Form S-3DPOS Files Dataset

The Form S-3DPOS Files Dataset collects every Form S-3DPOS submission filed with the SEC's EDGAR system from January 1994 to the present, packaged as per-accession folders that bundle a structured metadata.json descriptor with every document the registrant transmitted in the submission. Form S-3DPOS is a post-effective amendment to a Form S-3D registration statement — the automatically effective short-form Securities Act registration used by Form S-3-eligible domestic issuers to register securities offered under a dividend or interest reinvestment plan (DRIP). One record represents one EDGAR submission, identified by its 18-digit accession number, and typically carries the amended cover document together with the Item 601 exhibits being refreshed (updated prospectus, legality opinion, auditor consent, power of attorney). Filings are contributed by the dividend-paying utilities, banks and bank holding companies, REITs, insurance holding companies, and mature industrial issuers that operate long-running shareholder DRIPs, and become effective on filing under Rule 462(a) of Regulation C. The dataset is distributed as monthly ZIP containers covering form type S-3DPOS with file types TXT, JSON, HTML, and PDF.

Update Frequency
Daily
Updated at
2026-05-08
Earliest Sample Date
1994-01-01
Total Size
13.6 MB
Total Records
1,596
Container Format
ZIP
Content Types
TXT, JSON, HTML, PDF
Form Types
S-3DPOS

Dataset APIs

Programmatically retrieve the full list of dataset archive files, download URLs and dataset metadata.

Dataset Index JSON API

Download the entire dataset as a single archive file.

Download Entire Dataset:

Download a single container file (e.g. monthly archive) from the dataset.

Download Single Container:

Dataset Files

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What This Dataset Contains

The dataset is built from a single EDGAR form type, S-3DPOS, and covers the entire filer population that has submitted that form type since EDGAR began accepting it. Form S-3D is a specialized use of Form S-3 to register securities offered solely under an issuer's dividend or interest reinvestment plan. Under Rule 462 of Regulation C, S-3D becomes effective automatically upon filing, without staff review. Because the registration is already effective, any subsequent change to the registered securities, the plan terms, the prospectus, or the incorporated documents is made by post-effective amendment on Form S-3DPOS rather than by a new registration statement.

Registrants use S-3DPOS to refresh the statutory prospectus, update the list of Exchange Act documents incorporated by reference, reflect a change of plan administrator or transfer agent, modify plan mechanics (eligibility, source of shares, pricing, discount, fees), add or deregister securities under the plan, or carry the registration forward through a corporate reorganization or successor-issuer substitution (Rule 414). The form is filed under the Securities Act of 1933 — reflected in the act: "33" field — and is itself immediately effective on filing, which is why effectivenessDate virtually always equals the calendar date of filedAt. Because the amendment sits on top of a previously effective S-3D, its substantive content is short: a facing/cover page, a brief recital of what is being amended, signatures of the registrant and a majority of its directors, and the Item 601 exhibits that have changed since the original S-3D.

The dataset is distributed as ZIP archives partitioned by calendar month under the path pattern <year>/<year>-<month>.zip. S-3DPOS is a low-volume form type, so monthly archives are typically compact. Coverage runs from January 1994 to present.

Content Structure of a Single Record

One record in the Form S-3DPOS Files dataset is a single S-3DPOS submission to EDGAR, identified by its 18-digit accession number and materialized as a per-accession folder. The folder bundles a structured metadata.json descriptor with every document the registrant transmitted to the SEC in that submission, with image attachments excluded. The record unit is the full EDGAR submission rather than an individual exhibit or page: when a registrant attaches a legality opinion, an auditor consent, and an updated prospectus, all of those documents land inside the same accession folder alongside the primary S-3DPOS cover document.

Container and folder layout

Each monthly archive expands to a single top-level directory named after the year-month, beneath which sits one sub-folder per accession number. Folder names use the 18-digit accession in unpunctuated form (for example 000110465925071026); the dashed canonical form (0001104659-25-071026) appears inside metadata.json as accessionNo.

Inside each accession folder, two naming conventions coexist. metadata.json is the single fixed filename and is always present. Every other file retains the exact name the registrant transmitted to EDGAR. Document filenames are therefore heterogeneous across records — filer-agent patterns such as tm2521651d2_s3dpos.htm, descriptive names such as exhibit5-1.htm or consent.txt, and older numeric or uppercase legacy names all appear, with no normalization performed by the dataset.

metadata.json: structured filing descriptor

metadata.json is a single JSON object that captures EDGAR-level facts about the submission and an internal manifest of every document file delivered with the record. Its meaningful fields fall into several groups.

