Despite its name, this site is NOT a link to annual reports online. This page is part of the Annual Reports Library, a fee based library based in San Francisco. The Annual Reports Library has the annual reports; but it has created this web site to assist the individual investor in obtaining annual reports. The index page is broken down into seven different areas to search: For Investors; For Annual Report Producers; Non Profit and other; Education; Fun; Web Resources; and How to Contact the Library.
The first section “For Investors” contains the most helpful information in locating an annual report. The first link titled “How to find a company’s annual report online” takes you to a page where you can search the ubiquitous Yahoo! Finance site and generate a list of companies that will match your search. There are other links here; but most likely the best one will be the “Annual Report Gallery A‐Z.” This useful link <http://www.reportgallery.com/bigaz.htm> actually links you to many companies’ annual reports as well as to their home page. For speedy access to annual reports, this is an excellent place to begin a search.
The other links under the “how to find...” link are useful places for information about a company’s stock, a useful piece of information for the investor, but not annual report type of information. Another useful link in the “For Investors” box is “how to read an annual report.” This takes you to a discussion of the annual report and how to interpret it. Since many annual reports gloss over the important data, this is a most useful link. The other links in this section are other sites related to what the creators term “investor relations” pages. While some will provide you with information about annual reports, most are concerned with stock information.
The second section, titled “For Annual Report Producers,” provides the producer of the report with useful information. Similar to the section on how to read an annual report, it goes into the details of the annual report and even comments on the requirements of the SEC. Annual report producers should read this section. The other important link in this section links the searcher to the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). Here, one can find out a myriad of information geared to the company and how to provide good investor relations. Most annual report producers will gain some knowledge by checking out this valuable resource.
The other sections are titled “Non Profit and Other”, “Education”, “Fun”, “Web Resources”, and “How to Contact the Library” respectively. Again, many of these are links to other sites with emphasis on investor relations. Some of the sites in previous sections are repeated here, namely the Yahoo! site. Of special note is the Trivia section. Here, you can find out which annual report reads like a game of Monopoly. Even business people need to have some fun now and then!
This site is well designed and free of large graphics that can slow access. While I used a T1 connection to access it, this site should load quickly due to the minimal graphics. Be careful however, as many of the links go to other sites, some of which may contain more graphics. Despite the name and lack of actual annual reports online, this is a good site to visit if you are totally lost and need some guidance in locating annual reports. The section on reading an annual report is quite well done. One surprising omission was that there was no direct link to the SEC page <http://www.sec.gov> which has annual reports online. Another omission was that many companies’ pages have links to their annual reports. This is evident in the Annual Report Gallery link previously discussed, as they have links to the reports and to the companies’ pages. Despite these limitations, this was a fun site to explore and you may want to check it out.
