A lot of companies tend to overlook retail investors when planning their investor relations activities; however, many are taking a second look at this audience for a number of reasons. Chief among them is the fact that retail investors tend to be long-term holders and provide a measure of stability (research indicates that they tend to hold shares longer than their institutional investor counterparts). Efficiently reaching retail investors as well as measuring the effectiveness of a campaign to do so have always presented challenges.
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Much of what IROs and their outside advisors do takes place in the trenches
in the battle for investor attention. In addition to verbal jousting with inquisitive
analysts, we see investor issues firsthand and often serve as the first line
of defense for most companies. We believe that it is a good practice
to keep the company’s board of directors in the loop on the progress of the
investor relations program as well as draw their attention to critical issues
that may emerge. After all, they represent the public and should be good
stewards of the company’s resources and its corporate reputation.
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Corporate America may be breathing a sigh of relief at least for the moment
that is… As of now it looks highly unlikely that the SEC will vote to
adopt proxy access or SEC Rule 14a-11 in time for the 2010 proxy season.
If adopted this rule would enable stockholder groups, such as activist hedge
funds or institutional investors, to place director candidates on a company’s
proxy materials at the target company’s expense. This compares to the
current system under which dissonant groups foot the bill for proxy mailings
in their efforts to unseat a current board. The costs of such an undertaking
can sometimes deter an activist.
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