Top-level filing identifiers include formType (always "S-3DPOS" in this dataset), accessionNo in dashed form, and id, a 32-character hex identifier assigned by the publisher for cross-referencing. A short description field carries the human-readable form description.

Date fields are filedAt and effectivenessDate. filedAt is an ISO 8601 timestamp with timezone offset capturing the moment of EDGAR acceptance (for example 2025-07-28T08:36:29-04:00). effectivenessDate is the calendar date on which the post-effective amendment became effective; for S-3DPOS this is the filing date because the form is immediately effective.

A block of EDGAR link fields points back to SEC.gov. linkToFilingDetails resolves to the primary S-3DPOS document, linkToTxt to the concatenated full-submission text file (the SGML .txt bundle EDGAR generates for every submission), and linkToHtml to the human-readable filing-index page. linkToXbrl is present but empty for this form type, and dataFiles[] is correspondingly an empty array — S-3DPOS is not within the scope of the SEC's structured-data tagging mandates.

documentFormatFiles[] is the document manifest. Each entry describes one file in the EDGAR submission with sequence (the EDGAR document sequence number, stringified — and rendered as a single space character for the auto-generated full-submission .txt), size (bytes, stringified), documentUrl (the SEC.gov URL of the file), description (a short human label such as "S-3DPOS", "EX-5.1", or "Complete submission text file"), and type (the EDGAR document-type code). Because the registrant's filenames are preserved on disk, the manifest is the bridge between the EDGAR-assigned semantic role of each document and the on-disk filename.

entities[] carries one object per party listed on the filing. For S-3DPOS this is typically the filer alone, but co-registrants or successor issuers appear when a corporate transaction is involved. Each entity object captures companyName with a role suffix in parentheses (for example "PENNS WOODS BANCORP INC (Filer)"), cik, irsNo, fileNo (the SEC file number assigned to the registration, in the 333-NNNNNN family for Securities Act registrations), filmNo (the EDGAR film number assigned to this specific submission), sic (the four-digit SIC code together with its label, e.g. "6022 State Commercial Banks"), stateOfIncorporation, fiscalYearEnd (MMDD), act (the underlying statute, "33" for Securities Act filings), type (the form type the entity is associated with on this filing), and tickers (an array, possibly empty).

seriesAndClassesContractsInformation[] carries investment-company series and contract metadata when the filer is an open-end fund or insurance separate account; for ordinary operating-company DRIP filers it is empty.

EDGAR SGML document envelope

Every document file inside the accession folder, regardless of whether it carries an .htm, .html, .txt, or .pdf extension, is preserved exactly as EDGAR accepted it. That means each file is wrapped in EDGAR's SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope. A typical envelope opens with a header block of the form:

1 <DOCUMENT>
2 <TYPE>S-3DPOS
3 <SEQUENCE>1
4 <FILENAME>tm2521651d2_s3dpos.htm
5 <DESCRIPTION>S-3DPOS
6 <TEXT>
7 ... payload (HTML, plain text, or encoded PDF) ...
8 </TEXT>
9 </DOCUMENT>

<TYPE> carries the EDGAR document-type code: S-3DPOS for the primary document and the EX-NN.NN convention for exhibits (EX-5.1 for the legality opinion, EX-23.1 for the auditor consent, EX-24 for powers of attorney, EX-99 for miscellaneous attachments, and so on). <SEQUENCE> is the EDGAR-assigned ordering, with the primary document at sequence 1. <FILENAME> mirrors the on-disk filename. <DESCRIPTION> is the short label echoed in documentFormatFiles[].description. The <TEXT> block holds the actual payload: an HTML document (often itself opened by an <HTML> tag) for .htm/.html files, hand-formatted ASCII for legacy .txt exhibits, or an encoded binary stream for .pdf exhibits. PDFs in the wrapper are framed with <PDF>...</PDF> markers around the encoded bytes. The closing sequence is the matching </TEXT></DOCUMENT> pair.

When a submission carries several documents, each is preserved as its own file with its own envelope. The full-submission .txt linked in metadata.json (hosted on SEC.gov) concatenates all of those envelopes together along with the <SEC-HEADER> block that EDGAR prepends to every submission.

Typical contents of an S-3DPOS submission

Because the underlying form is short and procedural, the on-disk shape of most records is modest. The minimal record consists of metadata.json plus a single HTML file holding the primary S-3DPOS document, and a substantial share of records take exactly that form. Richer submissions add the exhibits that the post-effective amendment is being filed to refresh.

