Comparing annual reports from multiple years

[Mephistopheles]

I used to get lost reading annual reports. But now I'm very comfortable reading them cover to cover.

 

My question is that how do you compare an AR from one year to the one in the previous year? What is a good way to look for subtle or significant changes? Or is there no better way to do it then reading cover to cover, every single year?

 

I tried playing around with MS Word's tracking software, and it seems decent. But I just wanted to get the opinion of other board members.

[mikazo]

Annual reports can be retrieved from the SEC website in text or XBRL form. You could always code up some kind of script that uses diff tools to look for small changes.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diff#Free_file_comparison_tools

[argonaut]

There are some online tools that enable you to highlight reports online..try seclive.com that might enable something like this (I have not used it in depth).

[jschembs]

If you have access to CapIQ, they have a black line option that enables you to simultaneously compare two versions.

[west]

Tired.  And on phone.  Excuse the brevity.

 

I posted related to this a while back:

 

http://www.cornerofberkshireandfairfax.ca/forum/general-discussion/diff-ing-10-ks-versus-10-kas-(or-any-other-docs-for-that-matter)/

[Phaceliacapital]

From the other thread:

 

Thanks,

 

I always do this using Word, you just copy the two files you want to compare into two word files and use the compare function. So should you ever want to do this when not connected to the internet, you can do it this way.

[Mephistopheles]

Thanks for all your responses. Yes I just began using the Word function and am really liking it.

[APG12]

A little more on the compare function: http://www.oldschoolvalue.com/blog/investment-tools/tutorial-to-quickly-detect-changes-in-the-footnotes/