Financial reporting information is often described as the bedrock of decision-useful information available for investors, but this survey report expands on findings that investors depend on more than financial statements when evaluating companies.
Over the last few years, CFA Institute has elicited member/investor perspectives on different strands of information reported outside the primary financial statements. This survey’s objective is to build on these previous surveys by ascertaining investor perspectives on financial, operational, customer, and intellectual capital metrics that are important yet have minimal related reporting guidance.
The survey obtained user views on the high-level usage of a selection of broad sections within the narrative reporting or MD&A sections (i.e., supplemental, financial, operational, business model, customer, risk, governance, intellectual capital, and sustainability information). The survey also established usage of and perceptions on availability and quality of specific financial, operating, customer, and intellectual capital metrics. The specific metrics assessed were derived from several related publications and from earlier feedback obtained from CFA Institute members.
The survey was primarily targeted at buy-side portfolio managers and research analysts, sellside analysts, credit analysts, and corporate financial analysts. The survey had 305 initial respondents. Response rates to the detailed questions ranged from 154 to 250. See the Appendix for additional details of the survey.