Locating Annual Reports

Company annual reports (and the financial information contained within them) are available online from a wide variety of sources:

Mergent Online

Mergent Online provides detailed downloadable financial statements taken from company SEC filings.  It does not offer the full-text or images of annual reports.  Most annual report financials can be found by pulling up a company profile, but Mergent also provides easy access to the Security and Exchange Commission's (SEC) files. 

The filings include the Form 10-K which contains corporate information used in annual reports, but without the glossy nature of many annual reports.  To access the SEC filings through Mergent select your company, click on the "EDGAR" tab, and then click on the desired filing to view, download, or print. 

Lexis/Nexis Business

Lexis/Nexis offers access to annual report and financials. Recent annual reports are filed under Business -> SEC Filings; downloadable financial statements are in the Company Financial section: select Disclosure Reports for current information and NAARS 1984-1995 or 1972-1984 for older data. 

Company Web Sites

Many companies are providing entire annual reports from their site on the World Wide Web.  If you don't know the company web address, you could search corporate web sites at Hoover's. Otherwise, you could perform a general search to find the company home page using a search engine such as Google or AlltheWeb.

Annual Report Web Sites

Use the Annual Report Gallery or Investor Relations Information Network (IRIN) for links to and pdf copies of annual reports.

Internet Ordering

Reports can be ordered via the internet using web sites such as the Wall Street Journal or the Public Register's Annual Report Service Online.

Wall Street Journal Phone Service

If you see the club symbol following the stock listing in the Wall Street Journal, you can call 1-800-654-2582 to receive the annual report and available quarterly earnings information.  The reports will be mailed the next working day; this is a free service.

Microfiche

Both O'Shaughnessy-Frey and Keffer libraries have some older annual reports on microfiche.  At O'Shaughnessy-Frey the reports are kept in the microfiche storage cabinet in the microforms room on Level Two under the name, "Business Annual Reports Industrial" or "Business Annual Reports Service."  At Keffer, the reports are stored in a microfiche storage cabinet on the first floor.

Please ask a librarian for any assistance you need in accessing annual reports.

See also Tips for Reading an Annual Report by Jim Milner. 

Research consultations

Professional reference service is available at both the St. Paul and Minneapolis campus libraries. If you are interested in a research consultation, contact:

Ryan Carter, Minneapolis, (651) 962-4646, cart1589@stthomas.edu
Marianne Hageman, St. Paul, (651) 962-5404, mdhageman@stthomas.edu
Eric Kallas, St. Paul, (651) 962-5013, epkallas@stthomas.edu
Andrea Koeppe, Minneapolis, (651) 962-4647, arhudson@stthomas.edu
Janice Kragness, Minneapolis, (651) 962-4645, jlkragness@stthomas.edu