Annual Reports | SEC Filings | Other Resources

Sources for Annual Reports 

Current annual reports can usually be found on company web sites, frequently in Adobe PDF format. Annual Report Gallery is a gateway site that links directly to many of these reports.

The library has access to older annual reports in a variety of formats:

Image file (PDF) annual reports:

Thomson Research
PDFs of annual reports 1993- present (filing data). U.S. and international companies.
Mergent Online
PDFs of annual reports 1996- present (filing date). Primarily for U.S. companies.
ProQuest Historical Annual Reports
PDFs of annual reports 1844-2005. The focus is on the largest companies of each year covered and there are fewer companies included for the years 1986 - 2005.

Text only annual reports:

LexisNexis Academic
text versions of annual reports 1987-present. Select "Business", then "SEC filings and reports", then change "Source" to "SEC Annual Report to Shareholders."
LexisNexis also includes NAARS - Annual Reports, which contain portions of annual reports produced from 1972 - 1995 Select "Business", then "Company Financial Reports", then change "Source" to "NAARS - Annual Reports 1984 - 1995" or "NAARS Annual Reports - 1972-1984."

Microfiche Collection of Annual Reports:

There are two Corporate Annual Report collections in the Regenstein Library within the Microform Department in the 3rd floor reading room. Reports from 1969-1979 are in alphabetical order by company. The collection that covers 1978-1996 does not separate annual reports from other SEC filings. An index (located near the fiche cabinets) must be used to find the year and fiche number for the annual report of a given company.

Print copies of annual reports:

Any corporate annual reports the U of C Library has in print form are integrated in the bookstacks collection and are reflected in the Library Catalog.
Choose the advanced search, enter the company name in the author box, and "annual report" in the title box. For example, the library holds the annual reports of Ford Motor Company for 1955-1964, 1967, 1969.

Sources for SEC Filings

Companies that issue stocks and bonds are required to file financial information with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mergent has a concise guide to the different filing types grouped by form number and filing type.
SEC filings are available in a number of sources at the University of Chicago.

 

	Access	10-K	8-K	10-Q	Proxy Statement	Prospectus
SEC Edgar  -*-	Free	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -
LexisNexis Academic	UofC Only	1987 -	1993 -	1993 -	1987 -	1993 -
Mergent Online	UofC Only	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -
Thomson Research	UofC Only	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -
OneSource	GSB Only	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -	1994 -
Regenstein Microfiche	Building use only	1969 - 1994	1978 - 1994	1978 - 1994	1978 - 1994	1969 - 1994
*Coverage varies by company.  Electronic filing with the SEC was phased in during 1994-1996. Only forms that were filed electronically are available in EDGAR.

 

Tips:

Mergent Online has advanced search capabilities and includes all filing types. Filings are available as HTML, Word, PDF or Excel. It also offers the ability to download sections of some documents, which can be helpful with large documents.

LexisNexis Academic is best for retriving pre-1994 filings. Go to Business, then SEC Filings.

OneSource has the most user-friendly interface and filings are available as HTML, Word, PDF or Excel. Access is restricted to GSB students and faculty. Choose "Precision Search", then SEC Filings.

 

Other Resources: Annual Reports

A major archive of print annual reports can be found in the Management and Economics Library at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. Purdue does not lend their annual reports to other libraries but they are open to the public. The collection also includes some proxy statements and prospectuses
Search or browse their collection at the Purdue Annual Report page.

The Lippincott Library at the University of Pennsylvania has digitized a small number of historical annual reports and made them available online. The collection is small but could be of interest for researchers.

Other Resources: Corporate Filings

State required business filings are often available online, but there is no central service available to University of Chicago users. This site has aggregated information about sources for these filings, listed by state.