The primary S-3DPOS document, in HTML, typically opens with a facing page identifying the registrant by exact corporate name, state of incorporation, IRS employer identification number, principal executive offices, telephone number, name and address of the agent for service, and the CIK and Securities Act file number (333-NNNNNN) of the registration being amended. The body recites which post-effective amendment number is being filed and which parts of the previously effective S-3D are being modified — frequently by full restatement of the prospectus, less frequently by deregistration, carry-forward, or successor-issuer substitution language. A short paragraph confirms that the amendment becomes effective immediately upon filing. The signature page follows, listing the principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer, and a majority of the board of directors, often executed by an attorney-in-fact pursuant to a power of attorney filed as an exhibit.

The exhibits that recur most often, when present, are:

  • Updated prospectus for the dividend or interest reinvestment plan, restating plan eligibility, enrollment and termination procedures, share-pricing mechanics (discount, market-price reference, source of shares), fees, federal tax consequences, and administrator information.
  • Exhibit 5 — opinion of counsel as to the legality and due authorization of the securities being registered under the plan.
  • Exhibit 23 — consent of independent registered public accounting firm, consenting to the incorporation by reference of the auditor's report on the registrant's financial statements that the prospectus pulls from the latest Form 10-K (or 20-F).
  • Exhibit 24 — power of attorney, when officers and directors execute the signature page through an attorney-in-fact.
  • Exhibit 99 miscellaneous attachments, occasionally used for plan documents or participant letters.

Incorporation by reference is structurally important. The S-3DPOS prospectus typically incorporates the registrant's most recent Form 10-K (or Form 20-F), all subsequent Forms 10-Q and 8-K, and the description of the registered class from a Form 8-A or earlier registration. Those incorporated documents are not physically present inside the S-3DPOS record — they live in their own EDGAR submissions and are referenced only by description and date.

What the dataset includes and excludes

Each accession folder contains the metadata.json descriptor plus every document file from the original EDGAR submission, with the explicit exception of image attachments: graphics referenced from inline HTML (<img> tags pointing to .gif, .jpg, or .png files) are omitted, and the HTML body will retain image references that no longer resolve locally. The full-submission .txt bundle linked as linkToTxt is hosted on SEC.gov and is not copied into the folder; the per-document files inside the folder are sufficient to reconstruct the textual content of the filing. Documents that the prospectus incorporates by reference (10-K, 10-Q, 8-K, 8-A, and so on) are not part of the record by design — they are separate EDGAR submissions with their own accession numbers.

The file types found in the dataset are JSON (for metadata.json), HTML (the dominant primary-document and exhibit format from the late 1990s onward), TXT (legacy plain-text bodies from the 1990s and certain modern consents and opinions), and PDF (graphics-heavy exhibits such as signature pages or plan brochures).

Evolution of structure and format over time

The form's content has a stable core — facing page, amendment recital, signatures, and the same family of Item 601 exhibits — but the way submissions are physically packaged has changed materially across the dataset's 1994-to-present span, and those changes propagate into how individual records present.

Early-1990s through late-1990s S-3DPOS submissions are predominantly plain-ASCII filings. The <TEXT> block contains hand-formatted text with column-aligned tables, no HTML markup, and exhibits as additional <DOCUMENT> envelopes also in plain text. Filenames are short and frequently uppercase. The SGML envelope and <SEC-HEADER> conventions are already in place, so manifest-level parsing is consistent with later eras, but document bodies require text-oriented rather than HTML-oriented handling.

Beginning in the late 1990s and accelerating through the early 2000s, registrants migrated to HTML for the primary document and most narrative exhibits, with PDF appearing for graphics-heavy artifacts. The SGML wrapper persisted unchanged; only the payload inside <TEXT> shifted to <HTML>...</HTML>. By the mid-2000s the typical S-3DPOS record is an HTML primary document with HTML or PDF exhibits, which is the modern shape.

Item 601 of Regulation S-K has been amended several times during the coverage window, with effects on which exhibits typically accompany an S-3DPOS. The most visible recent shift is the SEC's 2017 hyperlinking rule: exhibit lists in later S-3DPOS filings include hyperlinks to previously filed exhibits being incorporated by reference rather than refiling them in the same submission.

