Reference at Newman Library

Tag: EDGAR Online’s I-Metrix

New Subscription: EDGAR Pro

With the assistance of the accounting department, we now have access to EDGAR Pro. You may recall that in September of this year, our subscription to EDGAR Online’s I-Metrix ended. EDGAR Pro, which is from the same company that we got I-Metrix from, is not quite as full-featured–there are no Excel analysis tools–but it does offer deep access to SEC filings. Our current subscription limits us to 4 simultaneous users.

You’ll find links to EDGAR Pro on the main databases page as well as the following subject database pages:

  • Accounting
  • Business
  • Company information
  • Finance
  • Industry information

 Vendor description of content in EDGAR Pro:

  • All SEC filings from 1994 to present – more than 7 million filings
  • One click access to financial statements
  • Initial Public Offerings, IPO & Secondary Public Offerings, SPO with summary and detailed views
  • Institutional ownership including
    • shares held
    • change in percent of portfolio
    • market value
  • Buy and sell activity by company insiders
  • Company summaries which provide an overall picture of the firm through a business description, demographic data, stock holdings by institutions and insiders, and more
  • See the executive compensation section of the most recent proxy statement
  • Stock quotes and charts

Edgar Online access terminated

Our access to Edgar Online has been terminated. The Accounting Dept. is trying to work with Edgar for access to Edgar Pro but it still has to go through licensing and procurement. We will remove it from the list of databases.

We have access to SEC filings on the SEC website (last four years may be searched for keywords), Mergent, Thomson One, Lexis-Nexis Academic, Westlaw Campus, and the company’s website.

LibGuide updated for ACC 4100 Summer

I have updated the LibGuide for Accounting 4100 Summer.  There are two sections being taught by Prof. Jian Xiao.  This is a communications intensive course. The students are doing research on one of 12 companies that are listed in the guide.  All of the companies, except Facebook, are non-U.S.-based public companies that trade their shares on U.S. exchanges  as ADRs.  The company websites, Edgar Online I-Metrix, Mergent Online, Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage, Audit Analytics, Factiva and Value Line, are among the suggested resources to help the students prepare their presentations.  The students need to discuss the impact of International Financial Reporting Standards on the company’s bottom line, and whether to invest in the company.  (Facebook, uses the FASB Accounting Standards Codification, rather than IFRS, and being newly publicly traded hasn’t filed a 10-K.)

The course runs through July.  I made a presentation to the two sections yesterday but I also said that they could get help at the reference desk if I were not available.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Definitions of terms used in Edgar Online I-Metrix

I asked Edgar Online I-Metrix what “cross calculated” meant in their financials of companies, and this is what I learned:

a.       Original – This  is as the word says original data for the period.

b.      Amended – Company updated the financials of a recently filed period by filing a 10Q/A or 10K/A

c.       Preliminary – Data coming from 8K

d.      Restated – This is flagged when a company updated financials for a historical period in a more recent filing.

e.      Cross Calculated – More than one document is used to generate a particular period number. This is mostly the case with Cash flow statements for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Qtrs as companies only report YTD numbers.

I hope this is helpful.  Rita

Edgar Online I-Metrix helps with risk factors and topics of SEC filings

Students are often looking for the risks that a firm is facing.  For publicly traded firms, the 10-K filings and the 10-Q filings made with the SEC are one source.

Edgar Online I-Metrix has now placed the Risk Factors under Company. The source is the most recent quarterly filing.

Also, the Topics may be very helpful to students and faculty looking for information on mergers of a company, earnings, staff increases, etc.

After conducting a search for a company, select Topics under SEC filings.  The full text of the SEC documents are available in which these topics are mentioned.

For advanced searches, select the Search tab, then select topic(s) to be searched, the company or sector, the filings and the time period.  If no company is entered, then all companies will be searched for the selected topic.

Alerts may be set up.

The folders option is set up for all Baruch users so it would be best to save the document in another way to prevent it from being deleted by others.

Edgar Online I-Metrix-a source for company ratios

I’ve had several accounting students inquiring about sources for ratios for companies and industries, particularly Amazon, for a group presentation.  I have been suggesting that they consult the following Subject Guides that Louise prepared:

http://guides.newman.baruch.cuny.edu/content.php?pid=62304&sid=458501; and http://guides.newman.baruch.cuny.edu/content.php?pid=58524&sid=428826

I’m also suggesting a search for Amazon on Edgar Online I-Metrix.   If you do a company search for Amazon (or other companies) and look in the left column under Financials, Ratios are listed.  This database also allows one to compare companies.

Accounting assignment on “push down accounting”

I helped a student in Acc 4100 who is part of a team doing research and a presentation on “push down accounting.”  They are to include references to companies using push down accounting.  Here are some possible sources:

Books 24×7 -search FinancePro collection for phrase “push down accounting”.  There are some books with chapters explaining this phrase.

ABI Inform and Business Source Premier can be searched for articles in accounting journals.  These can help explain push down accounting, which results in a new basis (from what I read quickly–I really didn’t study it).

CCH Accounting Research Manager–offers the FASB Codification and interpretations and explanations.  The FASB Codification relating to push down accounting is 805-50-15-7 through 15-9.   Among the results I looked at were some AICPA issues papers including pushdown accounting in practice with examples from the 1970s and 1980s mentioned.

For current/recent examples, I suggested to the student to try Factiva as we found some earnings releases (from Business Wire and other wire services) and also earnings conference calls in which a specific company’s  officers explained  how push down accounting affected their earnings.

Doing phrase searches for push down accounting in SEC filings on Mergent and Edgar Online I-Metrix also provided some recent examples.

The student was pleased with these suggestions.  I neglected to ask if they were to consider non-US companies.  I hope these suggestions are helpful in case the question comes up again.

Finding SEC filings by non-US companies by industry sector

In response to an inquiry on the Business Librarians listserv today asking for help in locating 20F filings (the annual filing made with the SEC)  by non-US oil and gas companies,  I was reminded that the NYSE has  a listing of the non-US companies and one may select different industry sectors at : http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lc_ny_industry_1.html?ListedComp=NONUS.  The companies’ hyperlinks include a tab for SEC filings, as well as the companies’ homepages, which would have links to the filings.  (Canadian companies may file a 40-F, rather than a 20-F).

The other exchanges could be searched for other listed companies.

Audit Analytics offers a choice to search for US, Canadian and foreign companies that could be used to identify the companies and the oil and gas industry may be divided into those involved in wells and drilling, extraction, and support activities.  There would be links to the filings available.

Edgar Online I-Metrix enables one to search by industry, SEC form number, and by listed exchange.  (The initial inquirer didn’t have access to those databases.)