Case Studies and Examples

Investors can learn about a company’s financial information from many different places. One place to learn information is from the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering and Retrieval (EDGAR) database. All public companies that are required to register with the SEC file their required reports through EDGAR.

You can search for a public company’s filings on EDGAR. The URL is https://www.sec.gov/edgar/search-and-access. Pick a public company and try to search for it on EDGAR. Good companies to search include Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., Starbucks Corp., Zoom Video Communications, and the Walt Disney Company. Look at the company’s most recent Form 10-K report. Item 9A is the SOX Section 404 report on internal controls. What do these sections tell you? What can you learn about the company that you have searched? You can learn more about how to read these forms at https://www.sec.gov/fast-answers/answersreada10khtm.html.