How to read a 10-Q: quarterly reports, nine-month columns and TTM

A 10-Q is the quarterly report a US public company files with the SEC for each of the first three quarters of its fiscal year. It is the 10-K's smaller sibling: the same kind of statements and management discussion, but condensed, unaudited, and focused on what changed since the last annual report. Investors who follow a company closely live in 10-Qs, because three of every four reporting dates produce one.

Reading a 10-Q well takes a few skills the 10-K doesn't teach: comparing the right columns, handling seasonality, knowing what an unaudited number is worth, and building trailing-12-month figures from pieces of different reports. This guide covers all of them using Apple Inc.'s 10-Q for its third fiscal quarter of 2026, the three months ended June 27, 2026, filed July 31, 2026.

10-Q versus 10-K

The 40-day deadline applies to large accelerated and accelerated filers; other companies get 45 days, under Form 10-Q's General Instructions. The same instructions say that no report is needed for the fourth quarter of any fiscal year, because the 10-K covers it. In May 2026 the SEC proposed letting companies replace the three 10-Qs with one semiannual report on a new Form 10-S. As of October 30, 2026 that is still only a proposal.

"Unaudited" does not mean "unchecked"

Every statement in a 10-Q carries the word (Unaudited) in its heading. Under Regulation S-X Rule 10-01, interim statements may be unaudited and condensed, but they must be reviewed by an independent public accountant before filing. A review is far narrower than an audit: mostly inquiry and analytical procedures, without the testing an audit opinion requires. In practice, quarterly numbers are reliable but more likely than annual ones to be adjusted later, and year-end often brings true-ups of estimates made during the year.

"Condensed" means the statements combine smaller lines. Rule 10-01 lets the interim balance sheet show only major captions, and lets a company fold small lines into others. Apple's condensed statements fit on five pages.

The structure of a 10-Q

Form 10-Q has two parts.

Most of the reading happens in Part I. Part II is short but worth a scan, because it is where a company discloses what has changed. In Apple's June 2026 10-Q:

• Item 3, Market Risk, says there were no material changes to Apple's market risk during the first nine months of fiscal 2026 and points back to the 10-K.
• Part II, Item 1A updates the risk factors. Apple's adds or revises risks on obtaining components and computing resources, citing industry shortages of advanced semiconductors, NAND storage and DRAM memory, and the rising cost of AI infrastructure. MD&A says Apple expects those supply trends to intensify.
• Part II, Item 2 reports the quarter's buybacks: about 79.6 million shares, including $10.0 billion of accelerated share repurchases entered in May 2026, plus a new $100 billion program announced April 30, 2026.
• Part II, Item 5 discloses that the CEO and the general counsel each adopted a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan in May 2026, a prearranged schedule for selling shares. The resulting sales will appear later as Form 4 filings; see Insider trading filings: Forms 3, 4 and 5 and how to read them.

Reading the columns

Apple's condensed income statement has four columns of numbers: the three months ended June 27, 2026, the three months ended June 28, 2025, and the nine months ended on each of those dates. The nine-month columns are the fiscal year to date.

The other statements differ:

• The balance sheet compares the quarter-end (June 27, 2026) with the last fiscal year-end (September 27, 2025), not with a year earlier.
• The cash flow statement shows nine months only, for this year and last. There is no three-month cash flow column. To get the quarter alone, subtract the six-month figures in the previous 10-Q.

Compare year over year

Apple, like most consumer companies, is seasonal. Its first fiscal quarter, October to December, includes the holidays and has historically been its biggest. Comparing the June quarter with the March quarter mixes business change with the calendar. Compare it with the June quarter a year earlier.

Then read MD&A for the reasons. Apple's says the products gross margin percentage rose, from 34.5% to 40.1%, mainly on product mix and tariff refunds, partly offset by higher costs including memory, while services margin was flat at 75.6%. That detail matters: a refund is not something to extrapolate into future quarters. R&D grew on infrastructure costs, including investment in artificial intelligence, and headcount. The quarter's effective tax rate rose to 17.9% from 16.4%.

Segment results add another layer. Greater China grew 22% in the quarter and 30% over nine months, after shrinking 4% in fiscal 2025, and MD&A credits higher iPhone sales and a stronger renminbi. A currency effect is real money in dollars, but it is not demand, so note how much of a region's growth MD&A attributes to it.

