Finance and Financial Data

Every quarter, a company's leadership holds an earnings call with investors and analysts to update them on the status of the company. These calls are closely scrutinized by financial professional and the business press for new insights. The transcript of these calls are broken out into the prepared remarks of C-suite leadership and analyst question. Students can use quarterly earnings call transcripts to:

• Glean the most current information and data about a company's revenue, strategic direction, etc directly from company leadership.
• See how the company is proactively/reactively positioning themselves ("optics" / "spin").
• Discover what issues analyst are probing via their questions to determine what those in industry think are key to understanding the performance of the company. (Keep in mind that some companies have a reputation for controlling what questions analysts can ask.)

To search for an individual company: 

In the search bar, search for a company by name or symbol, e.g., Apple or AAPL

1. In the left-hand panel, navigate to News, Events, & Filings -> Transcripts

To search across multiple companies:

1. Go to Research tab, navigate to Transcripts section

2. Apply your search criteria in the fields of Search Criteria, Time Frame and Keyword

To search for an individual company: 

1. In the search bar, search for a company by name or symbol, e.g., Apple or AAPL

2. Go to Event tab -> Corporate Events

3. In the Advance Events Search landing page, in the left-hand panel,

   1. within the dropdown menu of Event Type -> Earnings & Corporate -> Earnings Calls/Presentations, check Earnings Conference Call

   2. within the dropdown menu of Content Type, check Transcripts

4. Apply other criteria as you need and then search

To search across multiple companies:

1. Go Advance Events Search app by typing ADVDV

2. In the Advance Events Search landing page, in the left-hand panel,

   1. within the dropdown menu of Event Type -> Earnings & Corporate -> Earnings Calls/Presentations, check Earnings Conference Call

   2. within the dropdown menu of Content Type, check Transcripts

3. Apply other criteria as you need and then search

Directions:

1. Under "company", search for and add the company name using the blue up arrow.
2. Under "subject",  search for and add the "transcripts" using the blue up arrow.
3. Add the words "and earnings call".
   1. OR, under "source", search for and add "CQ FD Disclosure" or "Seeking Alpha" using the blue up arrow. (These are the two major earnings call transcript providers.)
4. Adjust the date range or sort by "most recent first" if necessary.
5. Example searches:
   1. fds=teslmi and ns=ntra and rst=fndw. This is a search for "Tesla" and "transcripts" and "CQ FD Disclosure".
   2. fds=teslmi and ns=ntra and earnings call. This is a search for "Tesla" and "transcripts" and the words "earnings call".

To Bulk download transcripts:

1. Go to All Data -> Compustat - Capital IQ -> Capital IQ, select Transcripts

2. Use the web query for bulk downloading transcripts. (How to Search: Ways to Use WRDS)