Navigate the filing before extracting numbers
A US domestic public company's Form 10-K is an annual filing containing business descriptions, risks, management discussion, financial statements and notes, among other required information. Form 10-Q supplies quarterly reporting for the first three fiscal quarters, typically with unaudited interim statements. Form 8-K reports specified current events. An earnings release may accompany a filing but is not the whole report.
Start with the entity, fiscal year-end and reporting currency. Read the business description to understand what earns revenue. Then inspect the financial statements and notes, the auditor's report and management's discussion and analysis (MD&A). Risk factors and commitments can explain why apparently attractive ratios deserve caution.
A repeatable reading pass
First ask what changed in revenue, operating margin, cash generation and capital employed. Next find the notes needed to interpret those changes: revenue policy, acquisition contributions, debt, segments and tax. Finally distinguish management's explanation from independently established facts and your own inference.
Foreign private issuers may file Form 20-F annually and Form 6-K for relevant furnished information rather than domestic forms. Reporting frameworks and disclosure patterns differ. The presence of an SEC filing does not mean every issuer uses US GAAP.
Capture each extracted figure with its period, unit, entity scope and exact source location. A table headed “in millions except per-share amounts” can turn a correct copied number into a thousand-fold error if metadata is discarded. A financial teardown starts with source discipline.