A Company Says “Record Quarter”

Here is the short version, up front: a press release is the company’s story about its quarter. The SEC filing is the record the company is legally accountable for. The two documents usually agree on the big numbers. When they do not — when the “record” turns out to be an adjusted figure, or a one-time gain, or a number that excludes the costs that matter — the difference is in the filing, and it is free for anyone to read.

This article is a five-step method for checking an earnings claim in the company’s own filing. It uses the SEC’s free EDGAR database and the SEC’s own guides for investors. It will not tell you whether to buy or sell a stock. It will tell you how to find out whether the headline you just read is supported by the document behind it.

The Three Filings, and What Each One Is For

Before you open anything, you need to know which document answers which question. Public companies in the United States file three kinds of reports that matter for earnings season, and they arrive on different schedules for different reasons.

Form 10-K is the annual report. It is the most complete document a company files: a detailed picture of its business, the risks it faces, and its operating and financial results for the fiscal year. It includes audited financial statements, management’s discussion of the results, and the auditor’s report. Most U.S. public companies must file a 10-K each year. The SEC’s own investor guide describes it as the place to start if you want to follow or invest in a company.

Form 10-Q is the quarterly report. It provides similar but more abbreviated disclosure than the 10-K, for the applicable fiscal quarter: financial statements, management’s discussion, market risk, controls and procedures, legal proceedings, and risk factors. A company files a 10-Q after each of the first, second, and third fiscal quarters. There is no 10-Q for the fourth quarter, because the 10-K covers the full year. The quarterly financial statements in a 10-Q are unaudited, which is an important difference from the 10-K: no outside auditor has signed off on them yet.

Form 8-K is the current report. It discloses material events or information that the company chooses, or is required, to make public before its next scheduled quarterly or annual report. Earnings announcements usually reach EDGAR first as an 8-K: the company files a current report, often under Item 2.02 (Results of Operations and Financial Condition), and attaches the press release as an exhibit. The 8-K is the fastest document in the system. It is also the thinnest. It tells you what happened. The 10-Q, which follows weeks later, tells you the details.

The timing follows from the deadlines. A large company’s annual report is generally due within 60 days of the end of its fiscal year, a mid-sized company’s within 75 days, and a smaller company’s within 90 days. Quarterly reports are generally due within 40 days of the quarter’s end for larger companies, and 45 days for smaller ones. A current report on Form 8-K is generally due within four business days of the triggering event. Those deadlines are why the earnings press release and the 10-Q can be weeks apart — and why the press release is never the whole story.

The practical rule is simple. If you want the announcement, read the 8-K. If you want the numbers behind the announcement, read the 10-Q. If you want the context — the business, the risks, the accounting policies — read the 10-K. Most earnings headlines are written from the 8-K. Most earnings mistakes could have been avoided by waiting for the 10-Q.

Step 1: Find the Company on EDGAR

EDGAR — the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system — is the SEC’s public database of filings. It provides free public access to corporate information, and every filing a public company makes with the SEC is there. You do not need an account, a subscription, or a terminal. You need the company’s name.

Go to the SEC’s website and use the company search. Type the company’s name or its ticker symbol into the search bar. EDGAR presents the results in chronological order and identifies each filing by its form type, shown in the first column. A filing with “/A” appended to the form type — for example, “10-K/A” — is an amendment to an earlier filing. Amendments matter: a company that restates its results files an amended report, and the amendment, not the original, is the current record.

Three habits will save you time and errors.

Check the legal name. A familiar brand name is not enough. Companies often file under a legal name that differs from the name on the product, and two companies can have confusingly similar names. The search results show the legal name of the filer. Confirm it matches the company you mean before you open anything.

Filter by form type. Once you are on the company’s filing list, filter for the form you want — “10-Q” for the latest quarter, “8-K” for the earnings announcement, “10-K” for the annual report. Without the filter, you will be scrolling through hundreds of entries, including forms you do not need.

