The US government has made some to be the essential requisite in order to provide the investors to see the past, present and future of a company. These filings include formal reports and reports of periodic nature, registration statements and several other forms offered by he SEC or the Securities and Exchange Commission of US.

SEC can be referred as a watchdog to maintain regulations in order to prevent the stocks from getting manipulated and pass through fraudulent activities. The SEC was formed during the 30sb and it constitutes the documents bearing a detailed account of the operational and financial health of both national and international companies. Most of these companies have stock, which are traded by public.

Another significant function of the SEC happens to be checking the forms to ensure that the information provided are meeting the requirements. The investors often go through the forms and also make necessary selection of one over another. Here is a quick glance on the different forms required to have a clear understanding on the workings of SEC.

Registration Statements

This includes the statements, which help one to understand the company’s profitability of the company and the securities offered by it. It bears two parts,

• Prospectus: This is a document of legal nature meant for charging the one who issues the securities in order to provide the detailed report of the investments offered. All the forms related to finance offered in the prospectus need to be checked by a public accountant with a certification.

• Additional information: It is the additional information furnished by the company relevantly.

10-K Report

This is the report constituting the comprehensive company analysis. It has similarity with the prospectus of the company but bears more information in comparison to the company’s annual report. The various parts of a 10-K report are,

• The “business summary” describing the operations of the company

• The management discussion and analysis (MD&A) explain the operations and financial viewpoint of the company in a vivid manner.

• Financial statements including the income statement, the balance sheet, and the cash flow statement.

• Other sections bearing a discussion thread to the management team of the company and the different proceedings of legal nature.

10-Q Report: It is the shortened form of the 10-K detailing the latest development in the company. It is provided at the end of each of the company’s initial three quarters of the fiscal year.

8-K Report: The major developments of the company are mentioned either in the 10-K or even in the 10-Q, still if some information is missed out because of the filing not been done on time then they are mentioned in the 8-K Report.

Proxy Statement: This is the statement providing detail such as, salary of the management, conflicting issues and others. It needs to be filed along with the SEC before solicitation of the vote of the shareholders in the director’s election and the corporate actions have been approved. It should be offered before the meeting of the shareholder.

Forms 3, 4 and 5

Form 3 informs about the amounts belonging to the ownership.
Form 4 identifies the ownership changes.
Form 5 constitutes the annual summary describing the Form 4 and includes information to be reported.

Schedule 13D: This form acts as the introduction of the owner of the major shares of the company to the investors.

Form 144: Through this the investors get the hint on the insider’s pattern of security selling by the corporate and the sell pressure.

Foreign Investments: The change in rules has turned the participation of the US investors within affairs of cross border securities to a mere easy task. SEC has recognized that the foreign companies not bearing he securities registered by SEC can access the disclosure in English instead of submitting their disclosure on paper. From now on the investors will receive the annual report in a more timely fashion, as they will be submitting the reports to he SEC two years earlier.

In order to understand he SEC forms, one must read in between lines to have a precise view of the financial form. You will often find financial ratios in the statement and they will define the financial strength of the company on short and long term basis in a better way.