Fair Disclosure Earnings Call Transcripts
Under the “Fair Disclosure” rules issued by the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission), US public companies hold a public earnings conference call following the release of quarterly earnings. These calls are also held in conjunction with major announcements such as earnings shortfalls or M&A activity. Typically, the CEO and CFO discuss the previous quarter’s performance followed by a Q&A session with the analyst community. While the first half of the call is heavily scripted, the Q&A session is more free wheeling and addresses specific concerns of the analysts.
Regulation FD was designed to improve financial transparency and prevent analysts from having access to material information not disseminated to the broader public.
Generally, a press release pre-announces the conference time several days before the call. You can check on corporate event schedules via the Company Events page of Yahoo! Finance, the Events section of Google Finance, or the company’s Investor Relations page.
Calls are available via a phone bridge or streamed audio. If streamed, the audio is usually archived and made available following the call. According to the National Investor Relations Institute, virtually all calls are streamed over the web.
Several transcription services provide draft transcripts soon after the call followed by an editorially reviewed final transcript. Seeking Alpha provides transcripts for major public companies. A broader set of final transcripts is available from Thomson’s FD (Fair Disclosure) Wire and can be found in business information services such as OneSource. The FD (Fair Disclosure) Wire also provides transcripts from analyst presentations at analyst (brokerage) conferences.
FD (Fair Disclosure) Wire Transcripts from November 12, 2008
Tags: Conference Calls, Fair Disclosure, Reg FD, Transcripts
January 15th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
As an analyst or a stakeholder of a company, the information found in the earnings calls is invaluable. I’ve used this feature a few times to stay abreast on companies that I am following, and reading the news come straight from the CEO’s mouth seems all the more important in todays economy.
January 15th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Reading through transcripts can be a bit tedious (although perhaps necessary if you a doing rich research on a company). Having the ability to search earnings call transcripts for specific topics can help find companies engaged in activities of interest.