As mentioned, recent financial statements of most public companies are available from the company website, usually as part of the annual report found within the Investor Relations section. If you want to access annual reports for a number of companies, you might find the following websites useful:

• www.carol.co.uk  (direct links to the financial pages of a selection of listed companies in Europe and the USA).
• FT Annual Reports Service  (download pdfs or order paper copies of European and North American annual reports by mail for free).

Alternatively, the library has print copies of the annual reports of top-ranked companies available for reference.

US public companies are required to file annual returns or “10K reports” with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These and other filings (prospectuses, 8Ks etc.) can all be accessed for free from the SEC’s EDGAR database .