Definition: The form on which a publicly-held company reports its business performance and financial condition following the end of every quarter (ie: three month period). The form is then sent to the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the government agency which requires it and which keeps it on line for investors to examine.
Example: Visiting http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml allows any investor to look up any publicly-held company’s filings, including its 10-Q reports.
Investeach explains: The most important resource that an investor can have is information. Thankfully, the government requires publicly-held companies to complete form 10-Q each quarter so that we never go longer than three months without knowing how a company is doing.
The deadline for filing the 10-Q for most companies is 40 days after the end of the quarter. Notice above that Google filed its report just inside this deadline. The 10-Q is not audited (ie: the financial figures have not been examined by an independent firm).
Companies only have to file three form 10-Qs per year even though there are four quarters in a year! The reason is that at the end of the year, companies are required to complete a 10-K, the form on which it reports the last quarter’s performance as well as its performance for the whole year (ie, the last four quarters).
Riddle me this: