IMS recently conducted an investor relations trend study, compiling survey statistics from reports on investor consumption and preference and use of social media for IR. Key findings from the study, along with IMS recommendations, can be found below:
Earnings Conference Calls
71.7% of investors watch/listen to companies’ investor presentations online
40.3% of investors watch/listen to companies’ earnings webcasts when researching new investment opportunities
47.9% of investors read transcripts of companies’ earnings calls
69.6% of investors believe live video webcasts of a company’s CEO would inspire more trust
IMS Recommendation: Earnings webcasts are vital to a best-practice investor relations program. The service is a valuable source of information for existing shareholders, and a key research tool for potential investors. Some larger companies, most notably Yahoo, are beginning to use video for their quarterly earnings announcements. Given investors’ positive perception of video as an investor relations tool, companies will want to understand the issues and track the success of this as an effective quarterly reporting platform. It will likely be increasingly adopted over time.
Source: How Investors Consume Investor Relations Content- PR Newswire (Fall 2013)
18% of investors use Twitter/StockTwits for stock research¹
72% of companies use Twitter for investor-related material¹
63% of institutional investors say that social media will become increasingly more important to them²
IMS Recommendation: Since SEC approval of using social media as a platform for investor/material communication is rather recent, investors have been slow to adopt regular use of social media, as demonstrated in the disconnect between investor and company use of Twitter. A majority of 63% of investors, however, believe social media will become increasingly valuable in the future. While Twitter is currently less accessed than other IR communications tools, it may become a useful IR platform in the future.
¹Source: Public Company Use of Social Media for Investor Relations 2013- Web Systems, distributed by IR Magazine (August 2013)
²Source: NIRI Social Media Use in Corporate Investor Communications Study- The National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) (June 2013)
IR Website
45.6% of investors visited IR websites of potential investment opportunities
Less than 1% of investors view stock charts/data on company’s IR website
Source: How Investors Consume Investor Relations Content- PR Newswire (Fall 2013)
IMS Recommendation: The IR section of a company’s website is a crucial platform through which investors research potential investment opportunities. Contrary to popular belief, less than 1% of investors view stock data on a company’s IR website. Therefore, the IR site should focus on providing easy access to valuable resources like press releases, webcasts, and SEC filings. Stock data should be either minimal or entirely excluded from a company’s IR site.
John Nesbett, President, IMS