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Working with SEC Filings — Access Content, Attachments, and Structured Data

This guide shows you how to get, view, and extract data from individual SEC filings using the Filing class.

Getting a Filing

From a Company

Get filings for a specific company by ticker or CIK:

from edgar import Company

company = Company("AAPL")
filings = company.get_filings(form="10-K")
filing = filings.latest()

print(filing.company)      # "Apple Inc."
print(filing.form)         # "10-K"
print(filing.filing_date)  # "2023-11-03"

Search across all filings and pick one:

from edgar import get_filings

# Get all Q1 2024 10-K filings
filings = get_filings(2024, 1, form="10-K")

# Get the first one
filing = filings[0]

# Or get the latest
filing = filings.latest()

By Accession Number

If you know the accession number:

from edgar import get_by_accession_number

filing = get_by_accession_number("0000320193-23-000106")
print(filing.company)  # "Apple Inc."

Direct Construction

Create a Filing object directly (rarely needed):

from edgar import Filing

filing = Filing(
    form='10-Q',
    filing_date='2024-06-30',
    company='Tesla Inc.',
    cik=1318605,
    accession_no='0001628280-24-028839'
)

Filing Properties

Basic Information

print(f"Company: {filing.company}")
print(f"CIK: {filing.cik}")
print(f"Form: {filing.form}")
print(f"Filing Date: {filing.filing_date}")
print(f"Period: {filing.period_of_report}")
print(f"Accession: {filing.accession_no}")

Output: 

Company: Apple Inc.
CIK: 320193
Form: 10-K
Filing Date: 2023-11-03
Period: 2023-09-30
Accession: 0000320193-23-000106

Enhanced Properties (EntityFiling)

When you get a filing from a company, you get an EntityFiling with additional properties:

company = Company("AAPL")
filing = company.get_filings(form="10-K").latest()

# EntityFiling-specific properties
print(f"Acceptance Time: {filing.acceptance_datetime}")
print(f"File Number: {filing.file_number}")
print(f"Size: {filing.size} bytes")
print(f"Primary Doc: {filing.primary_document}")
print(f"Is XBRL: {filing.is_xbrl}")
print(f"Is Inline XBRL: {filing.is_inline_xbrl}")

Viewing Filings

Open in Browser

Open the filing in your default web browser:

filing.open()  # Opens primary document

Open the SEC filing homepage (shows all documents):

filing.open_homepage()  # Opens index page with all files

View in Console

Display the filing directly in your terminal or Jupyter notebook:

filing.view()

This uses Rich formatting to display the filing as close to the original as possible.

Serve Locally

Serve the filing on a local HTTP server:

filing.serve(port=8080)
# Opens http://localhost:8080 in browser

Accessing Filing Content

Get HTML

html = filing.html()
if html:
    print(f"HTML length: {len(html)} characters")

Get Plain Text

text = filing.text()
print(text[:500])  # First 500 characters

Get Markdown

md = filing.markdown()

# Save to file
with open("filing.md", "w") as f:
    f.write(md)

With page breaks:

md = filing.markdown(include_page_breaks=True, start_page_number=1)

Get XML

For filings that contain XML (like ownership forms):

xml = filing.xml()
if xml:
    import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
    root = ET.fromstring(xml)
    # Parse XML data

Get Full Submission

Get the complete SEC text submission file including SGML headers:

full_text = filing.full_text_submission()
print(full_text[:1000])

Working with Attachments

SEC filings often include multiple documents beyond the primary filing.

List All Attachments

attachments = filing.attachments
print(f"Total attachments: {len(attachments)}")

for att in attachments:
    print(f"{att.sequence}: {att.description}")
    print(f"  Type: {att.document_type}")
    print(f"  File: {att.document}")

Get Primary Document

primary = filing.document
print(f"Primary: {primary.description}")

Access Specific Attachment

By index:

first_att = filing.attachments[0]

By document name:

att = filing.attachments["ex-10_1.htm"]

Download Attachments

Download a specific attachment:

attachment = filing.attachments[0]
attachment.download("./downloads/")

Download all attachments:

filing.attachments.download("./downloads/")

Work with Exhibits

Exhibits are a subset of attachments:

exhibits = filing.exhibits

for exhibit in exhibits:
    print(f"Exhibit {exhibit.exhibit_number}: {exhibit.description}")

    # Download specific exhibit
    if exhibit.exhibit_number == "10.1":
        exhibit.download("./exhibits/")

Extracting Structured Data

Get XBRL Data

For filings with XBRL (10-K, 10-Q, etc.):

xbrl = filing.xbrl()

if xbrl:
    # Access financial statements
    statements = xbrl.statements
    income = statements.income_statement()
    balance = statements.balance_sheet()
    cashflow = statements.cash_flow_statement()

    print(income)

Preview the Data Object Type

Before calling obj(), you can check what type of object a filing will return:

filing.obj_type  # e.g. 'TenK', 'ThirteenF', 'Form4', None

This is useful for filtering filings to only those with structured data objects.

Get Form-Specific Object

Get a structured object based on the form type:

# For 10-K filing
obj = filing.obj()
print(type(obj))  # <class 'edgar.company_reports.TenK'>

# Access financials from TenK object
if obj.financials:
    income = obj.financials.income_statement
    balance = obj.financials.balance_sheet
    print(income)

Important: The financials property exists on form-specific objects (TenK, TenQ), not on the base Filing class.