Note the dates, both of them. Every filing has a filing date (when it reached EDGAR) and a reporting period (the quarter or year it covers). The period tells you what the numbers describe. The filing date tells you how current the information is. A 10-Q filed 40 days after the quarter ended is describing a quarter that is already six weeks in the past. That is normal. But a headline that treats those numbers as today’s news is misleading you about timing.

EDGAR also offers a full-text search tool, which lets you search for words and phrases across filings. That is useful when you are looking for a specific disclosure — a mention of a particular product, a customer, or a risk — rather than a specific filing. And many filings are now submitted in a structured data format called Inline XBRL, which lets software read and parse the financial information directly. Our companion piece explains how the SEC’s machine-readable data works and why it matters for anyone who follows filings closely: SEC Machine-Understandable Data: What Event Filings and Assigned Topics Mean for Readers.

Step 2: Compare the Press Release Number With the Filing Number

Open the earnings press release — usually Exhibit 99.1 attached to the 8-K — and the 10-Q side by side. Then compare, line by line, the numbers the press release celebrates with the numbers in the financial statements.

Start with revenue. Does the revenue in the press release match the revenue on the income statement in the 10-Q? It should, for the same period. If it does not, find out why before you believe either number. Common reasons are innocent — the press release might show a rounded figure, or a figure in different units — but the difference is worth thirty seconds of your time.

Then check the units. This is the single most common reading error in financial documents. The header of every table in a filing states the units: dollars, thousands of dollars, or millions of dollars. A line that reads “120,000” in a table headed “in thousands” is $120 million, not $120,000. Press releases sometimes drop the units or switch them between tables. The filing does not.

Then check the period. “Record quarter” means the best quarter the company has ever had — but which quarter, and compared with what? The filing’s income statement shows the current quarter next to the same quarter last year, and often next to the previous quarter as well. Compare the number with the comparable period, not with the period the press release chose. A company can report a “record” by comparing its best quarter with a weak quarter from a year ago, while its revenue actually fell from the previous quarter. The filing shows you both comparisons. The press release usually shows you one.

Then check profit. Revenue is the easiest number to make look good, and the least informative on its own. A company can set a revenue record while losing money. The filing’s income statement shows you the path from revenue to profit: cost of goods sold, operating expenses, interest, taxes. If revenue rose but operating profit fell, the press release may not mention it. The filing will.

Finally, check the cash flow statement. Profit is an accounting measure, and it can be shaped by judgments about when to recognize revenue and expenses. Cash from operations is harder to shape: it shows the cash the business actually generated. A company that reports record profit while its operating cash flow falls is telling you something important, and the filing is the only place you will see it. Read net income and operating cash flow together. If they are moving in different directions, find out why before you draw a conclusion.

Step 3: Read the Notes and the Risk Factors

The financial statements are the skeleton. The notes are the explanation. The SEC’s investor guide is explicit about this: the financial statements in a 10-K are accompanied by notes that explain the information presented, and those notes can contain details that change the meaning of the headline numbers.

Start with the revenue note. It tells you how the company recognizes revenue — when a sale counts as a sale. A change in revenue recognition can make a quarter look better without any change in the underlying business. The note also breaks revenue down by segment or product line, which tells you whether the growth came from the whole business or from one part of it.

Then look for one-time items. A gain from selling a building, a legal settlement, a tax benefit, or a restructuring charge can make a single quarter look much better or much worse than the underlying business performed. These items are disclosed in the notes and in management’s discussion. A “record profit” that depends on a one-time gain is not the same as a record profit from selling more of the product. The press release may mention the one-time item in a footnote. The filing will show you its size.

Then read management’s discussion — the MD&A, Item 7 of the 10-K and the corresponding section of the 10-Q. This is management’s own account of the results, in its own words: the company’s operations and financial results, its liquidity and capital resources, any known trends or uncertainties that could materially affect future results, and the critical accounting judgments behind the numbers. The MD&A is where management explains why revenue changed, what moved margins, and what it is worried about. It is also where the tone matters. A management team that spends its MD&A discussing headwinds and uncertainties is telling you something different from one that spends it celebrating.

