A 10-K is the annual report every US-listed company files with the SEC. Unlike the glossy report on the company’s website, it follows a fixed structure, its financial statements are audited, and the people who sign it are legally liable for what it says. That makes it the most complete and most honest document a company publishes about itself. It also often runs past 100 pages.
You don’t need to read all of it. Here is what matters, and in what order.
What is in a 10-K
| Part | What it covers | Worth your time? |
|---|---|---|
| Item 1 · Business | What the company does, its segments, customers, competitors | Yes |
| Item 1A · Risk Factors | Everything that could go wrong | Skim for the specific ones |
| Item 3 · Legal Proceedings | Lawsuits and investigations | Skim |
| Item 5 · Market for Equity | Share buybacks, dividends | Glance |
| Item 7 · Management’s Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) | Management explains the year | Yes, first |
| Item 7A · Market Risk | Interest rate and currency exposure | Glance |
| Item 8 · Financial Statements | The audited statements, the auditor’s report and the notes | Yes |
| Item 9A · Controls and Procedures | Whether internal controls work | Check for problems |
| Items 10–14 · Directors, Pay, Ownership | Usually points to the proxy statement | In the proxy |
A reading order that works
- MD&A (Item 7). Start with management’s own account: what drove revenue and margins, how it funds itself, what it plans to spend. It gives you the story the numbers have to confirm.
- The three statements (Item 8). Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement. Read the auditor’s report first: one clean paragraph is normal; a sentence about “substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern” is not.
- The notes. The most useful are usually: the segment note (revenue and profit by business line), revenue (how it is broken down, and the backlog of contracted work, called remaining performance obligations), debt (what is due when), stock-based compensation, and commitments and contingencies.
- Business (Item 1). Now you know what to look for in the description.
- Risk factors (Item 1A). Compare with last year’s list. New risks, and risks that moved up the list, tell you what changed.
- The proxy statement (DEF 14A), filed separately before the annual meeting: who sits on the board, how executives are paid, and what targets their bonuses depend on.
A financial statement table without its notes is half the story. Rocket Lab’s income statement shows one revenue line; its segment note shows that in 2025, $402.8 million of its $601.8 million came from Space Systems, not launches.
Words worth searching for
Open the filing and use your browser’s find function:
- “going concern”: doubt about whether the company can keep operating.
- “material weakness”: the company’s own controls over its accounting failed.
- “accounted for”: finds customer concentration (“one customer accounted for 18% of revenue”).
- “remaining performance obligations” or “backlog”: revenue already contracted but not yet earned.
- “restatement”: earlier figures were wrong.
- “related party”: deals with insiders or their companies.
The other filings
| Form | What it is | When |
|---|---|---|
| 10-K | Annual report, audited | 60 to 90 days after the fiscal year ends, depending on company size |
| 10-Q | Quarterly report, unaudited and shorter | 40 to 45 days after each of the first three quarters |
| 8-K | Current report on a major event: results (Item 2.02), acquisitions, executive changes | Within four business days |
| DEF 14A | Proxy statement: board, pay, shareholder votes | Before the annual meeting |
| 20-F | Annual report of a foreign company listed in the US | Within four months of the year end |
Quarterly results usually arrive first as a press release attached to an 8-K, with the full 10-Q a few days or weeks later.
Faster with Tuna Terminal
Filings search finds and downloads the 10-K and 10-Q of any US company (and annual reports from Hong Kong and mainland China), labels each with the fiscal quarter it covers, and lets you add a filing to the AI assistant to ask questions about the original text. Tuna Terminal’s company research reads the 10-K for you and cites the item each point comes from. Then put the numbers to work with how to read a balance sheet and free cash flow explained.