Lowest Number of S&P 500 Companies Citing “ESG” on Earnings Calls Since Q2 2019

During each corporate earnings season, companies often comment on their ongoing corporate goals and initiatives. Thus, did companies in the S&P 500 comment on environmental, social, and governance factors during their earnings conference calls for the fourth quarter?

FactSet Document Search (which allows users to search for key words or phrases across multiple document types) was used to answer this question. Through Document Search, FactSet searched for the term “ESG” in the conference call transcripts of all the S&P 500 companies that conducted earnings conference calls from December 15 through March 7.

Of these companies, 29 cited the term “ESG” during their earnings calls for the fourth quarter. This number is below the 5-year average of 82 and below the 10-year average of 43.

In fact, this is the lowest number of S&P 500 companies citing “ESG” on earnings calls going back to Q2 2019 (22). Since peaking at 155 in Q4 2021, the number of S&P 500 companies citing “ESG” on quarterly earnings calls has declined (quarter-over-quarter) in nine of the past ten quarters.

At the sector level, the Financials (6), Utilities (5), and Health Care (4) sectors have the highest number of S&P 500 companies citing “ESG” on earnings calls for Q4. On the other hand, the Utilities (17%) and Energy (15%) sectors have the highest percentages of S&P 500 companies citing “ESG” on earnings calls for Q4.

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