Then read the risk factors — Item 1A of the 10-K, and the updated risk section of the 10-Q. Companies generally list their most significant risks in order of importance. The section describes the risks themselves, not how the company plans to handle them. Some risks apply to the whole economy, some to the industry, some only to that company. Two things to watch for: risks that are new since the last filing, and risks that are described with unusual specificity. A risk factor that names a customer, a contract, or a deadline is usually there for a reason.

And read the auditor’s report, in the 10-K. Most audit reports express an “unqualified opinion” — that the financial statements fairly present the company’s financial position in conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). If the auditor expresses a “qualified opinion” or a “disclaimer of opinion,” look carefully at what kept the auditor from expressing an unqualified opinion. Likewise, take seriously any material weaknesses disclosed in internal controls over financial reporting. An unqualified opinion is not a guarantee that the numbers are right. A qualified opinion is a signal that something limited the auditor’s ability to say so.

Two more items in the 10-K deserve a glance, even in an earnings check. Item 1B, “Unresolved Staff Comments,” shows whether the SEC staff has raised questions about the company’s earlier filings that remain unresolved. And Item 9, “Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants,” discloses whether the company has changed its accounting firm and whether there were disagreements. Many investors treat a disagreement with an auditor as a red flag. You do not need to agree. You need to know it is there.

Step 4: Check the Exhibits — Especially the Ones the Press Release Did Not Mention

A filing is not only its main document. It comes with exhibits, and the exhibits are where the material that does not fit in a press release lives. Item 15 of the 10-K requires a list of the exhibits included as part of the filing: bylaws, material contracts, lists of subsidiaries, and more. The 10-Q and 8-K have their own exhibit lists.

For an earnings check, the most useful exhibit is usually the one you have already opened: the press release attached to the 8-K. But there are others worth knowing about.

The earnings call transcript is not an exhibit, but the call itself matters. Most companies hold a conference call after the earnings release, and the call is where analysts ask the questions the press release avoided. The filing will not contain the call. But the next 10-Q will contain the numbers the call was arguing about, and comparing the two is often revealing: if the call was full of questions about a margin decline, and the 10-Q confirms the decline, the questions were the story.

Material contracts and agreements. When an 8-K reports that a company entered into a material agreement — Item 1.01 — the agreement itself is often filed as an exhibit. The press release will summarize the deal in favorable terms. The agreement will show the price, the conditions, the termination rights, and the parts the summary left out. Our companion piece on tracing company news through 8-K filings and exhibits explains this habit in detail, including how to find the exhibit index and what to look for in it: Trace Company News in Form 8-K Filings and Exhibits on EDGAR.

CEO and CFO certifications. In the 10-K and 10-Q, the chief executive and chief financial officer must certify the accuracy of the filing — the Sections 302 and 906 certifications, usually found in Exhibits 31 and 32. These are not decorative. They are the reason the filing, and not the press release, is the document the company is accountable for. When the numbers in the press release and the numbers in the filing disagree, the certified document is the one that matters.

Amendments. If a filing has been amended — a 10-Q/A or an 8-K/A — open the amendment and read what changed. Companies amend filings to correct errors, and the correction is sometimes the real news. EDGAR marks amendments clearly, and the amended filing will usually explain what was changed and why.

Step 5: Decode the Language

Earnings press releases have a vocabulary of their own, and each word does a specific job. Here is how to translate the most common ones, and where to find the truth behind each.

“Record.” Record revenue, record profit, record quarter. The word means the highest number the company has reported for that measure. It does not tell you whether the record is meaningful. A record set by one dollar, after a year of decline, is still a record. A record in revenue is not a record in profit. And a record in an adjusted measure — see below — is not a record in the audited financial statements. Always ask: record of what, compared with what, and on which basis — GAAP or adjusted?

