ALC - Q4

In our increasingly interconnected world, globalization has altered the dynamics of nearly every industry, including the financial markets. The borders that once constrained investment opportunities are dissolving, ushering in a dynamic, global economy. However, venturing into targeting international investors requires that investor relations professionals be able to cater to unique investor behaviors and circumstances in different regions.

May 19, 2022, was Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), an important day in recognizing the daily digital and technological challenges that people living with disabilities encounter. You might be surprised to hear that one billion people globally and 20-25% of the US population are impacted by accessibility challenges. The webinar, Digital Accessibility in IR: Mitigate Legal Risk with a Proactive Accessibility Partnership, featured Ian Lowe, eSSENTIAL Accessibility Chief Marketing Officer; Alex Wentzell, Q4 Product Marketing Manager; Al Romano, Q4 Web Development Manager; and Jay Vaidya, Q4 Solutions Consultant.

Pre-Earnings prep presents an opportunity to tell your company’s investment story, create interest, and influence your shareholder base. We recently hosted a webinar to ensure you’re prepared to maximize your earnings impact and minimize stress. The webinar, Taking the Stress Out of Pre-Earnings Prep, featured Mike Coffey, VP of Global Partnership & Alliances at Q4, John Nunziati, Investor Relations Partner at Q4, and Farah Soi, Partner at ICR. Among the topics discussed, the panel’s top priority was to offer best practices for building trust and confidence across the investment community with an elevated pre-earnings experience. 

The shift to a more virtual world has had a residual impact on events in the investor relations community, especially events that once thrived on in-person attendance – like investor days. To discuss how events have transformed over the past few years, how to choose the right virtual events partner, and how to folow investor day best practices, Q4 partnered with Arbor Advisory and The Buddy Group for a webinar titled, How to Wow the Crowd: Investor Day Best Practices for IROs. 

The first quarter of 2022 saw 73 new activist investor campaigns launched, marking the busiest three-month period on record, according to data from Lazard. The US accounted for most of the campaigns, although Europe saw activity jump by 50 percent compared with the SAE quarter last year. 

The time has come not only to reflect on the last year but begin planning your investor relations program for the coming year. Mike Coffey, VP and Head of Global Partnerships & Alliances, sat down with a few industry leaders to discuss the dos and don’ts of investor relations programming. This includes quarterly earnings calls, what investors and analysts look for in a business and a management team, and their predictions for the future of investor relations technology.

While the road to becoming a public company may appear to have long been standardized, new paths and new types of public companies are changing the landscape. Recent Direct Public Offerings (DPOs) have demonstrated that there are viable options for tapping directly into public markets – though these companies are often well-known and well-funded prior to going public.

As the IR community begins to focus on post-pandemic investor engagement, IROs are considering opportunities to have their companies participate in a variety of hybrid and potentially in-person events. Whether this is a sell-side sponsored conference, an investor NDR, or a company analyst/investor day, it provides an opportunity for interactions with investors who they are targeting and have identified as potentially being able to increase their existing share position or establish a new position.