Trump advocates end to quarterly earnings reports

President Donald Trump floated the idea Monday of companies no longer providing earnings report on a quarterly basis and switching to semiannual instead

President Donald Trump floated the idea Monday of companies no longer providing earnings report on a quarterly basis and switching to semiannual instead.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said the idea is “subject to SEC approval” and would “save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies.”

“Did you ever hear the statement that, ‘China has a 50 to 100 year view on management of a company, whereas we run our companies on a quarterly basis??? Not good!!!’” Trump said.

During his first term, Trump had asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to study the issue but no recommendations came of the matter.

The wisdom of quarterly reports has come under question before. In a 2018 op-ed piece for The Wall Street Journal, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon advocated doing away with quarterly guidance, though not earnings reports.