Incorrect: 

# This will fail - Filing doesn't have financials
financials = filing.financials  # AttributeError

Correct: 

# Get form-specific object first
tenk = filing.obj()
if tenk.financials:
    financials = tenk.financials

Form-Specific Objects

Different forms return different object types:

Form Object Type Key Features
10-K TenK financials, income_statement, balance_sheet, auditor, subsidiaries, reports
10-Q TenQ financials, income_statement, balance_sheet, reports
8-K EightK items (material events), reports
20-F TwentyF financials for foreign issuers, reports
4 Form4 insider transactions
13F-HR ThirteenF institutional holdings
SC 13D/G Schedule13 beneficial ownership
DEF 14A ProxyStatement proxy voting matters

Example - 8-K: 

filing = company.get_filings(form="8-K").latest()
eightk = filing.obj()

print(f"Items: {eightk.items}")  # Material events reported

Example - Form 4: 

filing = company.get_filings(form="4").latest()
form4 = filing.obj()

# Access insider transaction data
html = form4.to_html()

Searching Within a Filing

Simple Text Search

results = filing.search("artificial intelligence")
print(f"Found {len(results)} mentions")

for result in results[:3]:
    print(result[:200])  # First 200 chars of each match

# Search for email addresses
emails = filing.search(
    r'\b[A-Za-z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z|a-z]{2,}\b',
    regex=True
)

print(f"Found {len(emails)} email addresses")

Search for Financial Terms

# Search for revenue mentions
revenue_mentions = filing.search("revenue")

# Search for risk factors
risk_mentions = filing.search("risk factor")

# Case-sensitive regex
critical_terms = filing.search(r'\b(material weakness|restatement)\b', regex=True)

Parsing Document Sections

Get Available Sections

sections = filing.sections()
for section in sections:
    print(section)

doc = filing.parse()
# Use parsed document for advanced operations

Saving and Loading

Save Filing

# Save to directory (auto-generates filename)
filing.save("./data/filings/")

# Save to specific file
filing.save("./data/apple_10k_2023.pkl")

Load Filing

from edgar import Filing

filing = Filing.load("./data/apple_10k_2023.pkl")
print(filing.company)

Export to Dictionary

data = filing.to_dict()
print(data.keys())

Export Summary

import pandas as pd

summary_df = filing.summary()
print(summary_df)

Common Use Cases

Extract Revenue from Latest 10-K

from edgar import Company

company = Company("MSFT")
filing = company.get_filings(form="10-K").latest()

tenk = filing.obj()
if tenk.financials:
    income = tenk.financials.income_statement
    print(income)

Download All Exhibits

filing = get_by_accession_number("0001234567-24-000001")

for exhibit in filing.exhibits:
    print(f"Downloading {exhibit.exhibit_number}: {exhibit.description}")
    exhibit.download(f"./exhibits/{exhibit.document}")

Search Across Recent 8-K Filings

from edgar import get_filings

filings = get_filings(2024, 1, form="8-K").head(50)

for filing in filings:
    results = filing.search("earnings")
    if results:
        print(f"{filing.company} ({filing.filing_date}): {len(results)} mentions")

Convert Filing to Markdown for LLM Analysis

company = Company("NVDA")
filing = company.get_filings(form="10-K").latest()

# Export to markdown
md = filing.markdown(include_page_breaks=True)

# Save for processing
with open("nvidia_10k_for_analysis.md", "w") as f:
    f.write(md)

print(f"Saved {len(md)} characters to markdown file")

Batch Download Filings

from edgar import get_filings

filings = get_filings(2023, 4, form="10-K").head(100)

for filing in filings:
    try:
        filing.download(data_directory="./raw_filings/")
        print(f"Downloaded: {filing.company}")
    except Exception as e:
        print(f"Error downloading {filing.company}: {e}")

Error Handling

Always check for None before using optional data:

from edgar import get_by_accession_number

try:
    filing = get_by_accession_number("0000320193-23-000106")

    # Check HTML availability
    html = filing.html()
    if html is None:
        print("HTML content not available")
    else:
        print(f"HTML: {len(html)} characters")

    # Check XBRL availability
    xbrl = filing.xbrl()
    if xbrl is None:
        print("No XBRL data available")
    else:
        print("XBRL data available")

    # Check structured object
    obj = filing.obj()
    if obj:
        # Process object
        pass

except Exception as e:
    print(f"Error processing filing: {e}")

Best Practices

  1. Check form type - Use filing.form to determine filing type before processing
  2. Verify XBRL - Check filing.is_xbrl for EntityFiling before extracting structured data
  3. Handle large files - Some filings are very large; consider streaming for attachments
  4. Cache content - Store downloaded content locally to avoid repeated API calls
  5. Respect rate limits - Be mindful of SEC rate limits when processing many filings
  6. Use obj() for structure - Prefer filing.obj() over HTML parsing for structured data

Performance Tips

Efficient pattern: 

# Get form-specific object once
obj = filing.obj()

# Check before using
if obj and hasattr(obj, 'financials') and obj.financials:
    income = obj.financials.income_statement
    # Process income statement

Cache expensive operations: 

# Download once, use multiple times
text = filing.text()

# Search multiple times without re-downloading
results1 = filing.search("revenue")
results2 = filing.search("profit")

See Also