INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon are doubling down on their plea for corporations to stop providing quarterly earnings guidance.
Buffett, who
In the latest appeal, they said companies often hesitate to spend on technology, hiring, and research and development to meet quarterly
earnings forecasts that can be affected by seasonal factors beyond their control.
Dimon has blasted excessive reporting requirements and the
short-term focus of quarterly earnings
companies have an incentive to fudge numbers
Buffett has echoed the idea that guidance can lead to corporate misbehavior.
Discouraged ListingsIn the op-ed, Dimon and Buffett said the
pressure to meet short-term earnings estimates has contributed to a drop in the number of public companies in the US in the past two decades
Fink urged companies in 2016 to refrain from short-term earnings forecasts in a letter and report with other financial industry executives
can lead management teams to under-invest in the future and can crimp earnings growth, according to a 2017 FCLTGlobal report
Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, is a member of the Boston-based non-profit group.
The report found fewer than a third of SP 500
companies still issued quarterly guidance in 2016, down from 36 per cent in 2010
About 31 per cent gave annual earnings-per-share guidance
Companies including Unilever NV, Facebook Inc., GlaxoSmithKline Plc and BP Plc have scrapped the practice in favor of multiyear outlooks,
