What Do Investors Ask Managers Privately?

Abstract

Managers extensively interact with investors in private. While recent research finds that investors benefit from these offline interactions, little is known about what information is sought during these events. Using field data of over 1,200 questions asked during private meetings, we characterize the information sought by investors. We show that investors seek to acquire more timely information, more depth and clarity of public news, and feedback on their investment theses. Numerous questions seek information that—if provided by managers—potentially violates Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg FD). We find that some types of questions asked during meetings are associated with the likelihood of trading and that questions posed privately to managers tend to be more negative in tone than those asked publicly during conference calls. Overall, our investigation illuminates the contents of offline managerial interactions by investigating the information that investors privately seek.