Aggregated data key to better engagement with investors, says Q4 boss

Looking at data from a more aggregated perspective can help IR professionals prioritize their programs and better engage with investors in the market, says Darrell Heaps, chief executive at Q4.

In his second IR TV interview, Heaps explains how benchmarking is the first example of Q4 being able to look at aggregated data and compare companies with their market cap and sector peers.

‘Benchmarking is the first release where we’re able to say: you as an issuer, how are you comparing with your peers in [your] sector? It’s the beginning of what we’re able to do with the data,’ he says.

‘We are able to look at it even more broadly from a very high level and slice and dice the data and run analytics against it.’

‘Relative performance’

Thinking about the benefits of peer comparisons for IR professionals, Heaps explains that it’s useful when looking at the ‘relative performance’ of a company.

Similar to the market, ‘if you are an individual stock, that stock may go up or down and have various levels of performance – that’s interesting, but it’s not nearly as useful as looking at the data relative to peers,’ he says.

‘If all peers in a particular sector have been hit and they’re all down, that’s very different from [a situation where] all peers are at a 52-week high and there’s one company that is very low. Then we know which company has a problem.’

Sharing some sneak peaks at what Q4 has in the pipeline for the remainder of the year, Heaps says the capital markets communications platform will continue to look at the data assets it has collected and work on more updates for its Engagement Analytics product.

‘The data asset we have built has a huge amount of potential and benchmarking is the first piece, as well as institutional targeting, which is exciting. But there are other features we are working on right now.’