sboghossian SEC EDGAR — US Public Company Filings
What it does
This tool queries the US Securities and Exchange Commission's EDGAR (Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval) system — the public repository of all US public company filings. It enables lookup, retrieval, and analysis of SEC filings for due diligence, contract counterparty research, M&A preparation, and regulatory compliance in transactions involving US-listed companies.
EDGAR is a free public resource (https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar). This tool provides programmatic access to the EDGAR full-text search API and filing APIs.
Setup / auth
No API key required for basic EDGAR access. The SEC provides a public REST API at https://data.sec.gov/ and a full-text search API at https://efts.sec.gov/LATEST/search-index.
| Parameter | Description | Required |
|---|---|---|
companyName |
Company name for search | Conditional |
cik |
SEC CIK (Central Index Key) — 10-digit identifier | Preferred when known |
ticker |
US stock exchange ticker symbol | Alternative to CIK |
formType |
SEC form type to filter (e.g., "10-K", "8-K", "S-1") | Recommended |
dateFrom / dateTo |
Filing date range | Optional |
keywordSearch |
Full-text search within filing documents | Optional |
The SEC also publishes machine-readable CIK lookup and company tickers JSON for bulk resolution.
Form type reference
| Form | Description | Key uses |
|---|---|---|
| 10-K | Annual report | Comprehensive company overview, risk factors, financial statements, material agreements |
| 10-Q | Quarterly report | Interim financials, material developments since 10-K |
| 8-K | Material event (current report) | Acquisitions, officer changes, defaults, amendments to material contracts |
| S-1 | IPO registration statement | Full company history, risks, use of proceeds, financial statements |
| S-4 | Merger / acquisition registration | Deal structure, proxy information, target financial statements |
| DEF 14A | Definitive proxy statement | Board composition, executive compensation, shareholder votes |
| 13D / 13G | Beneficial ownership (>5% stake) | Track who owns significant stakes; flag activist investors |
| Form 4 | Insider trading reports | Officers/directors buying and selling shares |
| SC 13E-3 | Going-private transactions | Management buyouts |
| ARS | Annual report to shareholders | Shareholder communications |
Capabilities
Company / CIK lookup
Input: { companyName: "Acme Corporation" }
Output: { cik: "0001234567", entityName: "ACME CORPORATION", sic: "7372", state: "DE" }
Filing search
Input: {
cik: "0001234567",
formType: "10-K",
dateFrom: "2023-01-01",
dateTo: "2025-12-31"
}
Output: {
filings: [
{
form: "10-K",
filedAt: "2025-02-15",
periodOfReport: "2024-12-31",
accessionNumber: "0001234567-25-012345",
primaryDocument: "acme-20241231.htm",
exhibits: [
{ number: "10.1", description: "Material Agreement — Master Services Agreement" }
],
url: "https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/..."
}
]
}
Full-text keyword search within filings
Input: {
cik: "0001234567",
query: "force majeure COVID-19",
formTypes: ["10-K", "10-Q"]
}
Output: [ { filing, snippet, relevance } ]
Useful for extracting specific contractual risk disclosures (e.g., how the company describes its material contract terms, force majeure exposure, or supply chain risks).
Exhibit extraction
Many material contracts are filed as exhibits to 10-Ks and 8-Ks. The tool can retrieve specific exhibits:
Input: { accessionNumber: "...", exhibitNumber: "10.1" }
Output: { exhibitText, exhibitType, filedDate }
Beneficial ownership tracking (13D/G)
Input: { cik: "0001234567", formType: "13D" }
Output: [ { filer, sharesHeld, percentOwned, filedDate, purposeOfTransaction } ]
Use cases for legal professionals
Counterparty due diligence
When a MENA or international company enters a significant commercial contract with a US-listed entity, EDGAR provides:
- Financial health check: recent 10-K and 10-Q for going-concern warnings, significant litigation, or covenant defaults
- Material agreements already filed: many supply agreements, license agreements, and MSAs are filed as exhibits — retrieve the counterparty's standard form for negotiation context
- Risk factors: how does the company describe its legal and regulatory risks?
- Litigation history: 10-K Item 3 (Legal Proceedings) discloses material pending litigation
M&A transaction support
- Acquisition history: 8-K filings for past acquisitions give context on deal structures and pricing
- Existing material contracts: assess what key contracts transfer in an acquisition
- Change-of-control clauses: search exhibits for change-of-control provisions in material agreements
- SEC proxy materials: DEF 14A provides fairness opinion summaries and deal terms
Tracking insider and significant shareholder activity
- Form 4 filings show officer/director transactions — useful for timing of deal negotiations
- 13D/G filings show activist investor activity that may affect a transaction
US-listed parent of MENA subsidiary
MENA subsidiaries of US-listed companies are not directly on EDGAR, but the parent's 10-K will include subsidiary financial statements and often disclose material agreements entered into by subsidiaries. Use this as an additional due diligence layer.
Output schema
{
"company": {
"cik": "0001234567",
"entityName": "ACME CORPORATION",
"sic": "7372",
"sicDescription": "Prepackaged Software",
"state": "DE",
"fiscalYearEnd": "1231"
},
"filings": [
{
"form": "10-K",
"filedAt": "2025-02-15",
"periodOfReport": "2024-12-31",
"accessionNumber": "0001234567-25-012345",
"url": "https://www.sec.gov/...",
"exhibits": [...]
}
],
"source": "SEC EDGAR",
"fetchedAt": "2026-05-14T10:00:00Z"
}
Limitations
- US public companies only: private companies do not file on EDGAR. For US private company diligence, use public records search, UCC filings, and news sources.
- Not real-time: EDGAR filing processing typically occurs within 1 business day of filing.
- No financial analysis: this tool retrieves filings; it does not perform financial ratio analysis. Pair with a financial analysis skill for that.
- XBRL data: structured financial data is available in XBRL format for financial statement parsing — request this format for quantitative analysis.
Failure modes
| Failure | Symptom | Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| CIK not found | No result on company search | Try ticker; check SEC EDGAR full-text search |
| Filing too old | Accession number returns 404 | Older filings may have different URL structure |
| Large filing | Timeout on exhibit extraction | Retrieve primary document first; get exhibits on demand |
| Rate limit | 429 from data.sec.gov | SEC limits to 10 requests/second per IP |
Related skills
- [[tool-lexisnexis]] — US case law and secondary sources to complement EDGAR research
- [[tool-thomson-reuters-westlaw]] — Practical Law for M&A due diligence checklists
- [[tool-hubspot-crm-context]] — CRM context to pre-populate counterparty data
- [[tool-ofac-sanctions]] — screen US-listed entity officers and directors
- [[research-beneficial-ownership-lookup]] — UBO analysis using EDGAR 13D/G data as input