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…

Shareholder on a Shelf: An Earnings Tradition

By Dennis Walsh, Vice President The Shareholder on a Shelf is a new tradition that has become the holiday gift of choice for IROs to their executive management teams. The story of the Shareholder on a Shelf is as follows: “Have you ever wondered how the SEC could know; If you’re naughty or nice in…

Time to Revamp the Quarterly Earnings Call?

By Dennis Walsh, Vice President & Director of Social Media And the Award for Best Quarterly Earnings Results Conference Call goes to…. Giving awards to recognize production of an earnings call may be a little premature, but several companies are spicing up what is generally considered an uneventful quarterly ritual by the investment community.  It…

The Greatest Social Media for Investor Relations Panel Ever*

By Dennis Walsh, Vice President & Director of Social Media *Okay, so I may be biased since I was the moderator, but this panel session at the NIRI’s 2013 Annual Conference had all the elements necessary to help IR professionals develop a strategy for using social media for IR. Attendees heard from David Urban, Director…

SEC Gives Social Media for IR Its Blessing

By Dennis Walsh, Vice President & Director of Social Media The SEC finally has provided guidance on the use of social media for investor relations. The guidance came in a report on its investigation to determine whether Netflix CEO Reed Hasting had violated Reg FD. In a Facebook status update on his personal account, Hastings…

The Guidance Effect, Re-visited

By Maureen Wolff, President and Partner Three years ago, on the heels of the greatest collapse U.S. financial markets have experienced in decades, in conjunction with IntelliBusiness/eventVestor, we published a study, “The Guidance Effect: Improving Valuation” (PDF 570 KB), that evaluated the impact of increased transparency on equity valuation during the turbulent first quarter of…

Confronting the Quarterly Quiet Period Dilemma

By Jim Buckley One of the investor relations issues that companies often struggle with is the “quiet period.” Here I’m not talking about the SEC mandated quiet period related to IPOs, other public offerings or around the release of lock-up agreements.  Those all have defined legal parameters and lines drawn around what companies can and…

Investor Relations for the New CFO – Six Steps for IR Success

By David Calusdian, Executive Vice President & Partner *Originally appeared on Samuel’s CFO Blog. Samuel Dergel is Director and Search Consultant at Stanton Chase International. Mr. Dergel specializes in Executive Search for Chief Financial Officers. As the new CFO of a publicly held company, somewhere on your extensive “to do” list is implementing an effective…

IRO-zilla and the Earnings Call

There is a popular cable network TV show called Bridezillas that often depicts women planning their wedding day as high-strung, unreasonable and at times displaying jaw-dropping outrageous behavior.  Of course, this makes for great reality TV, but at times I find myself sympathizing with these women.  After all, it will be the biggest day of…