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.”
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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