Interpretation notes

Several nuances matter when working with individual records. Because S-3DPOS is a post-effective amendment, the fileNo in metadata.json (a 333-NNNNNN number) points to the original Securities Act registration; tracing the full registration history requires walking back to the parent S-3D and any prior post-effective amendments under the same file number. The effectivenessDate is in practice the filing date for this form type, but it is preserved as a separate field because EDGAR's effectiveness machinery is general; treating the two as interchangeable is safe in the typical case but should be verified rather than assumed.

Document classification should rely on the EDGAR <TYPE> value inside the SGML envelope and the corresponding documentFormatFiles[].type rather than on filename heuristics, because filer-agent naming conventions are inconsistent across registrants and across time. The presence of an exhibit is signaled by an EX-NN.NN type code; the absence of those codes means the registrant filed the amendment without refiling its standard exhibits, generally relying on incorporation by reference to previously filed exhibits at the same 333- file number.

For HTML payloads, the SGML wrapper means a generic HTML parser will encounter the EDGAR header lines (<TYPE>, <SEQUENCE>, <FILENAME>, <DESCRIPTION>) before the <HTML> tag; tolerant parsing or pre-stripping the envelope is required. For PDF payloads, the wrapper encodes the binary file as text inside <PDF> markers and extraction requires reversing that encoding. The full-submission .txt available via linkToTxt provides the canonical concatenated form of the submission, including the <SEC-HEADER> block, for use cases where the SGML structure itself is the object of analysis.

Who Files or Publishes This Dataset, and When

Who files

A Form S-3DPOS is filed by the registrant of a previously effective Form S-3D registration statement. The S-3DPOS is the post-effective amendment to that registration.

The filer must continue to meet the Form S-3 eligibility conditions that supported the original S-3D:

The registrant signs in its own name through the principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer or controller, and a majority of the board (or persons performing similar functions), per Securities Act Section 6(a). Plan administrators, transfer agents, and broker-dealers running plan mechanics are not filers; they are disclosed in the prospectus as agents of the issuer. Investment companies registered under the 1940 Act do not file S-3DPOS; their reinvestment-plan shares are registered on Form N-2 or other 1940 Act forms.

In practice, the population is dominated by dividend-paying utilities, banks and bank holding companies, REITs, insurance holding companies, and mature industrial issuers with long-running shareholder DRIPs.

When the record is created

Form S-3DPOS is event-driven, not periodic. The two underlying drivers are:

  • Securities Act Section 10(a)(3), which requires that information in a prospectus used more than nine months after the effective date be as of a date not more than sixteen months prior, and that the registration statement and prospectus not contain a material misstatement or omission while securities are being offered or sold.
  • Item 512 undertakings of Regulation S-K, which the registrant makes on the face of the original S-3D and which require post-effective amendments to reflect any fundamental change, to include material information not previously disclosed, and to deregister unsold securities at the end of the offering.

A registrant files S-3DPOS when one of those obligations forces an amendment that cannot be satisfied by incorporation by reference of subsequent Exchange Act reports. Typical triggers:

  • material changes to plan terms (administrator, pricing mechanics, discount, eligibility, fees, source of shares),
  • restatement or conversion of the plan (for example, traditional DRIP into a direct stock purchase plan) while staying within Form S-3D scope,
  • registration of additional plan securities under Rule 413 where an amendment rather than a new S-3D is appropriate,
  • successor-issuer adoption of the registration statement under Rule 414 after a holding-company reorganization or merger,
  • deregistration of unsold plan securities on plan termination or suspension,
  • refiling of legal opinions, auditor consents, exhibits, or updated incorporation-by-reference lists,
  • correction of factual errors or stale disclosure not cured by later Exchange Act filings.

Because the underlying S-3D was automatically effective under Rule 462 of Regulation C (registration statements on Form S-3 relating solely to DRIP or interest-reinvestment securities become effective on filing), a post-effective amendment on S-3DPOS likewise becomes effective on filing, without staff review or an acceleration order, so long as it stays within the scope of that automatic-effectiveness regime. There is no waiting period and no fixed calendar deadline.

Important distinctions

  • Form S-3D is the original automatically effective plan registration statement, not an amendment. A registrant typically files a new S-3D rather than an S-3DPOS when registering an additional pool of plan securities, though Rule 462(a) permits either path within scope.
  • Form S-3POS is the post-effective amendment to a non-plan S-3. It is not entitled to Rule 462(a) automatic effectiveness and follows ordinary post-effective amendment procedures under Rule 462(b)–(d) or Section 8(c).
  • Rule 424(b) prospectus supplements update pricing and limited disclosure without amending the registration statement; they are used for routine updates that do not constitute a fundamental change or otherwise require an Item 512 post-effective amendment. S-3DPOS is required only when the change exceeds what a 424(b) supplement or incorporated Exchange Act report can carry.
  • Form S-3/A is a pre-effective amendment to a pending S-3, not applicable once the S-3D is already effective.
  • Form F-3D / F-3DPOS are the foreign-private-issuer analogues.
  • Form RW withdraws a registration statement before effectiveness; post-effective deregistration of unsold plan shares is done by S-3DPOS, not RW.

