Help - Finding Annual Reports of Corporations

Annual reports are published by publicly-traded companies to educate current and potential stockholders about company activities and performance. They contain discussions of the previous year's activities, plans for the coming year(s), and financial data. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that companies distribute annual reports to their shareholders. Annual Reports are also available freely to the public for most U.S. companies that offer stock.

Related to annual reports are 10-K reports, which are filed with the SEC. While they do not contain charts, photos or graphics, they do contain more information than a typical annual report. Websites that contain "SEC filings" often have both annual reports and 10-K reports. Thompson's Guide to SEC Filings explains the contents and requirements of each SEC filing and discusses the various situations in which a company needs to file.

It is important to realize that annual reports are publications of publicly traded stocks. Private companies, subsidiaries, and brand names DO NOT have annual reports.

If you need only financial data (income statement, balance sheet) you may not need an actual annual report. Company and investment reference sources can be had from the Mergent database (available on our Databases: Business/Economics page.)

Annual Reports Sources

Company Websites. Recent annual reports are now commonly offered from the company's own website.  A search of Google.com will often yield the company website. Annual reports may be hidden under such links as "About the Company" or "Investor Relations".

Web Collections of Annual Reports. The websites below will lead to either company websites or the data directly:

• CAROL: Company Annual Reports Online Online annual reports for UK, European, and Asian companies. Reports arranged by industry as well as alphabetically by company name.
• Public Register's Annual Report Service The annual reports of over 3,600 public companies can be ordered without charge from this searchable site. Reports are mailed free to addresses within the United States. Also links to over 2,000 annual reports online at: http://www.annualreportservice.com/
• SCETI Corporate Annual Report <<Historical>> This site contains facsimiles of older corporate annual reports from the University of Pennsylvania's Lippincott Library collection. Coverage is mostly 1920s to 1950s. The complete text of the reports may be searched using the Lippincott Library's PDF search engine. 
• U. S. Securities & Exchange Commission The Securities & Exchange Commission is the United States government agency charged with the regulation of publicly traded companies and the markets and exchanges on which they trade. Filings submitted to the S.E.C. are posted on their Website. Go to "Fillings $ Forms (EDGAR)" or directly to: http://www.sec.gov/edaux/searches.htm

Lexis Nexis Academic Universe. (available from our Databases: Business/Economics page) Lexis Nexis is good for older annual reports and 10-K's. However, Lexis-Nexis does not have any photos, charts, or graphics.

From the Academic Universe main menu page, click on the Business button, then select "SEC Filings & Reports" from the menu. Fill in the form, and search by company name, ticker, or SIC code. Filings will be listed in reverse chronological order. Exhibits attached to 10-K filings will be listed as separate documents.

For older annual reports, from the Academic Universe main menu page, click on the Business button, then select "Company Financial Information." In the search form, select "NAARS - Annual Reports 1984-1995" from the pull-down "sources" menu. Printing and downloading are the same as above.

Company Research. Websites for the company research in general can be found on the pages  "Companies: Publicly Traded"and "Companies: Directories", and can be found on our Websites by Subject website.

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