what s included
annual reports became a regulatory requirement for public companies following the stock market crash in 1929 when lawmakers mandated standardized corporate financial reporting it includes public disclosure of a company s operating and fiscal activities for the previous year the report is typically issued to shareholders and other stakeholders who use it to evaluate the firm s financial performance and to make investment decisions 1 an annual report contains the following sections 23in the u s a detailed version of the annual report is referred to as form 10 k and is submitted to the u s securities and exchange commission sec companies may submit their annual reports electronically through the sec s edgar database reporting companies must send annual reports to their shareholders when they hold annual meetings to elect directors 2information for stakeholdersthe annual report defines whether the information conforms to the generally accepted accounting principles gaap this confirmation will be highlighted as an unqualified opinion in the auditor s report section 3fundamental analysts can understand a company s future direction by analyzing the details provided in its annual report the annual report contains key information on a company s financial position that can be used to measure mutual fund reportsa mutual fund annual report discloses certain aspects of the fund s operations and financial condition in contrast to corporate annual reports mutual fund reports are best described as plain vanilla in their presentation 45a mutual fund annual report along with a fund s prospectus and statement of additional information is a source of multi year fund data and performance made available to fund shareholders and prospective fund investors all mutual funds registered with the sec must send a full report to all shareholders annually the report shows how well the fund fared over the fiscal year information that can be found in the annual report includes 4