The defining characteristic of an S-3DPOS record: a post-effective amendment to an already-effective, automatically effective Form S-3D, filed by a Form S-3-eligible domestic reporting issuer, driven by Section 10(a)(3) and Item 512 obligations, and itself effective upon filing under Rule 462(a).

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form S-3DPOS sits in a narrow corner of the Securities Act registration system. Several adjacent forms cover the same broader area and are easy to confuse with S-3DPOS. The comparisons below focus on the forms most likely to overlap with, substitute for, or be mistaken for it.

Form S-3D (the underlying registration)

S-3D is the parent filing that an S-3DPOS amends. Substantively, S-3D and S-3DPOS overlap heavily — both contain the DRIP prospectus, plan terms, participation conditions, and Exchange Act incorporation by reference.

The distinction is lifecycle. S-3D is the initial registration; S-3DPOS modifies that registration after effectiveness, typically to refresh incorporated reports, update plan terms, register additional securities, or correct the original. A complete history of a single DRIP requires both: the S-3D as baseline and any S-3DPOS filings as the post-effective trail.

Form S-3POS

S-3POS is the post-effective amendment to a general Form S-3, not to S-3D. Structurally it is the direct cousin of S-3DPOS — both are POS amendments in the S-3 family — but they amend different parent forms. S-3POS amends a staff-reviewable S-3 used for shelf takedowns, secondary offerings, and other seasoned-issuer registrations; S-3DPOS amends the automatically effective, DRIP-only S-3D.

The content follows the parent. S-3POS filings typically update shelf prospectuses, change selling shareholders, reflect material issuer or offering changes, or carry forward unsold securities. S-3DPOS filings concentrate on DRIP mechanics: reinvestment pricing and discounts, plan administrator changes, eligibility, optional cash purchases, and plan amendments. S-3POS is not a usable proxy for DRIP-specific change activity.

Form S-3 and Form S-3/A

Form S-3 is the general short-form Securities Act registration used by seasoned issuers for primary and secondary offerings; S-3/A is its pre-effective amendment. S-3 shares architecture and incorporation-by-reference mechanics with S-3D, but covers an entirely different offering population and is not automatically effective in the DRIP sense — it becomes effective by SEC order or upon the requested date in a Rule 462(e)/(f) context for well-known seasoned issuers. The S-3 family dwarfs the S-3D family in size and dollar volume but contains none of the DRIP-specific plan disclosure that defines this dataset.

Form F-3D and Form F-3DPOS

F-3D and F-3DPOS are the foreign private issuer analogues of S-3D and S-3DPOS. F-3D registers DRIP securities for eligible non-U.S. issuers and becomes effective automatically on the same basis; F-3DPOS is its post-effective amendment. Substantive coverage is parallel — DRIP terms, prospectus updates, incorporated reports — but the incorporated documents are Form 20-F or Form 40-F annual reports and Form 6-K furnishings rather than 10-K/10-Q/8-K, and issuer eligibility runs through the FPI framework. For a complete cross-issuer view of DRIP post-effective activity, F-3DPOS must be combined with S-3DPOS; the S-3DPOS dataset by definition excludes FPI filers.

Form S-8 and Form S-8 POS

Form S-8 registers securities offered under employee benefit plans — stock option plans, ESPPs, 401(k) plans with employer stock, and similar arrangements; Form S-8 POS is its post-effective amendment. S-8 and S-3D share the design pattern of automatically effective, plan-based registrations relying on incorporation by reference, which is the source of most confusion.

The dividing line is the participating population. S-8 covers plans for employees, directors, and certain consultants; S-3D covers DRIPs open to existing security holders. Disclosure reflects this: S-8 POS filings describe vesting, exercise mechanics, and participant tax treatment, while S-3DPOS filings describe reinvestment pricing, discounts, optional cash purchase features, and shareholder enrollment terms. A direct stock purchase plan (DSPP) for public shareholders runs through S-3D, not S-8, even when it superficially resembles an ESPP.

