Accounting & Finance: Business (Company) Statements

Balance Sheet This financial health sheet generally shows a company's assets (owns), liabilities (owes) and shareholder's equity. (The two sides of the sheet balance)

Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders' Equity

Income Statement (profit/loss statement) - Displays company profits and losses for a specific time period. It includes both operating and non-operating expenses.

Operating expenses - provide revenue and expense information as a result of business operations

Nonoperating expenses = provide revenue and expense information that are not a result of business operations

Cash flow statement emphasizes the cash generated by the company some of the information is in other statements. Publicly traded companies are required to file quarterly cash flow statements with the SEC.

Annual Reports to shareholders are financial statements; that provide a year-in-review and summary of where the company is going

10k an SEC form number. It is sometimes referred to as an annual report. It gives the texts and numbers but doesn't include glossy pictures and the like.

 Is the company public, private, or a subsidiary of a parent company?

Public Companies are companies with shares that are traded on a stock exchange and that are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and file under Federal Securities Law. It is generally easier  to find information on public companies than it is to find private companies. Public Companies have made an Initial Public Offering (IPO). All public companies have ticker symbols that are identifiers on the stock exchange.

Private Companies are privately held and do not have shares on a stock exchange. Information from private and subsidiary companies are apt to be found in newsletters, magazines, trade journals, etc.  Dun & Bradstreet and Hoover’s report some private company financial information.

Subsidiaries, both private and public companies may be parent companies and have subsidiaries.