Further to our prior report: "Investors Weigh in on Companies' COVID-19 Priorities" addressing Boston Consulting Group's April 17 - 19 investor survey, BCG's fourth pulse survey on COVID-19 matters conducted May 1 - 3 reveals investors overwhelmingly (95%) wanting companies to prioritize building their key business capabilities to create advantage, drive future growth, and be better positioned to bounce back, even if it means lowering EPS guidance or delivering below-consensus estimates (pages 9, 20):
Notably, following prioritization of key business capabilities, two previously unasked questions garnered the most significant support from investors: 85% affirmed that they understand why companies have withdrawn their 2020 earnings guidance given COVID-19's impact on corporate visibility, and 83% say that companies that decided to withdraw their earnings guidance for 2020 should provide additional temporary disclosures about business conditions until their guidance is reinstated.
As has been the case in prior BCG pulse surveys in this series, the 150 respondents represented investment firm portfolio managers and senior analysts directly responsible for making buy, sell, and hold decisions with more than $4 trillion AUM covering a range of investing approaches including deep value, income, growth at a reasonable price, and core growth; they also include some quantitative, technical, and special situation investors. Across all four surveys in the series to date, there is an approximate 70% overlap in respondents.
BCG's previous investor pulse checks are here: Pulse Check #1 (March 20 - 22); Pulse Check #2 (April 3 - 5); Pulse Check #3 (April 17 - 19). This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!