full text:
GE, Coach, Limited Brands and Applebee's International were among the top US companies celebrating their wins at the annual IR Magazine US Awards held on March 30 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City. CNBC anchors Becky Quick and Carl Quintanilla hosted the black-tie event.
Over 2,900 sell-side analysts, buy-side analysts, portfolio managers and retail investors in North America voted for the top corporate communicators. Investors voted GE, Coach, Limited Brands and Applebee's International as best in the grand prix for best overall investor relations in the following respective categories: mega-cap, large cap, mid-cap and small cap. Cisco Systems' John Chambers won in the best investor relations by a chairman or CEO category. The best investor relations office categories according to market size went to Coach's Andrea Shaw Resnick in the large to mega-cap category, Limited Brands' Tom Katzenmeyer & Amie Preston won in the mid to large-cap cateory while Applebee's International's Carol DiRamio won in the small to mid-cap category. A full list of the winning and short-listed companies is attached.
The IR Magazine US Awards is in its 12th year and attracts close to 1,000 investor relations professionals, CEOs, CFOs and service providers annually.
Research was based on a large and comprehensive sample provided by our research partners Thomson Financial, iDeal, Barron's and BetterInvesting. The buy side is represented by 6,506 institutions in the sample provided by Thomson Financial and iDeal, 459 investment banks represent the sell side. When combined with the retail sample from Barron's Online, invitations to participate in this survey were sent to 35,337 individuals involved with investment decisions. BetterInvesting separately sent 40,000 email invitations to its members asking them to participate in this survey as well as posting a link on its website to the survey.
Respondents were also surveyed on specific issues in investor relations such as whether investor relations professionals were providing the information needed to make informed investment decisions. Sell-side respondents still flagged up that after downgrading a stock they felt shut out from a company's communication efforts with 52 percent agreeing.
Hedge funds were also seen as a potential trouble spot - particularly by retail investors, of whom 69 percent believed hedge funds could threaten market stability. Hedge funds were less of a concern for the sell side, with only 33 percent saying they could affect market stability. The buy side (which included hedge funds) was slightly more concerned, with 44 percent agreeing they could have an impact.
However, despite concern there was little enthusiasm for further regulations. In 2006 41 percent of buy-side respondents felt there should be regulation of hedge funds - a figure that has decreased to 27 percent, while only 19 percent of sell-side respondents thought there should be any regulations compared with 24 percent in 2006.
The awards are sponsored by Barron's, BetterInvesting, Business Wire, Deutsche Bank, Edelman, GE, Georgeson, Innisfree, Institutional Investor, InterCall, Ipreo, JP Morgan, MacKenzie, MarketWire, Mellon, Merrill Corporation, NASDAQ, NYSE Group, Precision IR, PR Newswire, Shareholder.com, SNL IR Solutions, Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Thomson, VDM Specialists and Verizon.
1. Cross Border Ltd (formerly Cross-Border Publishing) was founded in the UK in 1993 and is the publisher in New York and London of IR magazine, the only global publication focused on the interface between companies and their investors. IR magazine hosts annual awards ceremonies in the US, the UK, continental Europe, India, Canada, the Nordic region, Asia, Brazil and Ireland with a combined annual attendance of around 8,000 investor relations professionals. Cross Border also publishes Corporate Secretary in North America and CorpComms in the UK. www.thecrossbordergroup.com
2. The IR Magazine US Awards are the latest in the ongoing annual series of surveys and awards conducted around the world by Cross Border. Winners of the investor relations awards are selected through independent surveys of investment professionals and retail investors. These investor perception studies together make up the world's largest survey of its kind, canvassing over 8,000 portfolio managers, buy-side and sell-side analysts and retail investors in more than 14 countries or regions. Survey respondents nominate companies in specific categories as well as offer their opinions on specific IR-related topics and trends.
IR Magazine US Awards 2007 Winners and short-listed companies Best annual report - large to mega-cap Winner - Berkshire Hathaway Aflac Incorporated GE Best annual report - mid to large cap Winner - Expeditors International of Washington Darden Restaurants L-3 Communications, Inc Limited Brands Whole Foods Market Best annual report - small to mid-cap Winner - RPM International Inc Baldor Electric Company Copart Fastenal Company Best communications with the retail market Winner - Aflac Incorporated Berkshire Hathaway GE Microsoft Corporation Best corporate advertising Winner - United Technologies Aflac Incorporated Allstate Insurance Company GE Best corporate governance Winner - GE Cisco Systems Microsoft Corporation PepsiCo The Procter & Gamble Company Best crisis communications - large to mega-cap Winner - Pfizer Inc Boeing DuPont Merck & Co, Inc Best disclosure policy Winner - The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc Cisco Systems TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation Time Warner Inc Best investor relations by a chairman or CEO Winner - Cisco Systems, John Chambers Winner - The Procter & Gamble Company, AG Lafley PepsiCo - Indra Nooyi Best investor relations by a European company in the US market Winner - Nokia F Hoffmann-La Roche Novartis Corporation SAP Best investor relations by an Asia-Pacific company in the US market Winner - Toyota Motor Honda Motor Co, Ltd Infosys Technologies Ltd Nidec Corporation Sony Corporation StarHub Best investor relations for an IPO Winner - Western Union Chipotle Mexican Grill J Crew Group Best investor relations officer - large to mega-cap Winner - Coach, Inc, Andrea Shaw Resnick Cisco Systems, Blair Christie Yum! Brands, Timothy Jerzyk Best investor relations officer - mid to large cap Winner - Limited Brands, Tom Katzenmeyer & Amie Preston Cincinnati Financial Corporation, Heather Wietzel E*TRADE Financial, Adam Townsend Humana Inc, Regina Nethery Intuit Inc, Robert Lawson Southwestern Energy Company, Brad Sylvester Best investor relations officer - small to mid-cap Winner - Applebee's International, Carol DiRaimo Citrix Systems, Inc, Jeff Lilly Harsco Corporation, Eugene Truett Lyondell Chemical Company, Doug Pike Best investor relations web site - mid to large cap Winner - General Motors Corporation Goodrich Corporation Limited Brands Southwestern Energy Company Best M&A investor relations Winner - Hewlett Packard/Mercury Interactive Abbott/Kos Pharmaceuticals Best senior management communications Winner - Cisco Systems Intuit Inc Lam Research Corporation Varian Semiconductor Equipment Best use of conferencing - small to large cap Winner - Zions Bancorporation Celanese Corporation Humana Inc Lyondell Chemical Company NCI Building Systems Best use of technology Winner - GE Cisco Systems Microsoft Corporation Most improved investor relations Winner - DuPont Circuit City Stores, Inc GE Genworth Financial Oracle Corporation Lifetime achievement DeWitt Morrill Grand prix for best overall investor relations - mega-cap Winner - GE AT&T Inc Cisco Systems Microsoft Corporation The Walt Disney Company. Grand prix for best overall investor relations - large cap Winner - Coach, Inc Praxair The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc Yum! Brands Grand prix for best overall investor relations - mid-cap Winner - Limited Brands Harsco Corporation Lyondell Chemical Company Grand prix for best overall investor relations - small cap Winner - Applebee's International Celanese Corporation Kyphon Inc The South Financial Group
Source: IR Magazine
Website: http://www.irmagazineus.com/
Share this content via:HTML: for your myspace, blog, or web site
' />
BB: for your bulletin boards or forums
URL: for your Email, IM, or link to this page