The format of its quarterly earnings conference call, and it’s a great idea — Tucows changes
Fresh investor call model ought to be emulated.
Publicly traded firms release their earnings once a quarter. They follow it up with an analyst and shareholder call that goes something like this:
The CEO talks regarding what happened during the quarter. Then she hands it off to the CFO, who recaps the essential numbers. Then the call is turned over to Q&A with financial analysts who cover the stock.
The Q&A part is rarely interesting. Since most firms release their earnings within a short window, the analysts are switching between multiple calls. It’s common to hear “I just got off another earnings call, so apologies if someone by now asked this, but…”
Their question is usually basic and yes, someone by now asked it.
The questions are rarely insightful since analysts have only just received the earnings data, and the answers are carefully worded to avoid screwing up.
In other words, these calls can be a big waste of time.
So I love what domain name firm Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX) decided to do starting with its Q2 results.
Instead of holding an earnings call, Tucows is publishing pre-recorded remarks from the CEO and CFO. Then it will open a seven-day question window for analysts and shareholders to submit questions. Management will publish answers in writing one week later.
I don’t think this will be any easier for Tucows. Analysts will have better questions and expect better answers than what they get on a conference call. But it will avoid the quarterly waste of time and be better for analysts, shareholders, and the media.
