How To Find Company Financials

Ways to easily access a company's fiscal statements

— -- Q: I'd like to read fiscal statements issued past companies more closely, but find the SEC's website difficult to navigate. Are there any other ways to access company reports?

A: Annual reports. Quarterly reports. Proxy statements. These are but a few of the financial documents companies provide to investors that reveal their internal workings.

Sadly, few investors take the fourth dimension to even glance at these documents, which are some of the most critical. Companies must disclose essential data about their operations, financial continuing, risks and even executive compensation in these reports.

Financial reports previously were required to be mailed to shareholders. When that was the instance, even the least-interested investors would have trouble ignoring these massive documents when they landed in the mailbox.

Only in the era of investment documents being distributed electronically, it'southward piece of cake for investors to overlook financial reports. Still the Securities and Exchange Committee makes nearly all company financial reports bachelor, for gratis. The SEC's Edgar system is an online database that allows investors to view or download the fiscal statements issued by thousands of companies.

The SEC'southward website, while powerful and comprehensive, isn't designed for casual investors. Some users might get dislocated with some of the navigation of the site and take problem finding the financial documents they're interested in.

In that location are some alternatives for investors who want to read fiscal reports, but might be confused by the SEC's site, including:

• The company'due south investors relations website. Most large companies maintain a stand-alone area on their website that houses all the key financial statements. You'll notice earnings press releases and the central financial documents, including the annual study. Some companies will likewise provide transcripts from briefing calls and investor presentations. General Electric, for instance, lists all stock information and fiscal data on its website.

Exist conscientious, though. When investing in companies, specially smaller firms that don't have the same oversight from regulators and auditors, make sure the documents are available on the SEC's website besides. Y'all want to brand sure you're reading actual documents that were filed with the SEC, not fabricated documents that were merely posted to a website.

• Third-party sites that access Edgar. There are websites that link into the SEC's Edgar database. These websites typically characteristic a more user-friendly or powerful website that then taps into the Edgar database. There are a number of services that are aimed at professionals and charge a fee, including Morningstar Certificate Inquiry.

One gratuitous choice for individual investors is last10k.com. The site is designed to exist more than familiar to individual investors and apply a more than standard method of navigation. Just become to the site and enter the symbol or proper noun of a visitor. You tin then select the type of written report, ten-K (almanac report) or ten-Q (quarterly report) you're interested in and the time frame.

• Aggregation services. Sometimes investors don't need to really admission the original document. There are websites and services that pull all the primal numbers out of fiscal statements and nowadays them all in i place. Many sites practise this, including USATODAY.com's Money section at money.usatoday.com.

Start at money.usatoday.com. Whorl down and enter the symbol of the stock yous're interested to larn about in the "Go A Quote" box, and click go. The Quote tab will give you dividend information, operating margin, full debt and other summary information. Click on the assay tab, and you can come across a breakdown of the company's earnings.

Matt Krantz is a financial markets reporter at USA TODAY and author of Investing Online for Dummies and Fundamental Analysis for Dummies. He answers a dissimilar reader question every weekday in his Ask Matt column at money.usatoday.com. To submit a question, electronic mail Matt at mkrantz@usatoday.com. Follow Matt on Twitter at: twitter.com/mattkrantz