Annual reports
After the end of a company’s financial year, it is obliged to send shareholders an annual report. This contains the financial and statutory information, as well as a report on the activities of the company over the previous year.
Some are glossy, some not. Some are doorstop-sized, and others contain a bare minimum of detail. Many are little more than marketing material. But, if you know what you’re looking for, you can usually find important information about the company, more often than not buried someone in the fine print towards the back.
Some companies produce concise reports for the benefit of shareholders that prefer not to wade through reams of information. The share registry can tell you whether you can opt in to receiving these short annual reports. Despite its size, a full annual report is the more useful of the two. If you’re a new shareholder it’s usually a good idea to read it. Not only will it give you a feel for the company’s operations and financial details, but also how management communicates with the owners (that’s you).
