Financial analysts' information discovery: A study of manager-analyst interactions in conference calls

Abstract

This paper analyzes analysts' questions in conference calls to make inferences about how analysts acquire information. Using two complementary techniques, I develop several measures of the specificity of analysts' questions. I predict and find that analysts ask more specific questions if they enter the call with poor information. The firm's information environment improves after a call in which most analysts ask specific questions. Additional analyses show that managers respond defensively to specific questions and attempt to deemphasize these questions by putting them later in the calls. Furthermore, investors react negatively to calls in which most questions are specific. Overall, this study provides insights into the roles of conference calls in analysts' processes and offers a method to analyze interactions between managers and analysts.