The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication: A Guide to Internal Communication, Public Relations, Marketing, and Leadership

Not All Investors Are Created Equal

Understanding the investment community—their investment criteria, communications needs, and so on—should be the cornerstone of an IR professional's activities.

Your financial audience will evaluate a number of factors that an IR practitioner cannot immediately change. For instance, they will consider what business you are in, as well as the company's income statement and balance sheet highlights, and its stock's trading characteristics, such as:

• Number of shares outstanding. Institutional investors generally look for more liquid investments so that their trading activity will not have as much impact on the stock price.
• The float, or number of shares that can be traded by the public (the number of shares outstanding ...