Word: sec
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...become the most useful investment aid since the stock market ticker made its debut in 1867. When fully operational in 1986, EDGAR will allow investors using personal computers and a telephone to get instant access to the 5 million pages of corporate financial information filed annually with the SEC. By interrogating EDGAR, investors will be able to identify companies with poor earnings performance or pinpoint firms whose stock is selling below book value. Claims SEC Chairman John Shad: "EDGAR has the potential to revolutionize the methods under which investment decisions are made and executed...
EDGAR began business last week as a pilot project involving 150 companies. The firms, which include Citicorp, GM, IBM, Mobil, Sears and Xerox, agreed to file all their financial data with the SEC in computerized form rather than on paper. For now, however, the information from EDGAR will be available only at SEC offices in Washington, New York City and Chicago...
...home town is so dull," goes the old gag, "that for excitement everybody goes down to McDonald's to watch the numbers on the sign change." McDonald's in recent years has been selling hamburgers so fast (140 per sec.) that many golden-arched signs state simply: BILLIONS AND BILLIONS SOLD. But that does not mean that McDonald's has lost count. Indeed, the Illinois-based company (1983 sales: $3.1 billion) disclosed last week that it will sell its 50 billionth hamburger some time late this month or in early November. The tally goes back...
...SEC has assigned one-third of its 600-member enforcement staff to the task of ferreting out creative accounting. This year they will investigate about 300 companies, relying on tip-offs from company employees, complaints from investors and painstaking scrutiny of documents...
Much of the apparent increase in book cooking is cyclical. The SEC is just now catching up with firms that tried to smooth out the bumps in their performance during the last recession by borrowing from future or past profits. Government officials say they also often find shady accounting in companies where top managers have set goals that are unrealistically high. Says L. Glenn Perry, former chief accountant for the SEC's enforcement division: "The two primary reasons for book cooking are ego and greed." Perry says that at now bankrupt A.M. International, the office-equipment firm, some employees...