Yesterday, IR magazine posted “IR websites: overpriced and underused” which reports on a study that PRNewswire recently did about the use of IR website by (mostly) retail investors. The post focuses on the statement that “only 25% of investors use IR websites once a quarter”. Hence the ‘underused’ aspect of the title.
My issue with this point of view is that it doesn’t include the % of investors who use the IR website weekly, monthly or when they receive news about the company. If the question was asked “how many investors access the IR website at least once a quarter” the number (according to PRN) is 43.6%…and if you add “when I get news about the company” – which I think it’s fair to say is going to be at least quarterly, the number increases to 61.5%.
Here is screenshot from the actual study published by PR Newswire:
As you can see, the numbers are 7.1% ‘at least weekly’, 12% ‘at least monthly’, 24.5% ‘Once a quarter’ and 17.9% ‘When I receive news about the company.’ When we group these together (into a group I would call ‘regular users’) the number is 61.5%
The study also asked if the IR website was used during the investment research process. The result being a range of 45.6% to 62% of investors use the IR website during the research process. Again here’s the details from the study which breaks out the different percentages:
For more insight into the use of IR websites by investors, I like to point to the fine work done by Rivel Research (a leader in this space, who has been conducting these studies for many years). In November 2012 they polled 404 global buy-side investors asking them about their use of corporate websites. They found that 65% visit at least monthly. Here is a chart from that study:
Finally, regarding the importance of the IR website. Rivel also asked about how information is validated if there is a discrepancy between a corporate website and an external financial website. They found that 79% said the company website is the one they believe.
I hope this helps to clarify the critical role that company websites play in the market today. The vast majority of your investors are accessing them regularly and they are viewed as the authoritative source of information over general financial websites.