What is a 10-K? The annual report, explained
A 10-K is a U.S. public company’s comprehensive, audited annual report — its single most complete disclosure of financial performance, business, and risk.
The annual report companies are required to file
A 10-K is the comprehensive annual report that U.S. public companies must file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It's the single most complete picture of a company's year — and unlike a glossy annual report mailed to shareholders, the 10-K is a standardized, audited legal document.
What's inside
- Business overview — what the company actually does, its products, markets and competition.
- Risk factors — a frank list of what could go wrong, from competition to regulation to debt.
- Management's Discussion & Analysis (MD&A) — management explaining the numbers in plain language.
- Audited financial statements — the income statement, balance sheet and cash-flow statement, signed off by an independent auditor.
When it's filed
A 10-K is due once a year, generally 60–90 days after the company's fiscal year-end (the exact deadline depends on the company's size). Because the financials are audited, the 10-K is considered the most reliable financial filing a company produces.
Why it matters
If you only read one filing about a company, read its 10-K. It combines the hard numbers with the context you need to interpret them. On FiledFeed, a company's 10-K data feeds the revenue, margin, cash-flow and balance-sheet charts on its page — and you can always open the original on SEC.gov from the filing detail page.
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