SEC Form NT 10-Q

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Adam Hayes
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Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and behavioral finance. Adam received his master's in economics from The New School for Social Research and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in sociology. He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

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Updated June 12, 2022
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Chip Stapleton
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Reviewed by Chip Stapleton
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Chip Stapleton is a Series 7 and Series 66 license holder, CFA Level 1 exam holder, and currently holds a Life, Accident, and Health License in Indiana. He has 8 years experience in finance, from financial planning and wealth management to corporate finance and FP&A.
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What Is SEC Form NT 10-Q?

SEC Form NT 10-Q is a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing required for companies that will not be able to submit their 10-Q filing (for quarterly financial results) by the SEC deadline or in a timely manner. Mandated by SEC rule 12b-25, Form NT 10-Q requires the registrant's information and explanation of the reason for why the 10-Q is delayed. The form also allows companies to apply for relief from the deadline.

Key Takeaways

  • SEC Form NT 10-Q is a required notification of a firm's inability to file Form 10-Q or 10-QSB in a timely manner.
  • Form 10-Q is, in turn, a comprehensive report of a company's performance that must be submitted quarterly by all public companies to the SEC.
  • Investors and analysts may take note of a company's late filings as a red flag warning about underlying accounting issues or poor financial management.

Understanding SEC Form NT 10-Q

SEC Form NT 10-Q is required to be filed within 45 days following the end of each of a company's first three fiscal quarters. If the 10-Q cannot be filed in a timely manner, the company must file a Form 10-QT with the commission.

A very common reason for an NT 10-Q is a merger or acquisition, which prevents results from being incorporated in time for the filing. The SEC provides for "unreasonable effort and expense," with a suitable explanation, as part of the application for relief. Late filings may also be because of uncertainty surrounding litigation, due to a company’s auditor not having yet completed its review of the company’s operations, a sign of a company in financial distress, or because a company emerging from bankruptcy needs more time to complete the required disclosures.

The Market Impact of Form NT 10-Q Filings

Late financial report filings, whether of 10-Qs or other documents, especially 10-Ks, can be red flags to analysts following a company, as well as its regulators, investors, and lenders. While the reasons vary, companies who list accounting issues or unexpected changes in accounting or auditor firms (particularly if these involve disagreements over accounting principles or resignations of auditors) as the reason for the delay typically face much more scrutiny of their late filings.

A study conducted by professors Eli Bartov, of New York University’s Stern Business School, and Yaniv Konchitchki, of the University of California at Berkeley, and published in December 2017, looked at financial market reactions to companies with late filings. The authors found several impacts including that “(a) delayed quarterly filings have distinctly different effects on firm value than do delayed annual filings, (b) investors do not accept at face value management assertions about the expected filing date, (c) accounting problems play a unique role in communicating the seriousness of the delay, and (d) delayed announcements tend to be followed by continued poor operating and stock price performance.”

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  1. NYU Stern. "Late Financial Filings Come at a Cost." Accessed February 27, 2021.