Why the type matters
Search EDGAR for a large manager and you will see several 13F form types in the list. If you open the wrong one, you may find no holdings at all, or only a handful of rows that look like the whole portfolio. The form type tells you what you are looking at before you open it.
The three report types
| Form type | What it contains |
|---|---|
| 13F-HR (holdings report) | The manager’s own holdings, all of them. This is the one most people want. |
| 13F-NT (notice) | No holdings. It names another manager that reports the holdings instead. |
| 13F-HR combination report | Some holdings reported here, the rest by other managers named on the summary page. |
The notice exists because large financial groups often have several companies that count as managers. Rather than report the same shares twice, one company in the group files the holdings and the others file notices that point to it.
Amendments: 13F-HR/A
A filing type ending in /A is an amendment. It comes in two kinds, and the cover page says which:
- Restatement. The amendment replaces the original filing completely. Read the amendment and ignore the original.
- Adds new holdings. The amendment lists only extra positions. Add them to the original to get the full picture.
Amendments arrive for weeks after a deadline. Some fix mistakes. Others add positions the SEC had allowed the manager to keep confidential.
How WallStPal handles them
We read 13F-HR filings and their amendments, apply restatements in place of the original, and add “new holdings” amendments on top of it. Notices are skipped, because the holdings appear under the manager they point to. Details are on our method page.
Examples
Huntington Bancshares, 2015. Huntington Bancshares, the parent of Huntington National Bank, filed a 13F-NT in 2015 with the “13F Notice” box checked. Its list of other managers named Huntington National Bank as the company that reported the holdings. Anyone looking for Huntington’s stock positions under the parent company would have found nothing. The positions were under the bank.
Berkshire Hathaway and Chubb, 2024. For several quarters, Berkshire’s 13F filings noted that some information had been left out and filed separately with the SEC under a confidential treatment request. In May 2024, Berkshire’s filing for the first quarter revealed the hidden position: a stake in the insurer Chubb worth about $6.7 billion. Anyone who had only read the earlier filings, without noticing the note, had an incomplete picture.
Explain it like I’m 13
Picture a family where three brothers all collect the same comics, and they keep them in one big box. The school asks each brother to hand in a list of his comics.
One brother writes out the whole list. The other two just write “my brother’s list has mine too.” Those short notes are like a 13F-NT. If you only read the notes, you’d think two of them had no comics at all.
And if one brother finds more comics under his bed a week later, he hands in an extra page. That extra page is an amendment. You have to read it together with the first list.
Questions about this guide? Pal reads it with you and answers in plain English.
WallStPal explains public filings. Nothing here is investment advice. Editorial policy · Corrections