A prospectus is a legal document required to list mutual fund securities for public exchange. It is meant to be a full-disclosure document, much like the 10K or annual report. The best resource for finding the prospectus for a company is EDGAR, a database maintained by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. The best way to search is by ticker symbol, but you can also search by company or fund name.
Go to the Edgar website. See References for a link.
Enter the company name, the ticker symbol, state, country and/or SIC code. Click on the underlined word for more information on each. Click "Find Companies."
Look for the most recent version of the prospectus by trying to find the filing date closest to the announcement date for the issue.
Click "Document Link" or on "HTML" to view the document.
Use Control-F to open a Find window to search for a specific section within the prospectus.
Tips
The SEC does not require companies with a market capitalization of less than $1 million to file a prospectus. Instead, those companies are required to file a Form D, a limited version of the prospectus.
References
Tips
- The SEC does not require companies with a market capitalization of less than $1 million to file a prospectus. Instead, those companies are required to file a Form D, a limited version of the prospectus.
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Working as a full-time freelance writer/editor for the past two years, Bradley James Bryant has over 1500 publications on eHow, LIVESTRONG.com and other sites. She has worked for JPMorganChase, SunTrust Investment Bank, Intel Corporation and Harvard University. Bryant has a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in finance from Florida A&M University.