Rule 424(b) prospectus supplements

Rule 424(b) supplements are the alternative — and far more common — mechanism for updating an effective registration without filing a formal post-effective amendment. A 424(b) filing supplements the existing prospectus with pricing, plan administrator changes, or other matters that do not require re-effectiveness.

The boundary is legal. A post-effective amendment on S-3DPOS is required when the change constitutes a "fundamental change" in the information in the registration statement (Item 512(a)(1)(ii)), when material information about the plan of distribution must be added that cannot be reflected in a Rule 424(b) prospectus, or when other Item 512 undertakings require re-effectiveness. Routine updates flow through 424(b); fundamental changes flow through S-3DPOS. Many DRIP updates therefore never appear in the S-3DPOS dataset, and a complete study of DRIP prospectus changes requires pairing both record types.

Form 11-K

Form 11-K is the Exchange Act annual report containing audited financial statements for employee stock purchase, savings, and similar plans. It is occasionally confused with DRIP filings because both involve plan-based stock acquisition, but the regimes are categorically different: 11-K is a recurring Exchange Act financial report for employee plans, while S-3DPOS is an event-driven Securities Act registration amendment carrying a prospectus supplement for a shareholder DRIP.

Form S-1 and Form S-1/A

Form S-1 is the long-form Securities Act registration used by issuers ineligible for S-3, with Form S-1/A as its pre-effective amendment. S-1 requires standalone disclosure rather than incorporation by reference, undergoes staff review, and is rarely used for DRIPs because DRIP sponsors are typically S-3-eligible. Post-effective amendments to S-1 use S-1 POS, not S-3DPOS. The S-1 family does not substitute for S-3DPOS as a DRIP data source.

Boundary summary

Three constraints make the S-3DPOS dataset distinct: (1) it captures post-effective change events, not initial registrations; (2) it is tied to S-3D, so every filing concerns a dividend reinvestment plan or interest reinvestment plan rather than a general offering, an employee benefit plan, or a shelf takedown; and (3) it inherits the automatic effectiveness posture of the S-3D parent under Rule 462(a), distinguishing its procedural mechanics from the reviewed S-3 and S-1 families.

S-3DPOS does not substitute for S-3D (the initial DRIP terms), S-3POS (general S-3 amendments), S-8 POS (employee plans), F-3DPOS (foreign issuers), Form 424B supplements (routine prospectus updates), or 11-K (plan financial reports). It is most useful when paired with the underlying S-3D registration and any companion 424(b) supplements for the same plan.

Who Uses This Dataset

The user base is correspondingly narrow and concentrated among teams that draft, administer, or analyze DRIP registrations.

Securities lawyers and disclosure counsel

Outside securities counsel and in-house disclosure lawyers use the dataset to draft and review S-3DPOS amendments for DRIP-active issuers. They pull peer amendments to benchmark the cover page, the calculation-of-registration-fee table, the explanatory note, Item 512 undertakings, and incorporation-by-reference language. The exhibit index is central: Exhibit 5 legality opinions, Exhibit 23 auditor consents, and Exhibit 24 powers of attorney. The dataset feeds redline workflows and exhibit-language libraries.

Capital markets and corporate finance teams at DRIP-active issuers

Finance teams at registrants that run DRIPs — utilities, regional banks, REITs, insurance holding companies — use the dataset to compare peer plan economics before amending their own plans. They focus on prospectus sections covering eligibility, optional cash purchase minimums and caps, discount rates on reinvested dividends, source-of-shares language (open-market versus newly issued), fee schedules, and termination mechanics.

Plan administrators and transfer agent operations teams

Product and operations teams at transfer agents and DRIP administrators use the dataset to monitor which issuers use competing administrators and how plan mechanics are evolving. They focus on the prospectus sections naming the administrator, fee tables, fractional-share handling, dividend record-date cutoffs, book-entry custody, and electronic-enrollment terms. The dataset supports competitive intelligence and onboarding when an issuer switches administrators.

SEC reporting and compliance teams

In-house SEC reporting staff use the dataset to track the lifecycle of an issuer's DRIP registration, including share-count increases, deregistrations of unsold shares, and prospectus refreshes. They focus on the calculation-of-registration-fee table, the explanatory note, undertakings, signature blocks, and EDGAR metadata (accession number, CIK, filing date, prior S-3D references) for registration-status reconciliation and fee tracking.

Auditors providing Exhibit 23 consents

Audit engagement teams that issue consents for inclusion in DRIP amendments use the dataset to review how their own and predecessor auditors' consent language appears across peer S-3DPOS filings. They focus on Exhibit 23 text and the prospectus references to the auditor's report incorporated from the most recent Form 10-K. The dataset supports consent-template review and quality control over consent issuance.

