Time spent talking with Investor Relations team
How much time do you guys usually spend talking with the Investor relations team from the moment you start the analysis of a company until the final presentation for the PM (or for the initiation coverage report, for sell-side)?
I ask this because I normally set a 1 hour call, after a 1,5-2 week study of the company and its sector, and then depending on the answers I get, I call again to ask some follow up questions and some others more, generally related to the financial model.
I would say I spend 3hours talking with IR for each complete analysis, more or less. By the way, I am a 1st year buy side ER analyst and I am in the process of figuring out how to do a lot of things by my own, since my teammates are always very busy.
Sometimes I feel bad to call IR so many times because I am kind of afraid to be “that annoying analyst again...” for them. How should my mindset be on this?
Also, could you guys give me some tips on how to develop good relationships with the Investor Relations professionals? And how about making new contacts in an specific sector, like retired professionals and association managers, for example?
Thank you in advance!
On sell-side we talk to them probably 30 minutes per quarter outside of conferences or analyst days and maybe slightly more if news or we want to understand something. Initiating we had a couple 30 minute phone calls. I feel like this 3+ hrs seems on the high side as you should make sure before calling that you aren't asking them anything that can be looked up in a filing. Also be careful about talking to investor relations in general because while investor relations can be helpful in understading the company, they are also super biased and what they say should be scrutinized carefully..
Agree on frequency. Don’t feel bad about calling them though-answering you questions and making presentations is their whole job.
Not necessarily limited to IR, but treat them like they are a real person. Make some small talk at the beginning of the call. Ask about their kids, vacation, etc and get to know them. Found that when I do this, they're much more responsive, open to hopping on last minute calls, and some will even start reaching out proactively.
Agree with what's been said generally. I usually feel my time is best spent writing up what I know or can figure out (Sell-Side) and accumulating questions along the way that I can ask them, then when you have your 30min-1hr conversation you can be pretty direct and then have time to get to know them more on a personal level. I've done both buy-side and sell-side and buy-side we usually tried to converse with them infrequently (still first name basis) because we wanted them just to recognize us in case we took a bigger position. Sell-side, it's usually set up an initial 30 min call, write depending on how long it takes because of any number of things could be 2 months to 3 months. Set up a CFO/CEO call if you can get them along the way to talk modelling and business trends for writing, thats usually 1 hour and just try to include the IR people on the calls and maybe have a call with them 3/4 of the way through writing to have them answer any questions and maybe email them back and forth inbetween.
Don't worry about bothering them, it's in their best interest to make sure you understand/like the story.
Thank you guys for your comments and suggestions!
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