Every public company is required by the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) to provide a document known as an annual report. In this annual report, the firm describes the financial results of the past year and also the outlook for the future. It is the place for the company to communicate business objectives, strategy, governance, and financial metrics to current and future investors.

The annual report is given to shareholders, and is also made available to the general public. Basically, anyone who wants to know how a company has  been doing in the past and where the company wants to be going in the future will find an annual report quite useful.