Watch for re-presented comparatives

The comparative columns are not always exactly what last year's report said. Apple's June 2026 balance sheet shows a separate "Intangible assets, net" line of $11.1 billion at September 27, 2025, and "Other non-current assets" of $72.6 billion. The 10-K showed one line, other non-current assets of $83.7 billion, for the same date. Together they match (11,093 + 72,634 = 83,727). The total didn't change; the presentation did. When a comparative number doesn't match the prior filing, look for a reclassification before assuming an error.

The missing fourth quarter

Because there is no Q4 10-Q, fourth-quarter numbers come from two places: the earnings release the company furnishes on an 8-K, and subtraction.

Building trailing-12-month numbers

A trailing-12-month (TTM) figure covers the latest four quarters, whatever the fiscal calendar. It is what most quote pages mean by "EPS" or "P/E", and it is the most current full-year view between 10-Ks.

The TTM EPS of $8.72 was 16.9% above fiscal 2025's $7.46, which shows why the choice of period matters. At the same $333.43 price, a P/E on fiscal 2025 EPS would be 44.7, on TTM EPS 38.2. See Price-to-earnings ratio (P/E): formula, examples and limits and Earnings per share (EPS): basic vs diluted, with Apple’s numbers. For EPS, the TTM shortcut is an approximation, for the same share-count reason as the Q4 subtraction.

Pitfalls

Comparing sequential quarters. For seasonal businesses, quarter-over-quarter changes mostly measure the calendar. Use the same quarter last year.

Fiscal versus calendar labels. Apple's third fiscal quarter of 2026 ended June 27, 2026. Many data providers, including Finabase's Financials tab, label it by calendar quarter, as "Q2 2026". Check the period-end date, not the label.

Treating the cash flow statement as quarterly. Its columns are year to date. The $116,996 million of operating cash flow in Apple's June 2026 10-Q is nine months, not three.

Ignoring the change disclosures. The 10-Q's Part II and MD&A are where a company tells you what changed since the 10-K: new risks, new buyback programs, new trading plans, new obligations. Apple's June 2026 10-Q, for example, notes that it paid the remaining $8.8 billion of its 2017 tax-act repatriation tax during the nine months.

Reading the release instead of the 10-Q. The earnings release usually arrives a day earlier and leads with the headline numbers. The 10-Q adds the balance sheet detail, notes, segment explanations and risk-factor updates. See How to read an earnings release: a step-by-step guide.

How Finabase does it

• The Financials tab has a Quarterly view (the default) and an Annual view, each with up to 40 periods. Quarters are labeled by calendar quarter: Apple's quarter ended June 27, 2026 appears as "Q2 2026", with the caption "Period ending Jun 30, 2026", and its revenue of $109.42 billion matches the 10-Q. Click any line to chart its quarterly history and compare the same quarter across years. There is no TTM column, so build TTM figures as shown above.
• The Earnings tab lists each report date, quarter end, EPS estimate, reported EPS and surprise. For the June 2026 quarter it shows an estimate of $1.89 against $2.02 reported.
• The summary page shows EPS (TTM), trailing P/E and revenue (TTM) as passed through from the data provider, and a quick-view chart of quarterly revenue, net income and EPS.

Frequently asked questions

Is a 10-Q audited?

No. The financial statements in a 10-Q are unaudited, but SEC rules (Regulation S-X Rule 10-01) require an independent accountant to review them before the company files. A review is much less extensive than an audit, and no opinion on the statements is included in the 10-Q.

Why is there no 10-Q for the fourth quarter?

Because the 10-K covers the full fiscal year, Form 10-Q's instructions say no report is needed for the fourth quarter. You get fourth-quarter numbers from the earnings release, or by subtracting the nine-month figures in the third-quarter 10-Q from the 10-K.

How do I calculate trailing-twelve-month EPS?

Add the latest fiscal year's EPS to this year's year-to-date EPS, then subtract last year's year-to-date EPS. For Apple to June 2026: 7.46 + 6.88 − 5.62 = $8.72. The result is a close approximation, because quarterly share counts differ.

When are 10-Qs due?

Within 40 days of quarter-end for large accelerated and accelerated filers, and 45 days for other companies. Apple files about 34 days after each quarter ends, one day after its earnings release.

Summary

A 10-Q is the quarterly update to the 10-K: condensed, unaudited but reviewed, and filed for the first three fiscal quarters only. Read it by comparing each quarter with the same quarter a year earlier, using MD&A to separate lasting changes from one-offs like Apple's tariff refunds, and scanning Part II for new risks, buybacks and trading plans. Remember which columns are three months, which are year to date, and which compare with the last year-end. Combine the 10-K with two 10-Qs to build trailing-12-month numbers, as with Apple's $8.72 of TTM EPS, and derive the fourth quarter by subtraction when you need it.