In today’s increasingly fragmented and complex global markets, IROs can find it challenging just to stay on top of activity in their stock. The growth of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), passive investing, cross-border investing and high-frequency trading (HFT), combined with greater volatility, have made it increasingly difficult to track and monitor ownership. But the demands of the job are as urgent as ever: to monitor risks, uncover opportunities and effectively leverage that most precious commodity – the IROs’ own time and that of their executives with current and potential investors.
To meet these challenges, IROs need to think beyond traditional ownership identification when executing their IR program. Instead of relying on backward-looking reports that may tell an IRO what happened but not why, and separate target lists that are little better than a shot in the dark, today’s tools and technologies add a powerful resource to the IR team. This virtual team member of sorts harnesses deep market intelligence, powered by big data analytics, and informed by experienced market professionals to marry identification, targeting and analysis into an integrated seamless whole.
The following three capabilities offer insight into how to improve your IR program in order to navigate today’s complex landscape.
When dealing with ownership data and research, the IRO craves context. The ability to actually see ownership changes and trends within a meaningful landscape, whether looking at one’s most immediate peer group, macro-sector peers or the broader market, is critical to understanding whether buying and selling activity is stock-specific or part of a broader trend.
Context is multi-layered; it’s not enough to know where the stock is owned. With the proliferation of mutual funds and ETFs and the arrival of fund supermarkets, it’s more important to look below the company level to individual funds, and identify the relevant decision makers. Here are five questions to consider:
- What is the manager’s investment mandate?
- Is the firm growth or value-oriented, a passive or active investor?
- Who are the key decision makers at the firm and what are the most important factors driving their investment decision-making process?
- Is there a particular aspect of a company’s fundamental profile that the investor is currently pursuing or, for that matter, not attracted to?
- Is there a geographic or sector focus that may limit a company’s appeal for investment consideration or does the portfolio manager take a generalist approach?
IROs have increasingly come to recognize the crossover between ownership analysis and targeting. Building an effective and productive IR targeting program extends beyond identifying key prospects, whether current shareholders or potential new ones. Understanding a manager’s investment mandate is important in knowing what drives the investment decision-making process. IROs can see where individual preferences lie across company fundamentals by mapping actual investment behavior and isolating the key factors that have been most important to that manager.
Join Nasdaq Corporate Solutions and IR Magazine on Thursday, November 3, 2016 at 11:00am EST as we explore new and innovative approaches to navigate today’s ownership landscape and learn how to use ownership data to support and drive all areas of IR activity.
Sign up for the webinar here.
The IRO today needs powerful tools to navigate the current complex ownership environment. In order to provide IROs with the critical information, they need an easy-to-use platform that fits naturally into the IR workflow to help save time and increase efficiency. It is important to have the capability to access the platform wherever the job takes them – on a desktop or laptop at the office, on a table or phone when on the road. While traveling, busy IROs can check the notes of previous meetings with a portfolio manager as they step between appointments or record a ‘quick call’ note and add a tag to capture a brief phone call or hallway conversation at a conference.
Download our new guide, “Next-Generation Ownership: Beyond Shareholder Identification to Insight and Actionable Intelligence” to learn about how IROs think beyond traditional ways to identify their shareholders in order to stay abreast of activity in their company's stock.
is a Marketing Associate supporting Nasdaq Corporate Solutions. She recently graduated from The George Washington University receiving her B.B.A in Marketing. Allison started in Nasdaq’s Global Internship Program and then as a consultant through April 2016. She will be bringing her expertise in social media marketing and event planning to partner with the entire Corporate Solutions team in the development and execution of our social and event marketing initiatives.
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