Ask HN: Where do magic numbers come from on SEC statements


I’m trying to figure out where numbers reported (or not reported) on financial statements come from.

For instance, Amazon stopped reporting “Property, Plant and Equipment – Net” in 2020, I believe.

Yet, for the latest 10-K (annual report in 2022) you can find the number on CNBC (https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/AMZN?tab=financials), though it’s a different number than appears on macrotrends.net (https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/AMZN/amazon/balance-sheet).

This is just one of many “magic” numbers.

I’m trying to source some data from some APIs and using CNBC as my source of truth, that I compare data to that I’m getting from some APIs.

I find it hard to believe that if it’s not in the SEC filing, that someone didn’t just make up some number: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1018724/000101872423000004/amzn-20221231.htm


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