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About Public Company Financial Statements

Introduction

All companies and/or investment funds that have a security that is publicly traded must file financial statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Those filing are published on the internet by the S.E.C. and searchable on the S.E.C.'s EDGAR website. One key to looking up financial statements on EDGAR is knowing a company's Central Index Key, or "CIK", which is the key identifier used by the S.E.C.

On stoxray.com, we use the CIK numbers to create quick links so that when you pull up a security on our website, you can easily click to get a company's SEC filings, including financial statements:

The type of financial statements filed varies by the type of entity that is making the filing. This article provides a quick overview of the various types of financial statements that are filed by different companies and/or entities.

U.S. companies

A company that is a U.S. company makes the following financial statement filings with the S.E.C.:

  • Quarterly financial statements that are filed using S.E.C. Form 10-Q
  • Annual financial statements that are filed using S.E.C. Form 10-K
The quarterly financial statements are unaudited, whereas the annual financial statements have been audited by an outside audit firm. All financial statements are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles, or "GAAP".

ADRs of non-U.S. companies

A non-U.S. company that has ADRs trading on a U.S. stock exchange makes the following financial statement filings with the S.E.C.:

  • Quarterly financial statements filed using S.E.C. Form 6-K
  • Annual financial statements that are filed using S.E.C. Form 20-F
The quarterly financial statements are unaudited, whereas the annual financial statements have been audited by an outside audit firm. An S.E.C. form 6-K is the general purpose form used by ADRs to disclose any material events that they want to disclose, including quarterly financial statements. So there is not one specific form ala a 10-Q that indicates when an ADR has disclosed quarterly financial statements. You have to search through the Form 6-Ks. The financial statements filed by an ADR can be prepared either in accordance with U.S. GAAP or International Financial Reporting Standards as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board.

Non U.S. companies

A company that is not a U.S. company that has a security that trades on a U.S. stock exchange (other than an ADR) has a choice to make about how to file financial statements with the S.E.C. If the company qualifies as a foreign private issuer, the company may elect to file financial statements in the same manner as an ADR: quarterly financials disclosed in an S.E.C. form 6-K, and annual financial statements using S.E.C. Form 20-F. The financial statements can be prepared either in accordance with U.S. GAAP or International Financial Reporting Standards. Or the company can choose to follow U.S. company disclosures (S.E.C. form 10-Q and 10-Ks).

Canadian companies

A Canadian company that has a security that trades on a U.S. stock exchange (other than an ADR) has a choice to make about how to file financial statements with the S.E.C. If the company qualifies as a foreign private issuer, the company may elect to file financial statements in the same manner as an ADR: quarterly financials disclosed in an S.E.C. form 6-K, and annual financial statements using S.E.C. Form 20-F. But there is also a special form that they can use, that is just for Canadian companies. They can file their annual financial statements on S.E.C. form 40-K. The financial statements can be prepared either in according with U.S. GAAP or International Financial Reporting Standards. Or the company can choose to follow U.S. company disclosures (S.E.C. form 10-Q and 10-Ks).

Investment funds

An investment fund, such as a closed-end fund, exchange traded fund, or mutual fund, files the following financial statements with the S.E.C.:

  • Semi-annual financial statements that are filed using S.E.C. Form N-CSRS
  • Annual financial statements that are filed using S.E.C. Form N-CSR
  • Quarterly statement of fund holdings are filed using S.E.C. Form N-Q
The quarterly statement of fund holdings is only filed for periods when the fund is not filing a form N-CSR or N-CSRS.