The Corporate Advisory Services group of Thomson Financial discusses 13F FilingsTranscript:\nHi. I\'m Mike Tamas from Thomson Financial Corporate Advisory Services. As we approach the 45th day since the end of the most recent calendar quarter, many institutional investors are filing with the SEC to disclose their investments as of the end of the quarter. Being experts in institutional ownership, we thought it would be helpful to go through the specifics of these quarterly filings. While exceptions exist, the majority of institutions will disclose their holdings under normal circumstances as I will describe in a moment. \n \nUnder SEC regulation, many institutions are required to publicly disclose holdings if they wish to continue to invest in these securities and market their services to the investing public.\n \nIn general, Institutional investment managers who exercise investment discretion over $100 million or more in Section 13(f) securities must report their holdings on Form 13F with the SEC. Mutual Funds are also required to file separately for their holdings. \n \nForm 13F includes the names of institutional investment managers, as well as the names, class, CUSIP, the number of shares owned, and the total market value of each security. Institutions file forpublicly listed equity securities and may disclose ownership in other security classes. \n \nThe SEC allows institutions 45 days after the end of a quarter to disclose positions, and filers utilize the entire period in an effort to maintain confidentiality for the longest period possible. Some institutions even apply for exemption, or the right to delay their filings. While it is rare that the SEC allows this, exemptions do exist, for example, to prevent the piggy backing or dumping of shares to follow a particular investor. \n \nThese filings are available at the SEC\'s website. In addition, Thomson Financial is a major provider of such data engaging in an additional step to help corporations better understand who is making investment decisions. Some investment firms are \"conglomerates\" of investment managers and file for holdings in aggregate, making it difficult to ascertain who has authority over the shares. Thomson Financial analyzes this data to help its corporate clients understand more specifically who is making the decisions. \n \n13F data is important as it provides historical snapshots of institutions that own shares of a corporation. For those in the practice of Investor Relations or management of the company, this can help identify the stakeholders. The filings help to determine new holders, existing holders that have increased positions, as well as those which have reduced or liquidated positions. A 13F filing may be the first time a corporation has heard of an investor, or it may be to confirm the level of ownership that an investor maintains. This information can be used to maintain existing relationships with a corporation\'s shareholders and also aid in efforts to attract institutions that are not currently investors. \n \nThat covers 13Fs under most circumstances. Stay tuned for more on SEC filings, including 13Ds and 13Gs, which are required by the SEC when a firm crosses above and/or below ownership of 5% of a company\'s shares outstanding. \n \nOnce again, I\'m Mike Tamas from Thomson Financial\'s Corporate Advisory Services, thanks for watching. Advisory, Corporate, Filing, Financial, Insight, Investor, Relations13F, SEC, Services, Thomson