@bizjournalism

The Reynolds Center Horizontal Logo In Color

Two Minute Tips

Ratios and red flags in financial statements

September 27, 2012

Share this article:

Don't miss these red flags when read a company's financial reports. ("Red Flags" image by Rutger van Waveren via flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
Don't miss these red flags when read a company's financial reports. ("Red Flags" image by Rutger van Waveren via flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

The free workshop, “Dig Deeper: Ratios and Red Flags in Financial Statements,” took place Sept. 27, 2012.

If you’ve been covering public companies for a while, you’ve probably written your share of stories about earnings and sales growth. And you’ve skimmed a myriad of SEC filings, hoping you haven’t missed some juicy story.

These sessions will give you new tools to analyze companies’ financial statements and the SEC filings known as the 10-K and 10-Q.

You’ll be able to dig deeper, analyze cash flow, utilize ratios and identify red flags. In short, you’ll be able to come up with more enterprising stories on the companies you cover.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

Tom Contiliano
Tom Contiliano
  • How to analyze cash flow
  • How to use ratios to monitor the financial health of the companies you cover
  • At least four red flags in Form 10-Qs that can result in good stories
  • At least four red flags in Form 10-Ks that can result in good stories

YOUR INSTRUCTORS

Named chief of client relations for Bloomberg News earlier this year, Tom Contiliano has reported directly to Bloomberg’s editor-in-chief since 2008 on financial and operational matters. He speaks internally and externally on global accounting topics and has appeared regularly on Bloomberg Television.

MichelleLeder
Michelle Leder

Michelle Leder launched Footnoted.com (originally Footnoted.org) in 2003 to take “a closer look at the things that companies try to bury in their routine SEC filings,” according to the website. Its launch coincided with the release of her book, Financial Fine Print: Uncovering a Company’s True Value. Morningstar bought the site in 2010, but Leder bought it back in 2012.

SELF-GUIDED LESSON

Check out the resources below. At your own pace, you can walk through the self-guided lesson on tips for digging deeper into SEC filings.

Session recordings

PowerPoint presentation

Author

More Like This...

City scape view of multiple glass buildings

How financial institutions are using AI tools

Business journalists can find plenty of stories by exploring the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) tools on the financial sector. AI is playing a

An introduction to covering banking

The following is an excerpt from a Beat Basics Update by Heather Landy, Mary Fricker and Theo Francis and updated by Yael Grauer on covering banking. You can

Two Minute Tips

Sign up now.
Get one Tuesday.

Every Tuesday we send out a quick-read email with tips for business journalism.

Subscribers also get access to the Tip archive.

Search

Get Two Minute Tips For Business Journalism Delivered To Your Email Every Tuesday

Two Minute Tips

Every Tuesday we send out a quick-read email with tips for business journalism. Sign up now and get one Tuesday.