LOCATING AUDITING OPINIONS IN SEC FILINGS
USING LEXIS/NEXIS

Contents:

• Qualified Opinions
• Adverse Opinions
• Disclaimers
• Locating Company Filings
• Date Searching

The Lexis/Nexis educational version is available only in the library and requires a password for access.  If you do not have the password, contact Germaine Hodges X1984 in the Lubin School.  SEC filings are located in the FEDSEC Library.  After selecting the FEDSEC Library, select the 10-K file.  Double clicking on the file name, or typing the file name in the rectangular bar, will open the file.

Qualified Opinions

Qualified Opinions state that “except for” the matter to which the qualification relates, the financial statement “presents fairly” the financial position, etc. of the company. In the Lexis/Nexis database, qualified opinions are presented in the financial statements and supplementary data segment of the document.

SAMPLE SEARCH:   fin-st-supp-info(except w/1 for pre/25 fairly)*

Adverse Opinions

Adverse Opinions state that the financial statement “does not present fairly” the company’s financial position, etc.

SAMPLE SEARCH:    not present fairly

Disclaimers

Disclaimers state that the auditor does not express an opinion on the financial statement.  The auditor is required to state in a separate paragraph of the report the reasons for doing so.

SAMPLE SEARCHES:

1. auditor w/5 disclaim!    *  (this example is shown below)
2. fin-st-supp-info(unable to express)
3. fin-st-supp-info(not express)

* W/5  is used to find a word or phrase within a certain number of words of another word or phrase. Pre/25 is used to find a word or phrase preceding another word or phrase.  Numbers are arbitrary and can be increased or decreased.  The ! truncation symbol retrieves all of the words which include the  root word  which in this case is "disclaim" and retrieves words such as "disclaimer" or "disclaims."

Once you are in the FEDSEC Library, select the file according to the type of filing you want (i.e. 10-K or 8K). To move from one file to another within the FEDSEC Library, click on Change File folder and type in the name of the new file, or double click on the file name.  To ensure proper search strategy, always view the segments of each file as segments vary for different files.  To view the segments of a file, first open the file (the Source bar in the bottom right of your screen will include the library and file you are searching Source: FEDSEC/8-K) then click View in the menu bar, and select Segments.

SAMPLE SEARCH:   company(name of desired company)

Date Searching

To specify dates, use “and” to attach one of the following: date aft 1998, date=1999, or date bef 1995 to the end of your search statement. If a search in the Lexis/Nexis database will produce more than 1,000 hits, the system will not process the search. Sometimes adding a date to the search statement will reduce the search to a more manageable number.  To view additional date formats, select Help Topics from the Help menu, type d in the first box.  Date search is highlighted.  Click "Display" to view samples.

SAMPLE SEARCH:    company(Ford Motor) and date=1999.

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