8-K filing

The SEC 'current report' form public US companies use to disclose material events between quarterly reports.

Definition

An 8-K is filed when a public registrant has news that a reasonable investor would consider important — an acquisition, a material agreement, an officer departure, a cybersecurity incident, regulatory action, and others. Each event category has a specific item code (1.01, 1.05, 5.02, 8.01, etc.).

8-Ks must be filed within four business days of the triggering event. Filers don't always classify events accurately, which is why parsing the body text — not just trusting the filer-reported item codes — is how you catch buried news.

Compare to the 10-K (annual report) and 10-Q (quarterly report); those are scheduled, the 8-K is event-driven.

Related terms

• Item 1.05 cybersecurity
• Item 5.02 officer departure
• Item 8.01 other events