“Adjusted.” Adjusted revenue, adjusted profit, adjusted EBITDA. “Adjusted” means the company has removed some items from the GAAP number — restructuring costs, stock-based compensation, acquisition expenses, one-time gains or losses — to show what it considers the underlying performance. Companies are permitted to present non-GAAP measures, but they must also show how the adjusted number differs from the most comparable GAAP measure. The reconciliation is usually in the press release, in small print, or in the filing. Read it. The items a company adjusts away are often the items that explain the difference between a good quarter and a bad one. The SEC’s investor guide puts the decision where it belongs: it is up to you to decide how much weight to give to non-GAAP measures.

“Strong momentum.” Momentum is not a financial measure. It is a mood. When a press release leans on momentum, growth, or trajectory instead of numbers, it usually means the numbers are not strong enough to carry the story on their own. Check the filing for the numbers the adjectives are standing in for.

“Excluding currency effects” or “on a constant currency basis.” For companies with international sales, currency movements can make revenue rise or fall without any change in the business. A company that reports growth “excluding currency effects” is showing you what revenue would have done if exchange rates had not moved. That is a legitimate adjustment. But it is also a choice: the GAAP number includes the currency effect, and the currency effect is real money. Read both.

“Guidance” and “outlook.” When a company raises or lowers its outlook for the year, it is changing its forecast, not reporting a result. The press release will frame the new guidance as good news. The filing — or the next filing — will show whether the company has a record of meeting its guidance. A company that raises guidance every quarter and misses it every year is telling you something about its forecasts, not its business.

“Beats expectations.” A company beats expectations when its results exceed what analysts predicted. But expectations are not a fixed target. They move, and companies manage them. A “beat” against lowered expectations is not the same as a strong quarter. The filing does not contain expectations. It contains results. That is the point.

A Worked Example: The Record That Wasn’t

The method is easier to trust once you have seen it work. The example below is hypothetical — round numbers, an invented company, no real filing behind it — but every step in it is a step you would take with a real one.

Suppose a company announces “record quarterly revenue of $500 million, up 25 percent, and record adjusted profit of $80 million.” The headline writes itself. Now open the 10-Q.

The income statement shows revenue of $500 million, matching the press release. So far, so good. But the comparable quarter last year shows revenue of $400 million — and the quarter before this one shows revenue of $520 million. Revenue is up 25 percent year over year, but down from the previous quarter. The “record” is a record only against the same quarter last year, not against the company’s own recent history. The filing shows you both comparisons. The press release showed you one.

Then look at profit. The income statement shows net income of $20 million, not $80 million. The difference is the word “adjusted.” The reconciliation, in the press release’s footnotes, shows the company removed $40 million of stock-based compensation and $20 million of restructuring costs to get from $20 million to $80 million. Those are real costs — the stock compensation dilutes existing shareholders, and the restructuring was a cash expense — but the adjusted number excludes them. The GAAP profit fell from $35 million a year ago to $20 million today. The adjusted profit rose. Which number describes the quarter? The filing lets you answer that question. The press release already answered it for you.

Then look at the notes. The revenue note shows that $60 million of the quarter’s revenue came from a single new contract, recognized in full when the contract was signed. The cash flow statement shows operating cash flow of $5 million — far below the $20 million of net income, let alone the $80 million of adjusted profit. The business booked revenue faster than it collected cash.

None of this proves the company is in trouble. A new contract, a restructuring, and stock compensation can all be legitimate parts of a growing business. But the quarter the press release described — record revenue, record profit, strong momentum — is not the quarter the filing describes. The filing describes a company whose revenue grew year over year but fell quarter over quarter, whose GAAP profit fell by nearly half, and whose cash generation lagged its reported profit. That is a different story, and it took three documents — the 8-K, the 10-Q income statement, and the cash flow statement — to see it.

One More Check: Compare With the Last 10-K

The 10-Q tells you what happened this quarter. The 10-K tells you how the company defines the things it is reporting, and definitions can change. Two comparisons with the annual report are worth making whenever a quarterly claim surprises you.

First, check the segment definitions. A company that reports by segment — by product line, by geography, by business unit — defines those segments in its 10-K. If the 10-Q shows a segment growing fast, check whether the segment was defined the same way last year. Companies sometimes reorganize their segments, moving a product from one segment to another, and a reorganization can make a segment’s growth look dramatic without any change in the underlying business. The 10-K’s segment note is the baseline. The 10-Q’s segment note tells you whether the baseline moved.

