SEC Filing Analyzer

Turns raw SEC filings into structured research artifacts: financial tables, risk-factor diffs, MD&A digests, and red-flag summaries. Built for retail/independent research workflows where a Bloomberg terminal isn't available.

When to use this vs. plain web search

Use this skill for anything involving the structure of a filing (sections, XBRL tags, filing-to-filing deltas). Don't use it for simple "what's the stock price" queries — that's a plain search.

Core workflow

Step 1: Resolve the filing

Given a ticker or company name, resolve to a CIK (Central Index Key) via EDGAR's company search:

https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&company={NAME}&type={FORM_TYPE}&dateb=&owner=include&count=10

Or if the user gives a direct EDGAR URL / accession number, fetch it directly. Always confirm which specific filing (company, form type, period, filing date) before deep analysis — ambiguity here silently produces wrong numbers.

Step 2: Fetch structured data first, HTML second

SEC's XBRL "company facts" API returns machine-readable financials — always prefer this over parsing the HTML filing for numbers:

https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK{10-digit-cik}.json

This gives every reported XBRL fact (Revenues, NetIncomeLoss, Assets, etc.) with period and unit. Use it to build the financial summary table (see references/financial-tables.md for the standard table schema and common XBRL tag mappings).

Only fall back to fetching the full filing HTML/text for qualitative sections (Risk Factors, MD&A, Legal Proceedings) that aren't in XBRL.

Step 3: Structure the output

Default output is a research note with these sections (skip any that don't apply to the form type):

1. Filing snapshot — company, CIK, form type, period, filed date, accession number
2. Financial summary table — revenue, net income, EPS, cash, total debt, YoY deltas (see reference for exact line items by form type)
3. Risk factor changes — if a prior filing is available, diff the risk factors section; call out new risks, removed risks, and materially reworded ones. Never reproduce the filing's risk factor text verbatim beyond a short paraphrase (copyright discipline applies even to public filings — SEC filings are public domain, so verbatim short quotes are fine here, but keep them minimal and cite the section).
4. MD&A digest — 3-5 bullet summary of management's stated drivers, in your own words
5. Flags — going concern language, restatements, auditor changes, insider 10b5-1 plan activity, unusual related-party transactions

Step 4: Comparative analysis (multi-filing requests)

For "compare last two 10-Ks" style requests, fetch both via the XBRL API in one pass (the companyfacts endpoint already returns multi-period history — you often don't need two separate fetches), then present as a comparison table rather than two separate notes.

Output format

• Default: structured markdown note (not a downloadable file) for quick research
• If user asks to "save" or wants a shareable doc: build an artifact or .docx using the docx skill, with the same section structure
• Financial tables: always tabular, never prose-embedded numbers

Common pitfalls

• Fiscal year ≠ calendar year: check fiscalYearEnd before labeling periods
• Units matter: XBRL facts specify USD vs USD/shares — mislabeling this produces nonsense per-share figures
• Amended filings (10-K/A) supersede the original — check for amendments before treating a filing as final
• 8-Ks are event-driven, not periodic — don't apply the financial-summary-table workflow to an 8-K about an executive departure

Reference

• references/financial-tables.md — standard table schemas per form type + common XBRL tag reference