Investors need accurate and timely information to make the right decisions. Earlier news reports and research reports were a key source of financial information. Today, you have one more option. You can use conference calls to get business information.

Conference calls are held four times a year by most public companies. They are usually held between two and five weeks after a quarter is completed, and are especially useful for investors and financial analysts who can hear first hand what the management of a company has to say about the quarterly results.

These calls, also known as earnings calls, analyst calls or earnings conference calls, are offered as audio streams for some days after the actual call. Initially, these calls were made available only to institutional investors and Wall Street analysts.  Now they are increasingly being made available to individual investors through the Internet.

Usually these calls follow the same structure, with the operator or host introducing the management team at the beginning. Then the legal counsel of the company reads out the usual legal disclaimers. After this, the management welcomes everybody and the chief operating officer or the chief executive officer speaks about the performance and future prospects of the company.

The raw financial data including the reported earnings and revenues are presented after this, followed by the projected earnings and revenues. A lot of the information provided by the COO or the CEO in the initial parts of the report may be found in the press releases.

But more important is the way the conference call is handled.  Experts say that you can learn a lot about the future of the company from the tone and the manner in which the message is delivered.

After the management has presented its report, the audience is invited to ask questions. Individual investors may not get a chance to ask questions, but most people get the information they are looking for by listening to the answers to the questions asked by analysts.

The management has no time to prepare for the questions and you can make out if it is under pressure. You will gain experience as you listen to more conference calls and will learn to judge if a management is strong or bluffing.

Most companies post their conference call schedules on their websites. This information is also available on stock research websites. Besides this, you can go through the archives of the conferences of previous years too.

Related posts:

1. Recording conference calls
2. How to get the most out of your conference calls
3. How conference calls can improve office work
4. How to handle a conference call
5. How to ensure conference call security

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