| Analyst coverage |
the more analysts covering your share the better; |
| Attendance at AGM |
this is a good indicator of interest as attendance is entirely voluntary; |
| Communications turn-around time |
all investor queries submitted to you through your IR website should be responded to within 24 hours and monitored actively; |
| Equality of access to information |
inefficient stock exchange information dissemination and rent seeking means information is not being made available equally to all investors. Are you using this to improve your corporate governance and reputation? |
| Engage data vendors |
do you engage those persons that do use your data to rent seek? They are charging for information to which they add value (we assume) so why not leverage their community too? Ensure the information they have is up to date and complete and accurate; |
| Evolve website data |
monitor website data, usage and statistics. Drop unpopular data and functionality if it’s not used. Try something else. Software like Investorpass provides excellent analytics on website traffic; |
| Increase in investor contacts |
the consolidation of all business cards in addition to the contacts opt-ins on your IR website form a measurable accessible database of investor contacts; |
| Inclusion and prominence in round-up reports |
tracking instances of the media mentioning your company online provides an indication of your company’s market influence; |
| Interaction with top shareholders |
the ability and frequency of direct communication with your top shareholders and their feedback is an important measure of meaningful communication; |
| Increasing financial community visibility |
the more information made available and the greater your outreach the greater the coverage by the financial community. The information on your website (downloadable excel files etc) completes the work of analysts for them; |
| Key governance indicators |
have you considered the positive effects of communicating the following key governance data on your IR website:-
- Explicit statement of conformance or non-conformance with stated corporate governance principles
- Share trading by directors
- Indirect, direct and beneficial and non-beneficial ownership of shares held by directors
- The adoption of specific communications policies: disclosure policy and insider trading policy
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| Listed subsidiary of a listed holding company? |
if you are a listed subsidiary of a listed holding company, have you considered why you have little or no IR resources to treat your investment community with the same level of respect as your listed holding company’s investment community? |
| Media and industry coverage |
do you engage and communicate directly with the media and industry media houses e.g. online journals and trade magazines. Do you include them on email distribution lists and solicit interaction? |
| Number and quality of analyst recommendations |
promote the distribution of analyst research on your website with appropriate disclaimers. Consider issuer paid research; |
| Net new investors |
growth and diversity in your shareholder base may also be a positive indicator of outreach; |
| Potential investors |
your executives meet potential investors all of the time. Are you collecting their business cards, communicating with them and most importantly, are they meet buying your shares? |
| Peer websites |
an internationally accepted basis for the appraisal of investor relations websites may be used to benchmark your website to that of your peers; |
| Perception surveys |
software modules are able to implement perceptions surveys at any time. Consider the use of the independent firms to do this; |
| P/E or other EV multiple vs. peers |
empirical evidence strongly supports higher levels of valuation resulting from better corporate governance and communications; |
| Quality of buy-side and sell-side research |
engage analysts if their research is inappropriate. Do your directors and senior management actively accumulate and consider research issued by investment analysts? |
| Retail investor care |
what efforts do you make to cater for the information needs of your retail investors? Have you considered that they are a captive audience with an explicit interest in your company? |
| Ratio of website registrants to shareholders |
may provide a benchmark of the extent to which IR efforts are crystallised into direct contacts; |
| Ratio of website registrants opting to receive communications direct from the company |
may provide an enhanced benchmark of the extent to which IR efforts have succeeded in creating a secure two way communications channel with investors; |
| Reduction in shareholder turnover |
may be an indication of shareholder loyalty; |
| Relative investment market positioning vs. its peer group |
IR is more about getting optimal valuation for a given set of observable facts. Where does the valuation of your company rest with your peers compared to last year, and in the long run? |
| Repeat website visitors |
this is the real measure of your site's user base because a lot of visits are accidental; |
| Subscriptions - for email alerts and RSS |
when people subscribe, they're interested. Is your subscriptions alert list growing? If not are you advertising your website appropriately and widely enough? |
| Traffic to IR section of website |
suitable indicators of quality interest in your company may be provided by number of page views; time on site, number of unique visitors, geographic spread of visitors and the number of repeat visitors; |