Second, check the accounting policies. The 10-K’s notes describe the company’s significant accounting policies: how it recognizes revenue, how it values inventory, how it accounts for acquisitions. If the 10-Q mentions a change in one of those policies, or a new critical accounting estimate, read it carefully. A change in when revenue is recognized can move revenue between quarters. A change in an estimate can move profit without any change in the business. These changes are disclosed, and they are disclosed precisely because they matter. A press release will rarely mention them.

This is also why the 10-K is worth reading even when you are only checking a single quarter. The quarterly report is an update. The annual report is the reference book the update refers to. Without the reference book, you cannot tell whether the update changed the story or just continued it.

The Five-Step Checklist

You can do this in half an hour, once you know the route. Here is the whole method, in order.

1. Find the filing. Search EDGAR by company name or ticker. Confirm the legal name. Filter by form type. Open the 8-K for the announcement and the 10-Q for the quarter.

2. Compare the numbers. Match the press release figures against the financial statements in the 10-Q — revenue, profit, cash flow — for the same period, in the same units. Check the comparable period, not just the one the press release chose.

3. Read the notes and the MD&A. Look for one-time items, changes in accounting, and the revenue breakdown by segment. Read the risk factors for anything new or unusually specific. In the 10-K, read the auditor’s report.

4. Check the exhibits. Open the press release as filed, not as quoted. Look for material contracts, certifications, and amendments. If an 8-K mentions an exhibit, read it.

5. Translate the language. “Record” means highest reported, not necessarily meaningful. “Adjusted” means the company removed items — find the reconciliation. “Momentum” means the numbers were not enough on their own. “Guidance” is a forecast, not a result.

And one habit that sits underneath all five steps: remember who wrote each document. The press release was written by the company’s communications team. The filing was prepared by the company, reviewed by its auditors, certified by its CEO and CFO, and submitted to the SEC under rules that prohibit materially false or misleading statements. The SEC does not vouch for the accuracy of a 10-K or a 10-Q — it sets the disclosure requirements and reviews filings for compliance — but the filing is the document the company is accountable for. When the two documents disagree, the filing wins.

That is the whole skill, really. Not accounting expertise. Not a finance degree. Just the habit of opening the document behind the headline, and reading it before you believe the headline.

Sources

• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investor.gov, “How to Read a 10-K/10-Q” (Investor Bulletin, January 25, 2021) — most U.S. public companies must file a 10-K each year; the 10-Q is filed after the first, second, and third fiscal quarters; Item 1 (Business), Item 1A (Risk Factors, generally listed in order of importance), Item 1B (Unresolved Staff Comments), Item 7 (MD&A), Item 7A (Market Risk), Item 8 (audited financial statements and notes, GAAP, auditor’s report, Sections 302 and 906 certifications in Exhibits 31 and 32), Item 9 (changes in accountants), Item 15 (exhibits); non-GAAP measures must be reconciled to the most comparable GAAP measure; the SEC does not vouch for the accuracy of a 10-K or 10-Q. https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/general-resources/news-alerts/alerts-bulletins/investor-bulletins/how-read
• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investor.gov, “Using EDGAR to Research Investments” — EDGAR provides free public access to corporate filings; search by company name or ticker symbol; results appear in chronological order and are identified by form type; “/A” indicates an amendment; 10-K (annual report, audited financial statements), 10-Q (quarterly report, unaudited quarterly financial statements), 8-K (current report disclosing material events); filings are increasingly submitted in the structured Inline XBRL format. https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/getting-started/researching-investments/using-edgar-research-investments
• Fact-check date: 2026-11-11. This article explains how to read SEC filings. It is not investment advice, and it does not recommend buying or selling any security. Filing deadlines, form requirements, and company disclosures can change; always check the filing itself and the SEC’s current guidance. No specific company is named or assessed in this article.