President Donald Trump said Friday he favors getting rid of the quarterly earnings reports issued by public companies, saying they’re an impediment to growth.
Aug. 17 (UPI) — President Donald Trump said Friday he favors getting rid of the quarterly earnings reports issued four times per year by public companies, saying they’re an impediment to growth.
Some business leaders have argued the reports, mandated by law every 90 days, are inefficient and time-consuming and they rely on variables outside the company’s control.
Data in the “quarterly guidance system” become expectations of Wall Street analysts, and markets are set in motion by whether companies hit their stated targets. Reports at three-month intervals say little about whether a company is positioned for long-term growth, critics of the system add.
Trump called for a new system that instead reports earnings and forecasts at six-month intervals.
“In speaking with some of the world’s top business leaders I asked what it is that would make business (jobs) even better in the U. S.,” Trump tweeted Friday . “‘Stop quarterly reporting & go to a six month system, said one. That would allow greater flexibility & save money. I have asked the SEC to study!”
This summer, J. P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett were also critical of the reporting law.
“It can often put a company in a position where management from the CEO down feels obligated to deliver earnings and therefore may do things that they wouldn’t otherwise have done,” Dimon said. “Quarterly earnings: they’re a function of the weather, commodity prices, volumes, competitor pricing. And you don’t really control that as CEO. Sometimes you’re just like the cork in the ocean, but do the right thing anyway and you’re going to be fine in the long run.”
Buffett said companies compromise their long-term interests by continually trying to meet short-term goals.
“When companies get where they’re sort of living by so-called making the numbers, they do a lot of things that really are counter to the long-term interests of the business,” he said.
