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Viewing the Transfer Agents database
Who is this article for?Users who want to learn about the Transfer Agents database.
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1. General overview
- The Audit Analytics Transfer Agent database tracks the stock transfer agents for over 29,000 SEC registrants by combining the Transfer Agent feed with the Shareholder Info Queues.
- Transfer agent fees are not covered.
- Transfer agents are financial institutions engaged by registrants to maintain records of investors and account balances.
- ‘40 Act filers are required to disclose this information and ‘34 Act filers often volunteer the identity of their transfer agent.
2. Common uses
-
- Identify the current stock transfer agent for all active SEC registrants
- Search by industry, market, and location
- Key data points include number of shareholders and current stock transfer agent information
The Transfer Agents database is available online, through WRDS, and as a data feed [Feed41] with the relevant subscription.
- Saved Search Alert: No
- Daily Summary Email: No
3. Collection methodology
- The investor website and SEC filings are the most used and reliable source types, but data is also extracted from:
- Registrant's annual report
- OTC Markets website
- Registrant contact
- Transfer Agent, Record Year, and Sources are collected.
- Missing transfer agents are also collected from the daily “Registration Filings – Daily Summary” email for IPOs.
- These emails are reviewed for registrants that do not have a tansfer agent listed.
- Missing transfer agents are also collected from the daily “Registration Filings – Daily Summary” email for IPOs.
- Registrants are not required to provide or disclose information on their transfer agent; therefore, there may be cases in which there is no way to obtain a transfer agent.
- This data is sourced from the following form types: 497K, DEF 14A, 10-K, S-1, S-3, N-CSR, N-CSRS, N-CEN, 20-F, 40-F, F-1, F-3
4. Searching
- The Transfer Agents search page offers the following filters:
| Name | Description | Data Dictionary Field(s) | Sort By? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search by Ticker or CIK Code | Filter results to a specific population |
CIK Code Ticker |
Yes |
| Market Index | Filter for Market Index | N/A | No |
| Filter by Transfer Agent(s) | Filter for specific agent names | Transfer Agent Name | No |
| De-Registered Entities | Select:
|
N/A | No |
| Market Cap | Filter by a range of market capitalization as of stock price date | Company Most Recent Market Cap | Yes |
| Revenue | Filter by a range of past year’s total revenue | Company Most Recent Revenue (TTM) | No |
| Search Industries | Filter by companies’ industry(s) |
SIC Code NAICS Code |
No |
| Company Location | Filter by current business address location(s) |
State Name Region City |
No |
| Last Periodic Report | Filter for date of the last periodic report | Company Most Recent Periodic Filing Date | No |
| Shareholders | Company Number of Shareholders | Yes | |
| Filter by Market | Filter by principal exchange the registrant’s stock currently trades on | Company Market | No |
5. Results
- Results can be viewed at the bottom of the page.
- The following are accessible through clicking the respective hyperlinks:
- Transfer Agents Data Dictionary download
- CSV file downloads of the results
- All fields available in the CSV are defined in the Data Dictionary
- Overview of individual companies’ profile
- Overview of transfer agent’s company profile on SEC EDGAR
6. Additional information
- Shareholder Info: To find and record the number of record holders for a company’s shares and other securities.
- This includes ticker, market, class, number of shareholders (of record), and beneficial shareholders.
- Share class for all classes that have disclosures of any holders of record are added.
- The CSV download only discloses the class with the highest number of shareholders.