Resource of the Week: Corporate Filings — U.S. and Otherwise
By Shirl Kennedy, Senior Editor

EDGAR at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is a basic business reference tool. Public corporations (domestic and foreign) and certain “insiders” are required by law to file certain documents (PDF; 250 KB) here on a regular basis. This information, of course, is scrutinized by investors, financial analysts, journalists, ResourceShelf editors, etc. A good basic tutorial is available on the SEC website. It was updated earlier this year.

There are other ways to get at EDGAR data – many for free — that provide unique searching options. This annotated compilation from our friends at Virtual Chase provides an excellent overview of many such resources.

Companies must also file certain documents in the different states where they are doing business. The Judi Prokop Newman Information Resource Center at the University of Miami School of Business offers a good, annotated list of links to state corporate filing databases. You’ll also find pointers to international sites as well as U.S./SEC data sites such as those in the Virtual Chase listing.

Free sources of international corporate filings are few and far between. One good place to start poking around is the membership directory of the International Organization of Securities Commissions. It links you to the websites of SEC-equivalent regulatory bodies around the world. A different alternative is Yahoo! Finance – Worldwide. It has many localized sites; if you drill down, you can sometimes find company report announcements. Note that most of these are available in their native languages; India and Singapore, however, are available in English.

globalEDGE, at Michigan State University, has an International Country Insights section worth checking out. There are pointers to the home pages of major companies in each country via a “corporations” link; you may find financial reports online.

+ SEDAR (System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval) “provides access to most public securities documents and information filed by public companies and investment funds with the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA).” Naturally, it’s available in French as well as English. (The SEDI system allows you to search for insider filings.)
+ SEC Info searches EDGAR and SEDAR filings simultaneously. Free registration required. The site…uh, takes a bit of getting used to, but an FAQ is available.
+ CAROL (Company Annual Reports On-Line) is a UK-based site that offers “direct links to the financial pages of listed companies in Europe and the USA.” Free registration gets you access to the full text of annual reports.
+ Companies House is where you go for UK corporate filings. Its WebCheck tool provides basic information for free; full documents may be purchased for a nominal fee. Details here.
+ Northcote provides direct links to information offered on the websites of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. “Free information on corporate websites includes; annual and interim reports, press releases, summary financial information, results presentations and webcasts, chairman’s statements, price information and broker research. Not all companies publish everything so our page on a company will enable you to quickly assess what is available.”
+ Hugin, a service which distributes financial announcements for European companies, is another fishing hole worth trying. It seems to have a large portfolio of clients. Use the Companies link to browse alphabetically or by sector; a simple search form is also available. If a company is one of Hugin’s clients, you’ll find links to reports, press releases, etc.