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| Are Conference Calls W/ Analysts Unfair? |
Question:
Are conference calls between corporate
officials and industry analysts fair
to the individual investor?
It hardly seems so. After all,
presumably the news that is disseminated
is useful (or all these highly paid
people would not be spending their
time doing it) yet there is a built-
in and significant delay before it
reaches the *rest of us*.
Any comments?
The two main solutions I can think
of are: 1. prohibit such
conference
calls (OK, I know .) 2. require
that these calls be publicized ahead
of time (say,
48 hours), and that the phone number
be provided so
that anyone wishing to could phone
and listen in.
Any comments out there?
Answer:
How about you just picking up the
phone and calling headquarters of
the company you are interested in,
asking for the treasurers office,
and ask the questions of your choice.
If you read analysts reports,
you might get a better idea of the
questions to ask. Just tell
them you are an actual or potential
investor. They will be very
interested in talking with you. In
moderate size companies, you may actually
be talking with the treasurer.
Next, what is the problem with the
analysts on calls with executives.
How about reading the recommendations
of the analysts and their reports
on the company? Have your broker
call you (if you have a full-service
broker) when any brokerage house upgrades
status of stocks of interest to you.
Then choose to invest or not.
| Are conference
calls between corporate
officials and industry | analysts
fair to the individual investor?
| It hardly seems so. After
all, presumably the news that is |
disseminated is useful (or all these
highly paid people would | not be
spending their time doing it) yet
there is a built- | in and significant
delay before it reaches the *rest
of us*.
Not necessarily fair, but certainly
efficient! While we're at it, I think
I'd like to attend the President's
next press (only) conference.
| The two main solutions I can think
of are: <snipped the first one-
| 2. require that these
calls be publicized ahead of time
| (say, 48 hours),
and that the phone number be provided
| so that anyone
wishing to could phone and listen
in.
Seriously? Would you invest in a company
which regularly footed the bill for
a 20 million party conference call?
If so, I plan on putting my order
for a block of T shares in today (AT&T
is the largest provider of such conference
call services.)
But to play devil's advocate, I'll
assume that you realize the analyst
conference calls are interactive (they
like to ask questions), and that John-Q
investor would not need to ask real-time
questions. In that case, it would
seem appropriate to disclose an 800
number for conference call rebroadcasts.
Indeed, many Fortune 500 companies
already provide such a service; call
their IR departments to find out.
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