M&A and diligence teams

Diligence teams at law firms and corporate advisers use the dataset when a target operates a DRIP that must be assumed, amended, or deregistered post-closing. They focus on the registrant name and CIK, state of incorporation, shares registered, plan description, and Exhibit 5 opinions confirming valid issuance.

Academic researchers in finance and accounting

Researchers studying dividend policy, retail-investor participation, and payout signaling use the dataset as a longitudinal source of DRIP terms. They focus on discount rates, source of shares, plan caps, eligibility criteria, and the amendment history per registrant, joined to EDGAR identifiers for panel construction.

Data engineers building EDGAR analytics

Engineers building filing-analytics and registration-status tools use the dataset because S-3DPOS is thinly covered in mainstream feeds. They focus on the JSON metadata (accession, CIK, filer, filing date, document list), the HTML and TXT documents, and the exhibit list for downstream parsing into registrant-level DRIP histories.

Specific Use Cases

The use cases below are tied to the specific exhibits, prospectus sections, and metadata fields that recur in S-3DPOS submissions.

  • Benchmarking DRIP plan economics across peer issuers. Capital markets teams at utilities, regional banks, and REITs pull the updated prospectus from each accession folder and extract the discount rate on reinvested dividends, source-of-shares language (open-market versus newly issued), optional cash purchase minimums and caps, and fee schedules. The output is a peer comparison table used to justify proposed amendments to the registrant's own plan before filing its next S-3DPOS.

  • Drafting and redlining S-3DPOS amendments from peer precedents. Outside securities counsel query documentFormatFiles[].type for EX-5.1 and EX-23.1 across recent filings, then mine the Exhibit 5 legality opinions, Exhibit 23 auditor consents, and Item 512 undertakings on the cover document for reusable language. The result is a precedent library that feeds redline workflows when amending a client's existing 333-NNNNNN registration.

  • Tracking transfer-agent and plan-administrator market share. Product teams at DRIP administrators (Computershare, EQ, Broadridge, and competitors) parse the prospectus section that names the plan administrator and the contact-information block to identify which issuers each competitor serves. Joining the administrator name to the filer's cik, sic, and stateOfIncorporation in metadata.json produces a competitive-intelligence panel and flags onboarding opportunities when an S-3DPOS announces an administrator change.

  • Reconciling DRIP registration lifecycles by file number. In-house SEC reporting staff group filings by the fileNo (333-NNNNNN) on the parent S-3D and walk the chain of S-3DPOS amendments to reconstruct share-count increases, deregistrations of unsold shares, and prospectus refreshes. The calculation-of-registration-fee table and explanatory note on each cover document drive fee tracking and registration-status reconciliation against the issuer's internal cap table.

  • Auditor consent quality control. Audit engagement teams retrieve every EX-23.1 document filed by their firm and by predecessor auditors across S-3DPOS submissions and compare the consent language, the report date, and the 10-K cross-reference. The output supports template review and detects drift from current firm-standard consent wording before a new consent is issued.

  • DRIP diligence in M&A transactions. Diligence teams working a target that runs a DRIP pull the target's S-3DPOS chain via cik to confirm the shares registered, current plan terms, and Exhibit 5 opinions on valid issuance. The findings feed the closing checklist for assuming, amending, or deregistering the plan post-closing.

  • Longitudinal study of dividend reinvestment terms. Finance and accounting researchers build a panel keyed on cik and filedAt, extract discount rates, plan caps, eligibility rules, and source-of-shares language from successive prospectuses, and link the panel to dividend declarations and 10-K incorporations. The resulting dataset supports work on payout signaling, retail-investor participation, and the decline of DRIP discounts since the 1990s.

Dataset Access

The Form S-3DPOS Files dataset can be accessed in three ways: through the dataset index JSON API, by downloading the full archive, or by retrieving individual container files. Filings span from January 1994 to the present and are packaged as ZIP containers covering form type S-3DPOS, with file types including TXT, JSON, HTML, and PDF.

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-s3dpos-files.json

Returns dataset metadata (name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total records and total size, form types, container format, and file types) along with the full dataset download URL and a list of all available container files. Each container entry includes a key, size, records count, updatedAt timestamp, and direct downloadUrl. This endpoint does not require an API key and can be polled to detect which containers were updated in the most recent refresh, enabling incremental day-by-day downloads of only the changed containers.

