Edgar Online Mines SEC Data for Profit

Edgar Online, the dominant portal on the Internet for analyzing SEC filings, is figuring out more ways to slice and dice the data. In beta is a credit risk alert product that's geared to its corporate customers. It scans the filings for default of covenance or bankruptcy and it will extract those paragraphs, says Greg Adams, CFO. Although Edgar Online, which charges $9.95 a month, is all about democratizing the information for individuals, corporate customers, like Salomon Smith Barney, pay it about $150,000 a year to monitor real-time filings, says Adams. The Internet company issued an IPO last May and hired nine sales people in the last 12 months to pursue corporate customers.

There are about 160 corporate customers now, says Adams, who adds, "we've built a lot of sophisticated search tools," and it uses Manning Napier and Boolean search tools developed by Verity. "We're finding customers at financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, Merrill and Sothebys interested in finding newly wealthy people who are listed as receiving stock options in S1." Edgar Online can provide a name, phone number and how much money they're going to be worth, says Adams.

Also on tap are plans to launch an executive compensation alert and an information product that hones in on boards of directors. "Tell me what boards that Bill Gates sits on," could be a query.An insider trading and a institutional holdings product are also in the works for the second quarter ending in June, says Adams, based on the Forms 13 F, G and H, in which mutual fund companies such as Fidelity report their holdings quarterly with the SEC. "You can have a watch list of who's increased or decreased their holdings," says Adams, who adds: "We'll be providing it both ways: show me who owns AT&T, or conversely, what is Fidelity holding now?"

Another neat product in the works is aimed at the real estate market. "When someone files a 10K or an S1, they have to attach significant lease agreements," says Adams. And what about mining pharmaceutical filings for R&D information?

"We're trying to extract these jewels of information to help people make better decisions," says Adams. Ivy is Editor-at-Large for Advanced Trading and Wall Street & Technology. Ivy is responsible for writing in-depth feature articles, daily blogs and news articles with a focus on automated trading in the capital markets. As an industry expert, Ivy has reported on a myriad ... View Full Bio