Researching a public USA company with EDGAR

Searching for information on public companies in the USA?

All USA companies, foreign and domestic, are required to file registration statements, periodic reports, and other forms electronically through EDGAR. Anyone can access and download this information for free. Here you'll find links to a complete list of filings available through EDGAR and instructions for searching the EDGAR database.

Here's how to start: Go to the EDGAR home page. You will find a very thorough Quick EDGAR Tutorial and a Description of SEC Forms on the left side of the screen. To begin searching, click “Search for Company Filings” and then “Companies and Other Filers.” This will bring you to the Company Search page.

There are various other ways you can search:

• "Search Companies and Filings" allows you to retrieve real-time filings for a specific company and to find key company information — including its name, address, telephone number, state of incorporation, Central Index Key (CIK) number, Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code, and fiscal year end.


• You can also search for all SEC-registered companies in a particular state.


• Or you can search for all companies with a specific SIC code.


• Once you've found the company you want, you can limit the search results by date (for example, "Prior to 2002-01-01") or by the type of filing (for example, "10-K").


• Latest Filings is the most recent filings on the EDGAR system has received — from all SEC filers, including individuals and companies, paper filers and electronic filers. The list on this page features the most recent real-time filings from a broad range of companies and individuals for the current official filing date

You can also search in the Full Text, retrieve filings made the previous week, view prospectuses or proxy voting records for the mutual fund of your choice using the Mutual Funds Search feature, find Variable Insurance Products and associated filings for new filings with series and class/contract name and find Securities Act registration statements and post-effective amendments declared effective on the most recently completed business day.

Here is what a typical record looks like, it is a search for Microsoft:

In the left corner you will see the company name and below that the SIC code assigned to the company. If you click on the code it will take you to a list of other companies operating in the same industry.

The SEC filings for the company is in the table form numbers, form formats, filing descriptions, and filing dates:
- Form 10-Q (contains unaudited quarterly financial statements)
- Form 10-K (contains audited annual financial statements)
- Form 8-K (current information including preliminary earnings announcements)
- Registration statements including Form S-1 (general registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933,used for new issuers) and
- Form F-6 (registration statement used by foreign issuers of American Depositary Receipts)

Executive compensation:
You can locate information about executive pay in:
- Schedule 14A (annual proxy statement)
- Form 10-K (audited annual report)
- Registration statements filed by the issuer
- Form 8-K (current company information)

Insider Transactions and Beneficial Ownership Interest
The specific forms are:
- Form 3 (initial statement of beneficial ownership)
- Form 4 (statement of changes in beneficial ownership)
- Form 5 (annual statement of changes in beneficial ownership)

For an extensive list on understanding the EDGAR search results, please read through the Researching Public Companies Through EDGAR:A Guide for Investors

Online advertising in EU surges 40%

The Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (IAB Europe) has just released the findings of its annual advertising expenditure survey for the year ending December 2007.

Compiled by IAB Europe and then processed and analyzed by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), this report is the definitive guide to the size and value of the European online advertising industry.
In 2007 the European online advertising market was worth €11.2 billion, up four billion euros from €7.2 billion in 2006. With a like-for-like growth rate of 40%, the European online advertising market shows signs of closing the gap on the US which grew 26% to a market value of €14.5 billion in the same period. (Chart 1 - click on the picture to make it bigger)

“10 before 10”
The report also reveals the share that online advertising has of the total advertising spend in key markets (Chart 2). Alain Heureux, President of IAB Europe says “We are well on the way to achieving the “10 before 10”- that is 10 European countries where online advertising accounts for at least 10% of overall ad spend by the year 2010. At the end of 2007 Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Poland Sweden and the UK had all reached this milestone.”

What’s an Internet user worth to an advertiser?
IAB Europe/PwC have created a measure ‘Spend per user’ to illustrate the value of one Internet user to an advertiser in the different markets. With the European average at €80.6, Norwegian advertisers spent the most at €133.2 per person, followed by the UK at €120.8 and Denmark at €109.5 in 2007. In the US advertisers spent €91.9 per person in 2007. The more mature the market, the higher the value placed on the Internet user by the advertisers.

The big category spenders
Industry category data has been included in the report for the first time and reveals that the sectors investing the most in online advertising in 2007 were Entertainment & Leisure, Telecoms and Finance & Insurance. In particular, advertisers from the Entertainment & Leisure sector, which spends the most money at present, have taken advantage of the interactive and social media formats on the web to promote their products and services.