Investor Relations Sharon Merrill Associates

When It’s Time for a Change: CFO Succession

A new CEO is the highest-profile personnel announcement a company can make, but a new CFO isn’t far behind. As with any executive transition, the reasons can vary widely – from termination to mutual separation to a legitimate retirement. Regardless of the rationale, however, you’ll need to negotiate a different set of questions when communicating a CFO…

Sharon Merrill Associates IPO

7 Investor Relations “Things to Do” Before Your IPO

If you’re the CFO of a pre-IPO company, the months leading up to your S-1 filing can be exhausting. You’ve read your registration statement so many times you have it memorized. And you cannot even begin to imagine a time when you won’t be spending every waking moment with your bankers. But now that you’ve left…

Sharon Merrill Associates Investor Relations

Crisis Communications: Preparing for the Unexpected

When you do work in crisis communications, you’re often asked to share war stories alongside other communications professionals on conference panels. The cases that are analyzed run the gamut of private and public companies, from small start-ups to large multinationals, in industries from consumer goods and high tech to pharmaceuticals and financial organizations. But there…

Sharon Merrill Associates Investor Relations The Podium

The Art of Communicating an Acquisition: M&A in 2016

Global merger and acquisition activity set an all-time high last year, breaking the previous record set in 2007.  According to an EY survey in October 2015, 59% of executives planned to actively pursue acquisitions in the coming 12 months. Given that this number is significantly higher than the 40% reported in the survey a year…

Sharon Merrill Associates Investor Relations The Podium Blog

Preannouncing Results: Analyzing Corporate Profit Warnings

To preannounce or not to preannounce: Surely that is the question that stumps many management teams during the quarterly earnings cycle. There are several reasons for a company to preannounce its financial results – that is, provide the Street with a preliminary, high-level understanding of what the company’s quarterly performance will be. Typically, a preannouncement…

Sharon Merrill Associates Investor Relations Investor Day

5 Tips for a Successful Investor Day

Hosting an investor day can be a powerful way to raise management visibility and credibility, highlight the depth of your management team, and clarify your company’s value proposition and growth strategy.  But planning a successful investor day is no small task. Here are five tips to help you along the way.

Sharon Merrill Associates Investor Relations Activism Defense

Keeping the Activists at Bay: Five Steps to an Effective Response Plan

The new reality is that no public company, no matter how highly regarded or well managed, is immune from activist attention. The number of activist campaigns waged against public companies increased in 2015 to 375 according to the research firm FactSet. Once an activist surfaces, every move a company makes can have a profound and cascading…

Sharon Merrill Associates Investor Relations The Podium Blog

Telling a Story Investors Want to Hear

It’s the ability to tell a compelling story that will get the investment community excited about your company. It’s also a great challenge for even the largest public companies in the country. So why is it so difficult to captivate investors with an investment story management should inherently know so well? To help solve this…

Sharon Merrill Associates Investor Relations Strategic Communications

10 Reasons Why You Should Conduct a Perception Audit

In evaluating your company’s corporate reputation and whether its share price is fairly valued, analyzing your audience is key. The image you are projecting, may not be the same that is being perceived by your investors and analysis. To understand and address the critical factors that impact your company’s reputation and shareholder value its important…

Notes from a NIRI Annual Conference Attendee

By Dennis Walsh, Senior Consultant & Director of Social Media Last week, I attended the NIRI Annual Conference.  It was very educational and an incredible opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with many of the approximately 1,300 investor relations professionals from more than 20 countries that attended the event in Seattle. NIRI organized more than…