SEDAR+ and SEDI: how to research a Canadian company yourself

If you own a Canadian junior, the most reliable information about it sits in two free government-run databases. SEDAR+ holds what the company files: financial statements, management's discussion, technical reports, and news releases. SEDI holds what insiders report about their own trades. Half an hour in each will tell you more than a week of message boards.

What SEDAR+ is

SEDAR+ is run by the Canadian Securities Administrators. It went live on July 25, 2023, replacing the original SEDAR system that had served Canadian markets for decades. It also folded in the national cease trade order database and the disciplined list, so one site now covers filings, trading bans, and sanctioned individuals.

Public search, available from the SEDAR+ home page at sedarplus.ca without an account, has four options:

• Profiles: find the company and its filing history.
• Documents: search filed documents by company, type, and date.
• Cease Trade Orders: check whether a regulator has halted trading in a company's securities.
• Disciplined List: check whether a person or firm has been sanctioned.

What to pull, and what to look for

Financial statements and MD&A

Every reporting issuer files annual and interim financial statements together with a management's discussion and analysis (MD&A). Venture issuers, which includes most juniors, have 120 days after year-end for annual statements and 60 days after each quarter for interim statements. Larger, non-venture issuers have 90 and 45 days.

For a junior, focus on:

• Cash and working capital at period end.
• Quarterly cash spending, split between exploration and general and administrative costs. A company spending more on overhead than on the ground deserves a question.
• Going-concern language in the notes, which signals the company needs new money to keep operating.
• Related-party transactions: payments to directors' firms, management fees, or property purchases from insiders.
• Share capital note: shares issued, warrants and options outstanding, and their prices. This is where you build a fully diluted count, as covered in dilution and financings.

Canadian companies report under IFRS rather than U.S. GAAP. Our guide to reading foreign financial statements explains the main differences.

Technical reports

NI 43-101 technical reports are filed on SEDAR+ under the company's profile. Always read the filed report rather than a summary on the company website, and check its date and effective date. Our guide to reading an NI 43-101 report walks through it.

News releases and material change reports

Companies file their news releases on SEDAR+, so you can read a company's announcements in order without the spin of a promotional site. When a material change happens, the company must issue a news release right away and file a material change report within 10 days.

Other useful filings

• Management information circulars for annual meetings: executive pay, option plans, and director backgrounds.
• Offering documents for financings: price, warrant terms, and use of proceeds.
• Early warning reports, filed when an investor's stake crosses a disclosure threshold. These show when a major shareholder or another mining company is building or cutting a position.

SEDI: who is buying and selling inside

SEDI, the System for Electronic Disclosure by Insiders, is a separate site at sedi.ca. Insiders of Canadian reporting issuers, such as directors, senior officers, and significant shareholders, file reports of their trades there. Electronic filing on SEDI has been required since June 2003.

The general deadline is five calendar days after a trade, or after a person becomes an insider, under National Instrument 55-104. That makes SEDI close to real time.

How to read insider data

• Open-market buys with personal money are the most meaningful signal. A director paying market price is expressing a view.
• Private placement participation is useful but weaker: insiders often buy at a discount and receive warrants.
• Option grants and exercises are compensation, not conviction.
• Steady selling by several insiders, especially after a promotional run, is worth noting. One sale can have many personal reasons. A pattern rarely does.

EDGAR for companies that also file in the U.S.

Some Canadian miners are also SEC registrants, usually because they are interlisted on a U.S. exchange. Those companies file on EDGAR as well, often an annual report on Form 40-F or 20-F, or Form 10-K, plus Form 6-K for news. Search for the company name in EDGAR's full-text or company search. Mining registrants reporting under SEC rules follow Regulation S-K Subpart 1300, so compare the U.S. technical report summary with the NI 43-101 report if both exist.

Most juniors that trade only over the counter in the U.S. do not file with the SEC. Their disclosure lives on SEDAR+. See buying Canadian stocks from the U.S. for why that matters to the availability of OTC quotes.

A 30-minute research routine

1. On SEDAR+, check the Cease Trade Orders search for the company.
2. Open the latest interim MD&A and financial statements. Note cash, quarterly spend, and the share capital note.
3. Read the last 12 months of news releases in order. Look for financings, property options, and changes in management.
4. Open the most recent technical report and read the summary and conclusions.
5. On SEDI, list insider trades for the last year and separate open-market buys from everything else.
6. Search the people: check the Disciplined List for directors and officers.

Educational content only, not investment, tax or legal advice. The Stateside Report does not recommend buying or selling any security. Tax rules depend on your situation; confirm with a qualified tax professional. Full disclosures.