Annual Reports

1.   Introduction

Put together on a yearly basis, an annual report outlines an organization's financial and corporate conditions. Publicly traded companies are required by law to publish an annual report. Universities, government bodies, and non-profit organizations also produce annual reports.  This guide is intended as a brief introduction to the various methods of obtaining annual reports.

2.   Annual reports as research tools

Annual reports are good sources of information about a company's business history and current performance. They can be used to learn about an organization's financial health or patterns of spending or growth, and they often describe new programs or initiatives undertaken by the organization. Indirectly, annual reports indicate what is important to the organization through the topics included in the report and the way in which the information is presented. Financial information about private companies is difficult to find as these companies are not legally required to publish such data.

A few sites with basic tips on reading annual reports:

• How to Read Annual Reports (via the UK Motley Fool site)
• Tips for Reading an Annual Report (via the Annual Reports Library)
• What's an Annual Report? (via IBM)

3.   Obtaining an organization's annual report

Some organisations are required by law to make their annual reports available to the public, while others are not. If you are researching a private company, you will likely not be able to get an annual report, but you should definitely check to see if a significant portion of the company is owned by a publicly-traded company as you can sometimes uncover some information through a parent company's annual reports. Many government bodies and not-for-profit organisations also publish annual reports.

The following sections of this guide give a few examples and suggestions on how you can find annual reports using meta-sites, search engines, and the SFU Library resources. Most of these resources focus on the reports generated by publicly-traded companies.

3.a.   Annual reports on the web: meta-sites

There are many sites on the web that either link to many companies' annual reports or provide the reports themselves.  This list is just an introduction to such meta-sites, but it covers a significant portion of the active public companies in Canada and the United States.  If you can't find what you need here, please Ask Us for help.

• Annual Report Gallery
  A good source for over 2000 annual reports for major companies.
• CAROL 
  A free online service with links to corporate annual reports in the USA, Europe, and Asia.  Search for reports by company name, continent, or broad industry. Registration (free) required.
• EDGAR Database
  The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) database of  corporate filings.  Contains annual reports, press releases, and other public documents for most public companies in the US.  Note that annual reports are "10-K" forms for the SEC. There are also many sites such SecInfo that offer access to the same information from a different angle. In addition, some of the SFU Library's databases such as MINT Global and CoreReference provide access to recent SEC filings, along with simplified access to data pulled from various SEC reports
• Globe Investor.com's Annual Report Service
  The Globe & Mail's free service -- offers annual reports by company name or by industry.
• (IRIN) Investor Relations Information Network
  Provides access to over 3000 companies' annual reports.
• SEDAR
  One-stop shopping for annual reports of publicly-traded Canadian companies. All such companies are required to file with the Canadian Depository for Securities, the creators of this site, so the selection is extensive. Click on "Company Profiles" to start your search.  Note that rather than providing you with links to the annual reports at the companies' sites, SEDAR (like EDGAR for the US) actually has the public documents (from press release to annual reports) for publicly-traded companies at its site.

3.b.    Searching for annual reports on the Internet

Using a search engine such as Google, type "annual report" and the name of the organization (e.g. "annual report" and "Ballard Power") and, with luck, the search engine will find the report you're looking for.

If you are getting disappointing results, try dropping the words annual report. Search by the name of the organization alone to find the organisation's home page, then look for a link to its annual report. If the words annual report do not appear on the homepage, try clicking on links to financial information, investment information, publications, corporate information, or quarterly reports. Alternatively, use the company site's search function if there is one. Click on "search," type in annual report and the site's search engine will often uncover the document for you.

For further assistance searching the Internet, ask a Reference Librarian at the Reference Desk at any of the SFU Library branches.

3.c.   Finding annual reports and financial statements at SFU

For annual reports published by government departments and agencies, search the SFU Library catalogue and the Canadian Research Index database. Search the SFU Library catalogue for annual reports of non-profit organizations.

For corporate annual reports and/or financial data, try the following resources available at the SFU Libraries:

• Canada

  • CoreReference
    Data and ratios from income statements and balance sheets, as well as compensation information for most publicly-traded Canadian companies.
  • Consumer and Corporate Affairs
    Microforms Classified (6th floor) HG 044 25
    Canadian company reports (annual reports and financial statements) to 1995 only.
  • FPinfomart.ca (Financial Post)
    Current and historical financial and operating details on top publicly-traded companies in Canada. Does not include complete annual reports, but does offer much of the same key descriptive and financial information, as well as added details such as analyst's recommendations, operating ratios, and director's biographies.
  • LexisNexis
    Choose Business on the top navigation bar, then choose International Company Reports from the list of Sources.
    

• United States

  • CoreReference
    Financials and compensation information for most publicly-traded US companies. Includes links to original EDGAR filings such as 10-Ks.
  • Hoover's via LexisNexis
    Company profiles only - no annual reports.
  • LexisNexis
    Choose Business from the top navigation bar, then choose SEC Filings on the right side of the screen, then choose SEC Form 10-K or SEC Annual Report to Shareholders from the list of Sources.

• International

  • MINT Global
    A database that covers 50,000 publicly-traded companies from around the world + 5 million private companies. Includes detailed financials (with details on whether GAAP/IFRS, etc. were used), as well as links to Financial Times news stories and links to company documents such as annual reports.
  • LexisNexis
    Choose Business on the top navigation bar, then choose International Company Reports from the list of Sources.

3.d.   A Small Selection of Annual Reports on the Web

This short list of annual reports is intended only as a set of examples (Canadian and American + government and corporate) that you can use to get a better idea of the nature of annual reports.  Use the meta-sites, databases, and search engine tips in this guide to look for a specific organization's report.

• Air Canada via ACE Aviation
• Ballard Power Systems
• Bank of Canada
• BCE Inc.
• Canada Post Corp.
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• Canadian Tire Corporate Information
• Microsoft
• Rogers Inc.
• Starbucks Coffee Company
• Telus

4. Other relevant SFU Library guides

• Company information
• Ratio Analysis
• Industry Surveys