SEC filings 101: where company facts come from
Almost every hard fact about a public company starts life in a report the company sends to the SEC. This lesson explains who the SEC is, why those reports exist, and which ones you will run into most.
What the SEC is
The SEC, short for the Securities and Exchange Commission, is the US government agency that oversees the stock market. Congress created it in 1934, after the 1929 crash showed how easily investors could be misled.
The SEC’s basic deal with companies is simple. If you want to sell shares to the public, you must tell the public the truth about your business, on a schedule and in a set format. The reports a company sends to the SEC are called filings.
Why companies have to report
Think about who knows what. The managers of a company see the sales numbers every day. The owners, who may be millions of ordinary people, see none of it. That gap is a recipe for trouble. Managers could hide bad news, or quietly trade on good news before anyone else knows.
Required filings shrink that gap. Every owner, big or small, gets the same facts at the same time. The numbers must follow a shared rulebook, called GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles), so one company’s profit can be compared with another’s.
There is real weight behind this. Since a 2002 law called the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a company’s chief executive and chief financial officer must personally sign statements certifying the annual and quarterly reports. Lying in a filing can lead to fines, lawsuits and even prison.
EDGAR: the public library of filings
EDGAR is the SEC’s online system that collects and stores filings. The name stands for Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval. Anyone can search it for free, with no account needed.
Most filings today also carry XBRL tags. XBRL is a way of labeling each number in a report, for example marking one figure as the year’s revenue, so computers can read it reliably. Filing.fyi uses those labeled numbers to build its pages.
The filings you will meet most
Each filing type has a form name. The names look like codes, but there are only a few you need.
- 10-K, the annual report. The big one. It describes the business, lists its risks, explains the year in management’s words and includes full financial statements checked by an outside auditor. See the 10-K lesson.
- 10-Q, the quarterly report. A shorter update filed after each of the first three quarters of the year. Its numbers are reviewed by the auditor but not fully audited. See the 10-Q lesson.
- 8-K, the current report. Filed when something important happens between regular reports, such as a new CEO, a big purchase or a bankruptcy. See the 8-K lesson.
- Proxy statement (form DEF 14A). Sent before the yearly owners’ meeting. It covers the board, how top managers are paid and what owners will vote on. See the proxy lesson.
- Form 4, insider trades. Filed when a company’s directors, top officers or owners of more than 10% of its shares trade those shares. See the Form 4 lesson.
- 13D and 13G, big stakes. Filed by an investor who comes to own more than 5% of a company’s shares. A 13D is the longer form, used when the investor may try to influence the company.
- 13F, fund holdings. Filed each quarter by large investment managers to list the US stocks they hold.
- S-1, going public. Filed by a company that plans to sell shares to the public for the first time. It reads a lot like a first 10-K, plus details about the share sale.
How fast filings arrive
Each report has a deadline, counted from the end of the period it covers or from the event itself.
| Filing | Deadline |
|---|---|
| 10-K | 60, 75 or 90 days after the year ends; the largest companies get the least time |
| 10-Q | 40 or 45 days after the quarter ends |
| 8-K | Generally within 4 business days of the event |
| Form 4 | Within 2 business days of the trade |
Part 1: when will the report show up? Pinecrest Phones Inc. is a very large company whose year ends on December 31. It gets 60 days to file its 10-K.
- January has 31 days, so January 31 is day 31.
- February (not a leap year) adds 28 more: 31 + 28 = 59, so February 28 is day 59.
- Day 60 is March 1. The 10-K is due by then.
Its first quarter ends March 31, and it gets 40 days for the 10-Q. April has 30 days, so April 30 is day 30, and day 40 is May 10.
Part 2: press release versus filing. On the same day it reports its year, Pinecrest sends out a press release. The headline says adjusted profit was $5 million. The 10-K shows the official GAAP profit, called net income, of $2 million.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Adjusted profit in the press release | $5 million |
| Minus costs the company chose to leave out | −$3 million |
| Net income in the 10-K | $2 million |
The $3 million gap was real money spent, such as restructuring costs and stock given to employees. The press release is not lying, but it picks the friendlier number. The filing shows both and how they connect.
Why filings beat headlines
- Someone signs them. Top officers certify the reports, and outside auditors check the annual numbers. A news story or a press release carries no such promise.
- They show the official numbers. Companies love adjusted figures. Filings must present the GAAP version too.
- The details live in the notes. Debts, lawsuits, leases and how sales are counted sit in the notes to the financial statements. Headlines almost never reach them.
- They are first-hand. A news article is someone’s summary of a filing. Going to the source removes a layer of guesswork.
- SEC
- The US agency that oversees the stock market and collects company reports.
- Filing
- An official report a company sends to the SEC.
- GAAP
- The standard accounting rules US companies must follow in their reports.
- EDGAR
- The SEC’s free online system for finding filings.
- XBRL
- Labels attached to each number in a filing so computers can read it.
- Auditor
- An outside accounting firm that checks a company’s numbers.
- Net income
- Profit after every cost, under the official accounting rules.
Where to see it on Filing.fyi
Open any company from the ticker list. The filing timeline on its page lists its recent 10-Ks, 10-Qs, proxy statements and 8-Ks. Each company also has a filings page that sorts every filing by category, including insider trades (Form 4) and big-stake filings (13D and 13G). The financial numbers come from the companies’ own XBRL data, and pages refresh after each new 10-K or 10-Q.
- The SEC requires public companies to share the same facts with every owner, on a schedule.
- EDGAR holds every filing, free for anyone to read.
- The 10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, proxy and Form 4 cover most of what an owner needs.
- Filings are signed and checked; press releases and headlines are not.
This lesson is education, not investment advice. Examples use made-up companies and round numbers unless a real filing is named.