SIC Code Lookup: Find Any Company's SEC Industry Code

Every company registered with the SEC carries a four-digit code that sorts it into an industry, visible on its EDGAR filer page next to its name and CIK. That code is a SIC code, short for Standard Industrial Classification, and it is one of the oldest pieces of metadata EDGAR keeps on a company, often older than the company's own ticker.

What a SIC code is

The Standard Industrial Classification system was developed by the US government in the 1930s to classify businesses by their primary activity, using a hierarchy of two, three, and four digit codes. The federal government largely replaced SIC with the North American Industry Classification System, NAICS, for statistical purposes in 1997. The SEC never made that switch for EDGAR. Every filer still gets a four-digit SIC code, assigned when it registers and classified under the SEC's own SIC list, which SEC's EDGAR system publishes and maintains separately from the Census Bureau's and OSHA's versions of the same code system.

Where the SIC code comes from

A company's SIC code is set when it first registers with the SEC, based on the primary business activity it describes on its registration form. The SEC's EDGAR system keeps one list of codes for this purpose, with roughly 440 codes in use, each with a short industry description. A handful of SIC codes that do not correspond to a real Census or industry classification exist only inside EDGAR, created to cover filer types the broader SIC system never anticipated, such as holding companies, asset-backed securities issuers, and blank check companies.

Examples of common SIC codes

A company's SIC code describes its primary line of business, not every segment it operates in. A diversified conglomerate still gets a single code, chosen for whichever activity the SEC and the company consider primary at the time of registration. A large holding company with businesses in several unrelated industries is still filed under one code, which is why screening by SIC code works best as a starting filter rather than a precise industry taxonomy.

How SIC codes are grouped

SIC codes are organized in a loose hierarchy. The first two digits place a company in a broad major group, such as 28 for chemicals and allied products or 73 for business services, and the full four digits narrow that down to a specific activity, such as 2834 for pharmaceutical preparations within the chemicals group or 7372 for prepackaged software within business services. EDGAR does not expose the two-digit major groups as a separate filter in its company search, but recognizing the pattern helps when scanning a list of codes for related industries, since codes that share the same first two digits tend to sit near each other on the industry spectrum even when the specific four-digit activity differs.

Finding a company's SIC code

The fastest way to see a single company's SIC code is on its EDGAR filer page, where it is listed next to the company's name, state of incorporation, and fiscal year end. The same information is available as structured data from a company's entity profile.

curl "https://secfeedapi.com/v1/entities?cik=0000789019" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

from secfeed import Client

sf = Client("YOUR_API_KEY")
entity = sf.entity("MSFT")
print(entity["sic"], entity["sicDescription"])

Full field list, including SIC code and description, is at /docs/#v1-entities.

Listing every company under a SIC code

EDGAR's own company search lets you browse by SIC code directly, which is a practical way to build an industry peer list from registered filers rather than from a third-party index. The same data is available as JSON, paginated 100 companies at a time.

curl "https://secfeedapi.com/v1/mapping/sic?sic=7372&from=0" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"

Each result gives the CIK, company name, and state for every filer currently classified under that code, useful as a starting point before pulling filings, financial statements, or insider activity for the companies it returns.

A note on completeness

A SIC code lookup by industry returns filers EDGAR currently classifies under that code. It does not retroactively show every company that ever used that code historically, since a company's SIC code can be updated if its primary business changes and EDGAR reflects the current classification going forward.

SIC vs NAICS

Some SEC forms, such as Form D, separately ask the issuer to pick an "industry group" from a short list that only loosely maps to either SIC or NAICS, which is a different classification from the filer's EDGAR SIC code.

Frequently asked questions

What does SIC stand for?

Standard Industrial Classification. It is a four-digit code the US government developed to classify businesses by primary activity, and the SEC still uses its own version of the list to classify every EDGAR filer.

Is SIC the same as NAICS?

No. NAICS replaced SIC for most federal statistical purposes starting in 1997, but the SEC continued using SIC codes for EDGAR. The two systems use a different number of digits and group industries differently, so a company's SIC code and NAICS code are not interchangeable.

How many SIC codes does the SEC use?

The SEC's EDGAR SIC code list runs to roughly 440 codes, each with a short industry description, maintained on SEC.gov separately from the Census Bureau's own version of SIC.

Can a company's SIC code change?

Yes. A company's SIC code reflects its primary business activity as understood when the code was assigned or last updated. If a company changes its primary business materially, its EDGAR classification can be updated to a different SIC code.

Where can I see a company's SIC code without an API key?

Directly on its EDGAR filer page on SEC.gov, which lists the SIC code and description alongside the company's CIK, state of incorporation, and fiscal year end.