Annual Reports 101
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Review
."..a wise gift for anyone considering getting into investments next year."
-"Syracuse Post-Standard"
Product Description
To the untrained eye, an annual report may seem like pages of confusing numbers surrounded by glossy photos and the upbeat Message from the CEO After all the high-profile accounting scandals (Enron, WorldCom, etc.), investors are less trusting (and need to be more vigilant) about where to put there money. They need a book like this to help them find out the whole truth about a company’s financial condition The book shows how to watch out for ‘red flags,’ decipher footnotes, and see past common practices that, while legal, may not give the most accurate picture of a company’s financial standing Shows how to interpret (or sometimes ignore) both numbers and text. What’s accurate, what’s spin, and what’s irrelevant
Annual Reports 101 is a straightforward guide to reading the primary financial documents that make up the annual report, and then extracting more information from the numbers themselves and from the often fluffy text than some companies want the public to know.
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Inside This Book
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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3 reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
A wonderful primer for people wanting to better understand what an Annual Report is really all about!
21 Aug 2007
Format:Paperback
This book was a pleasure to read. I kind of read it as one of three books regarding securities analysis or financial analysis. First I read Security Analysis (ISBN: 0071448209) followed by Fire Your Stock Analyst (ISBN: 0132260387) followed by this book. I highly recommend anyone interested in securities analysis or financial analysis to read all three.
Annual Reports 101 introduces the reader to SEC filings (most notably the Annual Report) that securities analysts use to do their securities or financial analysis. Interestingly, the author points out that analysts should use more of what is included in the annual reports than they in fact use to make their recommendations.
For the past year and a half I have been using my accounting and law background to work on securities fraud class action lawsuits. Much of what is discussed in this book is what such plaintiffs' lawyers need to understand to successfully win their litigation matters. Financial statements are only as good as the underlying data is accurate and the drafters are credible. The public accounting firms don't really audit their clients' books like we think they do. And annual reports rarely paint an accurate picture of how a company is really doing financially. Such reports are generally little more than expensive press releases. But by reading this book you will be able to dig deeper into the facts presented in Annual Reports and hopefully be able to make better decisions that require you reading them.
If you are not particularly adept at accounting, bookkeeping, and financial reporting, then I think this book would be a good introductory primer for you to read. And there is some good material on financial ratios for you to digest. All in all, this was a wonderful book if its topic interests you.
My favorite chapters were 9 and 10. In fact, I read them first when I started the book. And it was nice to see a Glossary included at the end. 5 stars!
Annual Reports 101 introduces the reader to SEC filings (most notably the Annual Report) that securities analysts use to do their securities or financial analysis. Interestingly, the author points out that analysts should use more of what is included in the annual reports than they in fact use to make their recommendations.
For the past year and a half I have been using my accounting and law background to work on securities fraud class action lawsuits. Much of what is discussed in this book is what such plaintiffs' lawyers need to understand to successfully win their litigation matters. Financial statements are only as good as the underlying data is accurate and the drafters are credible. The public accounting firms don't really audit their clients' books like we think they do. And annual reports rarely paint an accurate picture of how a company is really doing financially. Such reports are generally little more than expensive press releases. But by reading this book you will be able to dig deeper into the facts presented in Annual Reports and hopefully be able to make better decisions that require you reading them.
If you are not particularly adept at accounting, bookkeeping, and financial reporting, then I think this book would be a good introductory primer for you to read. And there is some good material on financial ratios for you to digest. All in all, this was a wonderful book if its topic interests you.
My favorite chapters were 9 and 10. In fact, I read them first when I started the book. And it was nice to see a Glossary included at the end. 5 stars!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Exposes Annual Reports and Need for Accounting Reform
23 April 2007
Format:Paperback
Michael Thomsett's Annual Reports 101 is a powerful and practical book that demystifies annual reports. He persuasively makes the case that these reports intend to obscure and obfuscate as much as to enlighten, and that wary investors may get burned if they think reading the reports constitutes due diligence.
Especially for non-financial professionals, Annual Reports 101 is an effective primer to walk you through the structure of these documents, step by step. Thomsett moves from the micro to the macro is arguing that Sarbanes Oxley and other corporate reforms have failed to bring the needed level of transparency to the practice of accounting and reporting financial results.
A STRONG "read" recommendation!
Especially for non-financial professionals, Annual Reports 101 is an effective primer to walk you through the structure of these documents, step by step. Thomsett moves from the micro to the macro is arguing that Sarbanes Oxley and other corporate reforms have failed to bring the needed level of transparency to the practice of accounting and reporting financial results.
A STRONG "read" recommendation!
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Not practical
10 Dec 2008
Format:Paperback
The book is soooo repetitive - useful ideas can be boiled down to 5 pages out of 220. I bought this book to get better at understanding and interpreting annual reports. Unfortunately, after having read this book, I am pretty much at the same place where I started. Probably half of the book is devoted to the author's ideas how to reform the accounting industry. His intentions are good and noble, but give nothing in teaching you how to interpret contemporary annual reports. Maybe one day the industry will listen to the author's suggestions, but until then, you are on your own. Instead of explaining how to decipher annual reports, the author gets into financial ratios and for some reason concentrates on current ratio, as the most important one, which is quite strange IMHO. Anyway, if you want a philosophical take on annual reports and accounting industry, this book is an interesting read, but if you want to get some practical advice, you will be better off buying something else.
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