A company's cold, hard numbers tell a different story than the one its CEO tells. It's an especially crucial distinction for investors, who should be just as interested in a company's bottom line as in its leadership's vision for the future.

There are plenty of websites where investors and others can look at a company's numbers—often free of charge. Below, we give a rundown of some of the best and most popular.

Reasons for Seeking a Company's Financial Stats

There's a good reason public companies are required to disclose their financial statistics to the public. Investors and the public have a right to see what they're buying. In addition, transparency is crucial to healthy financial markets and preventing widespread fraud.

In many cases, short-sellers and journalists have exposed fraud or other wrongdoing at a company by scrutinizing its books. Potential employees, consumers, and competitors may want to look under a company's hood to determine its financial health for themselves.

1. Securities and Exchange Commission: EDGAR

The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) database is where you can find all financial reports, public disclosures, and other regulatory documents that are legally required by the SEC. This includes quarterly and annual reports, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:insider trading reports, and S-1 IPO filings.

EDGAR is the mother lode of corporate financial documents for public companies in the U.S., and it's invaluable for investors and journalists. It's free and available to the public, offering a full-text search of all filings submitted since 2001.

2. FactSet

Used by professional asset managers and financial journalists, offers more than 30 datasets compiled from hundreds of independent data providers. You can search for company SEC filings, annual reports, transcripts of earnings calls, and press releases by keyword. FactSet also offe🦄rs extensive data on markets, industries❀, and much more.

However, FactSet doesn't come cheap, let alone free. Annual subscriptions are about $12,000 for the full subscription.

3. Mergent Online

Mergent has long been a key resource for financial information on public companies. Its Mergent Online site allows subscribers to access SEC filings and annual reports for 15,000💖 public U.S. companies and data on another 17,000 international companies.

Users can also look up the 25 largest institutional investors for each U.S. company, as well as access a U.S. company archive that includes histories and financial statements for companies that have been acquired, merged out of existence, or gone bankrupt.

4. Yahoo! Finance

While not as comprehensive as EDGAR or FactSet, offers a lot of company data, including numbers on income, balance sheets, and cash flow on both an annual and quarterly basis. It also provides information such as a breakdown of top institutional and 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:mutual fund investors, revenue andᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ earnings estimates, and historical share 🍰price data.

Most of the offerings are free. Premium subscribers also get access to analyst reports from Morningstar and Argus.

5. MarketWatch

Now a Dow Jones & Company product, began life nearly three decades ago as an upstart provider of real-time market data, news, and analysis. It offers a range of company financial data, including key summary statistiℱcs, annual and quarterly income statements, balance sheet data, and cash flow data. It also links to key SEC filings and provides a roundup and summary of analyst ratings and recommendations.

While much of the site's content can be accessed for free, it does keep some data behind a paywall.

6. Investing.com

In addition to extensive market data, provides annual and quarterly updates on companies' income, balance sheet, and cash flow stats, as well as earnings forecasts, dividend history and real-time news. The site also offers analysis and opinion on companies. While most of the data is free, some is reserved for premium subscribers, who also receive premium research reports.

The Bottom Line

As the saying goes, sunlight is the most potent disinfectant, and that's particularly true for corporate finances. Transparency is essential to healthy capital markets, and sound investing requires detailed financial information on public companies.