How to Read a Results 8-K in Five Minutes
Small-cap results usually arrive as a Form 8-K with the press release attached. Where to look first, what the item numbers mean, and four lines worth reading before the call.
What arrives, and when
When a US-listed company announces its quarterly results, it furnishes them to the SEC on Form 8-K under Item 2.02, Results of Operations and Financial Condition, usually with the press release attached as Exhibit 99.1. The 8-K normally lands the same day the release goes out; the rule allows no more than four business days.
The full quarterly report, the 10-Q, follows later: within 40 days of the quarter's end for larger filers and 45 days for smaller ones. The release is the company's own summary. The 10-Q is the version with footnotes and updated risks. Read the first quickly, and check the second when it arrives.
Read the item list first
Every 8-K lists its items near the top, and the numbers tell you what kind of news it is before you read a word. Item 2.02 is results. Item 7.01 is a Regulation FD disclosure, often an investor presentation. Item 8.01 covers other events the company chooses to report. Item 1.01 is a material agreement the company has entered into. Item 5.02 is a change among directors or officers. Item 9.01 lists the exhibits, where the press release and slides usually sit.
Our filings page names the items on every 8-K for the companies on our lists, so a results release and a board change look different at a glance.
Four lines worth reading before the call
Revenue against the same quarter a year ago, not only against the last quarter. Small companies are often seasonal, and the year-ago comparison is the honest one.
Cash at the end of the quarter against the end of the previous one. The change, read with operating cash flow, shows how fast the company is using money and how long what it holds might last.
The share count. If the diluted share count rose sharply, the company has probably issued stock, and each share's claim on the business is smaller. Recent filings will show an at-the-market program or a registered offering if there is one.
The outlook. Whether management raises, keeps or drops its guidance often says more than the quarter itself, and so does a release that stops giving a number at all.
Then read the footnotes when the 10-Q lands
Four notes repay the time: any going-concern language, where the company says whether it has substantial doubt about continuing for the next year; subsequent events, what happened after the quarter closed, often a financing; related-party transactions; and the equity note, which lists the warrants, options and convertible notes that could add shares later.
Where to find them
Every filing is free on the SEC's EDGAR system, and EDGAR full-text search finds a phrase across filings made since 2001. For the companies on our lists, our filings page gathers each 8-K, 10-Q and insider Form 4 in one place, and your watchlist narrows it to yours.
This is how we read, not advice about what to do. You are welcome to read the same way and to tell us what we missed.
- Results arrive as an 8-K under Item 2.02, usually the same day as the release; the 10-Q follows within 40 or 45 days of the quarter's end.
- Read the item numbers first: 2.02 results, 7.01 presentations, 8.01 other events, 1.01 agreements, 5.02 people, 9.01 exhibits.
- Before the call: revenue against a year ago, cash against last quarter, the share count and the outlook.
- When the 10-Q lands: going concern, subsequent events, related parties and the equity note.
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