Annual Reports and Corporate Filings  

The annual report to shareholders is the principal document used by most public companies to disclose corporate information to their shareholders. It is usually a state-of-the-company report, including an opening letter from the Chief Executive Officer, financial data, results of continuing operations, market segment information, new product plans, subsidiary activities, and research and development activities on future programs.

The Form 10-K, which must be filed with the SEC, typically contains more detailed information about the company’s financial condition than the annual report.

Source: SEC.gov

There are many other types of filings with the SEC. These are described in detail on the SEC website.

The library has access to older annual reports in a variety of formats:

Image file (PDF) annual reports:

Thomson ONE
PDFs of annual reports 1993- present (filing data). U.S. and international companies.
Mergent Online
PDFs of annual reports 1996- present (filing date). Primarily for U.S. companies.
ProQuest Historical Annual Reports
PDFs of annual reports 1844-2005. The focus is on the largest companies of each year covered and there are fewer companies included for the years 1986 - 2005.

Text only annual reports:

LexisNexis Academic
text versions of annual reports 1987-present. Select "Business", then "SEC filings and reports", then change "Source" to "SEC Annual Report to Shareholders."

LexisNexis also includes  portions of annual reports produced from 1972 - 1995 which were compiled by the AICPA. These generally contain only financial information and little of the text.
Select "Business", then "Company Profiles", then change "Source" to "Annual Reports - Corporate (AICPA) 1972-1984" or "Annual Reports - Corporate (AICPA), 1984-1995"

Microfiche Collection of Annual Reports:

There are two Corporate Annual Report collections in the Regenstein Library within the Microform Department in the 3rd floor reading room. Reports from 1969-1979 are in alphabetical order by company. The collection that covers 1978-1996 does not separate annual reports from other SEC filings. An index (located near the fiche cabinets) must be used to find the year and fiche number for the annual report of a given company.

Print copies of annual reports:

Any corporate annual reports the U of C Library has in print form are integrated in the bookstacks collection and are reflected in the Library Catalog.
Choose the advanced search, enter the company name in the author box, and "annual report" in the title box. For example, the library holds the annual reports of Ford Motor Company for 1955-1964, 1967, 1969.