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Which Potential Trump Policies Have the S&P 500 Talking in Q4?

Earnings

By John Butters  |  February 10, 2017

During each corporate earnings season, it is not unusual for companies to comment on subjects that had an impact on their earnings and revenues for a given quarter, or may have an impact on earnings and revenues for future quarters. Through this past Wednesday (February 8), 317 S&P 500 companies (or 63% of the index) have reported earnings results for the fourth quarter. Have companies in the S&P 500 been commenting on government policies that may change under the Trump administration during their earnings conference calls for the fourth quarter?

To answer this question, FactSet searched for the terms “Trump” and “administration” in the conference call transcripts of the 317 S&P 500 companies that have conducted fourth quarter earnings conference calls through February 8 to see how many companies discussed these terms. FactSet then looked to see if the company cited or discussed a policy topic in conjunction with the citation of “Trump” or “administration.” 

The Results

Of the 317 S&P 500 companies, 165 (or 52%) cited the term “Trump” or “administration” during their Q4 earnings calls. The term “administration” was only counted if it was used to reference the Trump administration. In terms of government policies in conjunction with the new administration, tax policy was cited or discussed by the highest number of S&P 500 companies at 85.

Please note that companies that cited or discussed a potential border tariff or tax were counted under “Trade Policy” and not “Tax Policy” in the chart above. Please also note the numbers above will not total 165, as a number of companies discussed multiples policy topics, while others did not discuss any specific policy topics.

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John Butters

Vice President, Senior Earnings Analyst

Mr. John Butters is Vice President and Senior Earnings Analyst at FactSet. His weekly research report, “Earnings Insight,” provides analysis and commentary on trends in corporate earnings data for the S&P 500 including revisions to estimates, year-over-year growth, performance relative to expectations, and valuations. He is a widely used source for the media and has appeared on CNBC, Fox Business News, and the Business News Network. In addition, he has been cited by numerous print and online publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Times, MarketWatch, and Yahoo! Finance. Mr. Butters has over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to FactSet in January 2011, he worked for more than 10 years at Thomson Reuters (Thomson Financial), most recently as Director of U.S. Earnings Research (2007-2010).

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