Step Four: Obtain Annual Reports
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, another good resource for company information is an annual report, which many companies publish on their Web sites. Unfortunately, only publicly held companies are required to publish annual reports. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires most companies that have stockholders to send those stockholders annual reports. If you can't find an annual report on a prospective employer's Web site, you can call the company's investor relations department to ask them to send you a copy of the latest one. You don't even have to identify yourself as a job candidate — corporations send these reports to anyone who requests them.
You always want a company's most recent annual report. A company has a few months to file its annual reports following the end of its fiscal year (which isn't necessarily the same as the calendar year), so there may be a time lag between the date of the financial data contained in an annual report and the date the report is published.
In addition to sending shareholders annual reports, companies also file a more detailed version of this report with the SEC. It is called a Form 10-K. They also file quarterly reports, called Form 10-Qs, with the SEC. You can search for company filings on the SEC Web site,
