President Trump says public companies should no longer report quarterly results

President Donald Trump said companies should only need to report results twice a year. And he’s not the first to suggest scrapping the quarterly report. Its list of critics also includes influential investor Warren Buffet and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

American investors have come to expect and rely on frequent disclosures from public companies, above and beyond what’s required by the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Caleb Silver with Investopedia. 

“We want to be able to open up the hood and look at performance across divisions,” said Silver. “We want to hear from management on the progress and new products. We want to hear about challenges.”

And Silver said results calls give investors and the public a quarterly window into things like wholesale prices, what businesses are investing in, and how consumers are feeling and spending. 

“Not just inside the company, inside the sectors that they’re working in and across the broader economy,” he said.

Silver said getting updates half as often could cloud that view. 

But it could also reduce pressure on companies to meet short-term investor expectations, according to Mohan Venkatachalam at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. 

“It may be good for the long run of the firm because maybe it will boost innovation, it will boost long term thinking,” he said.

Which could help companies and the economy grow. If the SEC scales back requirements, Venkatachalam said we’ll find out if that growth is worth the loss of transparency.