Forum Home Page [see Broadridge note below]

 The Shareholder ForumTM`

Fair Investor Access

This public program was initiated in collaboration with The Conference Board Task Force on Corporate/Investor Engagement and with Thomson Reuters support of communication technologies. The Forum is providing continuing reports of the issues that concern this program's participants, as summarized  in the January 5, 2015 Forum Report of Conclusions.

"Fair Access" Home Page

"Fair Access" Program Reference

 

Related Projects 2012-2019

For graphed analyses of company and related industry returns, see

Returns on Corporate Capital

See also analyses of

Shareholder Support Rankings
 
 
 

Forum distribution:

Corporate management observations of increased "retail" investor engagement

 

For a report of the strategic broker-media technology combination addressed in the commentary below, including a linked reference to TheCorporateCounsel.net's 2019 observations of these developments, see

 

Source: TheCorporateCounsel.net, August 19, 2021 commentary, with referenced April 23, 2021 commentary

August 19, 2021

Retail Investor Q&A: Coming Soon to an Earnings Call Near You?

Last week, Robinhood announced (on its company blog) that it agreed to buy Say Technologies – the platform that makes it easier for retail shareholders to vote proxies and to ask earnings call questions in real-time. We’ll be watching the potential voting impact of this as we head into the next proxy season. But for now, let’s talk about earnings calls.

Tesla helped pave the trail for Say when it started using the technology for its earnings calls a couple years ago. Back in 2019 – which feels like forever ago – I wrote that Say claimed that retail investors are more likely to ask about products and less likely to care about your detailed financial results – a more entertaining experience for everyone, although possibly less informative for analysts who are honing financial models.

At the time, it didn’t seem like many people would actually find entertainment value in earnings calls, but now it’s 2021 and that’s what’s happening. I blogged a few months ago that a number of companies were courting retail participation in quarterly calls. They’ve had some success! AMC’s latest call was held on Say and yielded 4600 retail questions.

Robinhood and Say both want to make it easier for retail investors to participate as owners. In 2023, will the CEOs of big, established companies be answering questions about their corporate mascots? If I’ve taken one lesson to heart over the past two years, it’s that anything is possible. If you’re looking at using Say, your product development (and mascot) folks might end up with a bigger role in preparing for your quarterly calls.

– Liz Dunshee

Posted by Liz Dunshee

Permalink: https://www.thecorporatecounsel.net/blog/2021/08/retail-investor-qa-coming-soon-to-an-earnings-call-near-you.html

 

[author's referenced prior observations]

April 23, 2021

The Returning Influence of Retail Investors: This Year’s “Sleeper Issue”?

The retail segment of shareholders had been holding steady around 30% the last couple of years, well below the 85% levels of the 1960s, before the dawn of huge asset managers. But now we’re in the age of stonks – and no-fee trading platforms. Although some are noticing that retail trading is slowing, there’s no denying that the number of retail accounts has swelled in the last year. Kris Veaco wrote me last week to say that it’s the fastest growing group of investors – some proxy intermediaries have noticed an uptick of 50% in email accounts compared to last year!

As I’ve noted a couple of times on our Proxy Season Blog, companies need to anticipate higher proxy distribution costs if they’ve seen a jump in retail holders. You may also need to brace yourselves for less predictable voting outcomes – especially with TD Ameritrade’s elimination of broker discretionary voting.

But there’s also an opportunity here – retail investors can be long-term, loyal supporters of management, and may also be enthusiastic participants in capital raises. This NYT article reports that some companies are rolling out the red carpet to welcome them – even changing the earnings release process to allow for more interaction with individuals. Here’s an excerpt (also see this Axios article):

After CarParts.com reported its quarterly results last month, executives at the company, which sells replacement auto parts, did what many of their ilk do: They held a conference call with Wall Street analysts, fielding questions about inventory levels, profit margins and corporate strategy.

Roughly 30 minutes later, the same executives were on Clubhouse, hosting an entirely different kind of audience. Their 2,000 or so guests had gathered at the buzzy online meeting spot to learn about the company. Their questions were far more straightforward. How did the business work? Why was CarParts.com able to offer lower prices than brick-and-mortar rivals? Were CarParts.com shares worth buying?

CarParts.com isn’t the only company to do this – Restaurant Brands International also invited “customers & guests” to discuss Q4 earnings with its leaders on Clubhouse, and other companies are using podcasts and YouTube to reach the retail audience. Tesla has also been using the interactive “Say” platform for earnings calls for a while now – I blogged a couple of years ago about the impact that was having on the Q&A portion of the call.

The thought of extra conversations with different groups of investors makes me a little skittish – but as long as execs comply with Reg FD, it seems like it’s probably fine to do. Please correct me if you disagree!

♦♦♦

– Liz Dunshee

Posted by Liz Dunshee

Permalink:  https://www.thecorporatecounsel.net/blog/2021/04/the-returning-influence-of-retail-investors-this-years-sleeper-issue.html

 

 

This Forum program was open, free of charge, to anyone concerned with investor interests in the development of marketplace standards for expanded access to information for securities valuation and shareholder voting decisions. As stated in the posted Conditions of Participation, the purpose of this public Forum's program was to provide decision-makers with access to information and a free exchange of views on the issues presented in the program's Forum Summary. Each participant was expected to make independent use of information obtained through the Forum, subject to the privacy rights of other participants.  It is a Forum rule that participants will not be identified or quoted without their explicit permission.

This Forum program was initiated in 2012 in collaboration with The Conference Board and with Thomson Reuters support of communication technologies to address issues and objectives defined by participants in the 2010 "E-Meetings" program relevant to broad public interests in marketplace practices. The website is being maintained to provide continuing reports of the issues addressed in the program, as summarized in the January 5, 2015 Forum Report of Conclusions.

Inquiries about this Forum program and requests to be included in its distribution list may be addressed to access@shareholderforum.com.

The information provided to Forum participants is intended for their private reference, and permission has not been granted for the republishing of any copyrighted material. The material presented on this web site is the responsibility of Gary Lutin, as chairman of the Shareholder Forum.

Shareholder Forum™ is a trademark owned by The Shareholder Forum, Inc., for the programs conducted since 1999 to support investor access to decision-making information. It should be noted that we have no responsibility for the services that Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., introduced for review in the Forum's 2010 "E-Meetings" program and has since been offering with the “Shareholder Forum” name, and we have asked Broadridge to use a different name that does not suggest our support or endorsement.