How to read SEC filings — 10-K, 10-Q, and 8-K

1. The three groups

Periodic — [10-K and 10-Q](sec-filings): filed on a fixed schedule. The 10-K is the annual report, audited by an accounting firm; the 10-Q is the quarterly interim report. Financial statements, the business description, and risk factors live here.

Current — [8-K](form-8k): filed when something significant happens, without waiting for the next periodic report. Most triggers must be filed within four business days. Results of operations, officer changes, and large agreements arrive this way.

Situational — [S-4](form-s4), [13D and 13G](schedule-13d), and others: filed only in particular circumstances. Issuing new shares as deal consideration produces an S-4; an investor crossing 5% of voting stock files a 13D or a 13G.

2. Finding it on SEC EDGAR

Search the company by name or ticker on EDGAR (sec.gov/edgar/search) — Apple is “Apple Inc.” or “AAPL”.

Pick the company and its filings appear newest first. Putting `10-K` or `8-K` in the filing type box narrows the list to that form.

⚠️ Filings by officers and institutions are mixed in with the company’s own — Form 4 (insider transactions), SC 13D and 13G (large stakes), 144 (proposed sales). To see only company news you have to filter those out; at a large company, Form 4 typically makes up most of the list.

3. Reading the item numbers on an 8-K

The form name alone does not say what happened. Instead the reason appears as an item number from a list the SEC sets — those are the digits next to an 8-K, like `2.02, 9.01`.

The common ones: `2.02` results of operations · `5.02` departure or election of directors and officers · `1.01` entry into a material agreement · `5.07` results of a shareholder vote · `8.01` other events.

One filing can carry several items. A holding-company reorganization may list entry into an agreement (1.01), completion of an acquisition (2.01), officer changes (5.02) and charter amendments (5.03) at once.

⚠️ `9.01` and `7.01` do not state substance. 9.01 means “there are exhibits” and 7.01 means “this material is being disclosed.” They are also the most frequently attached numbers, so when only those appear you have to open the document to learn what happened.

4. What trips people up

An item number gives the category, not the content. A `1.01` could be an acquisition, a loan agreement, or a supply contract. Which one only appears in the document.

Amendments are separate filings. A form name ending in `/A` (`8-K/A`) is an amendment; read it together with the original for the full picture.

A company can change numbers. In a holding-company reorganization the SEC identifier (CIK) changes, and past filings stay under the old one. Looking at only one side can make a long history look like three or four filings.

5. Seeing it in Stocklore

Open a stock and the detail view has a Recent filings section. It lists what the company filed itself, newest first (filings by officers and institutions are left out), and spells out the item numbers on an 8-K.

Each row links to the original filing on SEC EDGAR, so you can check rather than take our wording for it.

How the risk factors in the 10-K changed from year to year is in Risk changes on the same screen. Quarterly results and the move on the trading day after each filing are in the earnings timeline.

What to keep in mind

• Filings describe what has already happened. Even an 8-K arrives days after the trigger, and periodic reports come weeks after the quarter closes.
• The number of filings tells you nothing on its own. Results of operations (2.02) arrive every quarter as routine, while 4.02 — a statement that past financial statements can no longer be relied on — is rare. The same form can mean entirely different things.
• This page and our screens are information, not investment advice. That a filing was made is a fact; what it will do to the share price is not something the filing tells us.