A Practical Filing Reading Guide
Earnings press releases and investor presentations are useful for a quick read, but they're written by the company to highlight what it wants emphasized. The 10-Q (quarterly report) and 10-K (annual report) are the underlying regulatory filings—reviewed by auditors (10-K) or accountants (10-Q), and structured under a standardized SEC format that makes it possible, once the layout is familiar, to navigate any company's filing in roughly the same way and find roughly the same things in roughly the same place.
Every 10-K follows the same SEC-mandated outline, organized into numbered "Items." The most relevant ones for BDC, REIT, and mREIT analysis are:
Rather than reading start to finish, an efficient approach for someone already familiar with the company is: MD&A first (to understand the narrative), then the financial statements and footnotes (to verify the numbers), then risk factors (mainly scanning for changes versus the prior filing), and the business description only when evaluating the company for the first time or after a meaningful strategy shift.
NII appears on the Consolidated Statements of Operations (the BDC equivalent of an income statement), typically broken into total investment income (interest income, dividend income, fee income) minus total operating expenses. Per-share NII is usually presented either on the face of the statement or in the MD&A.
NAV per share is calculated from the Consolidated Statements of Assets and Liabilities (the BDC equivalent of a balance sheet)—total net assets divided by shares outstanding—and is almost always also stated explicitly in the MD&A and the earnings press release.
This is the section unique to BDCs: a detailed, position-by-position listing of every loan, equity stake, and warrant in the portfolio, including the portfolio company name, industry, type of investment (first lien, second lien, subordinated, equity), interest rate, maturity date, cost basis, and fair value. This is where the loan vintage, structural subordination, and industry concentration analysis actually gets done.
Non-accrual status is typically flagged directly within the schedule of investments (often with a footnote marker next to non-accrual positions) and is also summarized as an aggregate percentage in the MD&A. PIK income is broken out within the investment income disclosure in the notes to the financial statements, and many BDCs also discuss the PIK trend narratively in the MD&A.
The asset coverage ratio is disclosed in the MD&A and in a dedicated note to the financial statements; total debt outstanding and its composition appear on the balance sheet and in the debt footnote.
FFO and AFFO are non-GAAP measures and are not presented on the face of the official financial statements. They typically appear in the MD&A as a reconciliation table starting from GAAP net income, adding back depreciation/amortization (to arrive at FFO) and then further adjusting for maintenance capital expenditures (to arrive at AFFO). The same reconciliation also appears in the quarterly earnings press release.
Property-level detail—individual property names, locations, square footage, occupancy, and major tenants—is generally found in Item 2 (Properties) and in far greater granularity in the quarterly supplemental earnings package, a separate document most REITs publish each quarter specifically because the SEC-mandated filings don't provide this level of property-by-property detail.
Same-store NOI growth, occupancy trends, and rent change statistics are non-GAAP, REIT-specific disclosures that appear in the MD&A and, in more detail, in the supplemental earnings package.
The notes to the financial statements include a debt footnote with a maturity schedule. Significant tenant concentration is disclosed in Item 1 (Business) or Item 2 (Properties) of the 10-K, and frequently as a standing table in the supplemental earnings package each quarter.
Book value per share is calculated from the balance sheet (total stockholders' equity divided by shares outstanding) and is almost always also stated explicitly in the MD&A and earnings release.
Unlike FFO for REITs, there's less standardization in exactly how NIM is presented across mREITs—some break out a clean "net interest margin" figure directly on the income statement or in a supplementary table within the MD&A; others require it to be calculated manually from disclosed asset yields and cost-of-funds figures. The MD&A is the most reliable place to find whichever version a specific company uses.
Total leverage is typically disclosed in the MD&A. Repurchase agreement balances, counterparty information, and maturity profiles appear in a dedicated note to the financial statements. Interest rate hedge positions are disclosed in the derivatives footnote, with a more digestible summary often provided in the MD&A or the quarterly investor presentation.
CPR figures are typically disclosed within the MD&A's discussion of portfolio characteristics. EAD (Earnings Available for Distribution), like FFO for REITs, is a non-GAAP measure with a reconciliation typically presented in the MD&A or the earnings press release.
To check whether a BDC's NAV has been declining over the past year, the fastest path is: (1) open the most recent 10-Q, search for "net asset value per share," which should appear both in the MD&A and as a calculated figure from the Statement of Assets and Liabilities; (2) note the current and prior-year-comparable figures, which are typically shown side by side; (3) repeat for the two or three preceding 10-Qs to build a several-quarter trend line, rather than relying on a single comparison; and (4) cross-check the trend against the MD&A's narrative explanation for any notable change, which often explains whether a decline was driven by unrealized portfolio markdowns, a specific non-accrual event, or a one-time item.
This same basic approach—search for the specific metric, pull the multi-period comparison the filing already provides, then read the narrative explanation—works for nearly any metric across any of the three asset classes.
The 10-Q and 10-K can feel intimidating given their length, but the structure is consistent enough across companies, and even across asset classes, that the same general approach applies every time: start with the MD&A for the narrative, use the financial statements and footnotes to verify and add granularity, and treat the risk factors section as a way to spot what's changed rather than something to read in full each quarter.
None of the metrics discussed throughout this series are hidden—they're disclosed, consistently, in predictable locations within filings every public company is legally required to produce. The skill that separates a careful analyst from a headline-yield investor isn't access to special information; it's the habit of actually going to these specific sections, every quarter, and reading them with the right questions in mind.
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice. Filing structures and disclosure practices can vary somewhat by company and may change over time; investors should always refer to a company's actual, current filings on SEC EDGAR rather than relying solely on general guidance such as this.