Annual Report

A report issued annually by a corporation to its stockholders. It contains basic financial statements, as well as management’s opinion of the past year’s operations and the firm’s future prospects.

The four basic statements contained in the annual report are the balance sheet, the income statement, the statement of retained earnings, and the statement of cash flows. Investors use the information provided in these statements to form expectations about the future levels of earnings and dividends, and about the firm’s riskiness.