investment advisor registration
4. Division of Enforcement
   • Conducts investigations and can intiate adminstrative procedures or court actions
   • Includes the Office of General Counsel and Office of Chief Accountant

The federal securities laws are based largely on the concept of disclosure. By requiring companies that sell their securities to the public to publish information about their assets, liabilities, and operations, the securities laws are intended to put investors on an even playing field and prevent fraud. Thus, SEC filings can be excellent resources for understanding publicly-traded companies. Some of the principal types of SEC filings include:

Form 10-K: A Form 10-K is an annual report filed by publicly-traded U.S. companies, containing detailed information on company finances, assets, operations, and executives.

Form 10-Q: A Form 10-Q is a quarterly report filed by publicly-traded U.S. companies, reporting quarterly financial information.

Form 8-K: Form 8-Ks are used to report material events such as major financial transactions, the departures of important corporate officers, or other news that could be significant to investors.

For a complete listing of SEC forms, see this list.

EDGAR is the SEC's Electronic Data Gathering And Retrieval system.  You can find most financial documents filed with the SEC on this website.  For details about what EDGAR does and does not include, please see Important Information About EDGAR. It is easy to search for documents within EDGAR.  For a brief tutorial, please see the SEC's EDGAR Quick Tutorial.

The easiest way to get started is to look up information by company name or ticker symbol using the Company Search page.  In the example below, I am searching for documents filed by Apple using the ticker symbol AAPL.

Your results page will allow you to find filed documents in reverse chronological order by clicking View Filings. You can also see certain selected types of filings using the boxes on the right.