Current reports
Understand company announcements and disclosures reported on SEC Forms 8-K and 6-K.
Current reports cover earnings announcements, acquisitions, financing, management changes, and other company developments. Read them alongside annual and quarterly reports to follow what a company discloses between its regular financial reports.
How the forms differ
- 8-K is the current report used by US domestic issuers. Numbered items identify the subjects reported.
- 6-K is used by foreign private issuers to share material information made public under home-country rules, through an exchange, or with shareholders. It has no standard set of numbered disclosure items.
- 8-K/A and 6-K/A amend earlier reports.
Reading an 8-K
An 8-K can cover several subjects. Its item codes help you find reports relevant to a question, such as earnings or a change in leadership. Useful items include:
| Item | Subject |
|---|---|
1.01 | Entering a material agreement |
1.05 | Material cybersecurity incidents |
2.01 | Completing an acquisition or asset sale |
2.02 | Earnings and financial results |
2.03 | New debt or certain other financial obligations |
4.02 | Previously issued financial statements that should no longer be relied on |
5.02 | Director or senior officer changes and certain compensation arrangements |
7.01 | Public disclosure under Regulation FD |
8.01 | Other events the company chooses to report |
9.01 | Financial statements and exhibits |
These are selected items, not the full list. The SEC's Form 8-K instructions define each item.
Chadwin returns the reported codes in item_codes. Use an item filter to find a topic, then read the filing and its exhibits for the details. For example, 2.02 helps find earnings announcements; 9.01 alone tells you little about the subject of the attached documents.
Reading a 6-K
A 6-K can contain an earnings release, interim financial statements, a business update, or shareholder meeting materials. The cover document may be brief, with the substance in its attachments. Read the document titles and exhibits to understand what the company disclosed.
A 6-K containing interim results is still a 6-K; it does not follow the 10-Q structure used by domestic issuers. Reporting periods and presentation can differ between companies.
Because 6-K has no 8-K item structure, its item_codes array is empty. This says nothing about the importance or length of the report. See the SEC's Form 6-K instructions for the kinds of information it covers.
Filings and exhibits
Exhibits are part of understanding a current report. An earnings announcement may put the results tables in an attached press release. An acquisition report may attach the agreement. A shareholder meeting report may attach the notice and voting materials.
An exhibit number such as 99.1 is not an 8-K item code. Read the exhibit's description and contents to identify its subject.
Chadwin returns the primary filing followed by its HTML and plain-text exhibits in one cleaned HTML document. Labeled sections keep the documents distinct, and we preserve text, tables, links, and supported images. PDFs and other formats remain links to the SEC originals.
Amendments and dates
An amendment can correct a disclosure or supply more information. Read it together with the original report: the amendment may contain only the changed or added material. Each submission has its own accession number, and Chadwin returns amendments as separate filings.
The event date and filing date answer different questions. An 8-K's event_date identifies the earliest event reported; filed_at tells you when the SEC recorded the filing. accepted_at gives the SEC acceptance time in UTC. These dates can differ.
For 6-K, report_date comes from the report and should not be treated as a fiscal quarter end. Read the financial statements or announcement to identify the period covered.
Use the API reference to find reports by company, date, form, or 8-K item and retrieve their HTML. The feed guide explains how to follow newly available reports.