Example response:

Example
1 {
2 "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-69ae-a1d8-802a93854f26",
3 "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-s3dpos-files.zip",
4 "name": "Form S-3DPOS Files Dataset",
5 "updatedAt": "2026-05-08T02:54:06.526Z",
6 "earliestSampleDate": "1994-01-01",
7 "totalRecords": 1596,
8 "totalSize": 13586146,
9 "formTypes": ["S-3DPOS"],
10 "containerFormat": "ZIP",
11 "fileTypes": ["TXT", "JSON", "HTML", "PDF"],
12 "containers": [
13 {
14 "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-s3dpos-files/2026/2026-05.zip",
15 "key": "2026/2026-05.zip",
16 "size": 142336,
17 "records": 7,
18 "updatedAt": "2026-05-08T02:54:06.526Z"
19 }
20 ]
21 }

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-s3dpos-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads the complete dataset as a single ZIP archive containing every S-3DPOS filing from 1994 to today. This endpoint requires an API key, passed either as the ?token=YOUR_API_KEY query parameter or via the Authorization: YOUR_API_KEY request header.

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-s3dpos-files/2026/2026-05.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads one individual monthly container instead of the full archive. Container paths follow the key values returned by the index API (e.g., 2026/2026-05.zip). This endpoint requires an API key, supplied either as ?token=YOUR_API_KEY or via the Authorization: YOUR_API_KEY header.

Frequently Asked Questions

What form does this dataset cover?

The dataset covers a single EDGAR form type, S-3DPOS — the post-effective amendment to a Form S-3D registration statement. Form S-3D is the automatically effective short-form Securities Act registration used to register securities issued under a dividend or interest reinvestment plan (DRIP) under Rule 462 of Regulation C.

What does one record in the dataset represent?

One record is a single S-3DPOS submission to EDGAR, identified by its 18-digit accession number and materialized as a per-accession folder. The folder bundles a structured metadata.json descriptor with every document the registrant transmitted in the submission, with image attachments excluded.

Who is required to file Form S-3DPOS?

The filer is the U.S. domestic registrant of a previously effective Form S-3D, signing in its own name through the principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer or controller, and a majority of the board. The filer must continue to meet Form S-3 eligibility — Exchange Act reporting current for at least twelve months, no material default on senior securities, and offering DRIP securities only to existing holders. Foreign private issuers use Form F-3DPOS, and 1940 Act investment companies use Form N-2 or other 1940 Act forms instead.

When is an S-3DPOS filed?

Filing is event-driven, not periodic. Registrants file S-3DPOS when Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act or the Item 512 of Regulation S-K undertakings of Regulation S-K force an amendment that cannot be satisfied by incorporation of subsequent Exchange Act reports — for example, material changes to plan terms, restatement or conversion of the plan, registration of additional plan securities, successor-issuer adoption under Rule 414, or deregistration of unsold plan shares. The amendment becomes effective on filing under Rule 462(a), with no waiting period or staff review.

What time period does the dataset cover?

The dataset includes all Form S-3DPOS filings submitted to EDGAR from January 1, 1994 to the present.

What file formats are inside a record?

Each accession folder contains a JSON descriptor (metadata.json) plus the original documents in their EDGAR-accepted form. Document payloads appear as HTML (the dominant primary-document and exhibit format from the late 1990s onward), TXT (legacy plain-text bodies and certain modern consents and opinions), and PDF (graphics-heavy exhibits). All payloads are wrapped in EDGAR's SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope; image attachments are excluded.

How does S-3DPOS differ from S-3POS and Rule 424(b) supplements?

S-3POS is the post-effective amendment to a general, staff-reviewable Form S-3 used for shelf takedowns and seasoned-issuer registrations; S-3DPOS amends only the automatically effective, DRIP-only Form S-3D. Rule 424(b) prospectus supplements update an effective registration with pricing or limited disclosure without re-effectiveness, while S-3DPOS is required when the change is a "fundamental change" under Item 512(a)(1)(ii) or otherwise needs re-effectiveness. A complete picture of DRIP prospectus changes requires pairing S-3DPOS with the parent S-3D and any companion 424(b) filings.

How do I access the dataset?

Use the dataset index JSON API at https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-s3dpos-files.json (no API key) to enumerate monthly container files and detect refreshes, then download either the full archive at https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-s3dpos-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY or individual monthly containers such as https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-s3dpos-files/2026/2026-05.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY. The download endpoints accept the API key as a ?token= query parameter or as an Authorization header.