Covidien walked away with four prizes last night at the IR Magazine US Awards 2011, including the grand prix for best overall investor relations by a large-cap company.
The healthcare products supplier also picked up best IRO at a large cap for Cole Lannum, best earnings calls and best IR in the healthcare sector.
The night’s winners and nominees were selected by a detailed survey of more than 850 fund managers and research analysts, conducted by XbInsight, IR magazine’s research division.
‘The IRO at Covidien does a great job explaining details of the financials,’ comments one respondent to the survey.
Held in association with Bloomberg, the awards event took place at a packed Cipriani Wall Street in New York, where hundreds of members of the IR community gathered to celebrate best practice and enjoy a good night out.
Last year’s grand prix winner, JPMorgan, returned in 2011 to win three more awards, this time for best financial reporting, best IR in the financial sector and best crisis management, which it picked up for its handling of improper mortgage foreclosures.
‘It was forthright with the foreclosure problem, and it rode out the housing market problem successfully,’ says another survey respondent.
Despite its size and large resources, Apple hasn’t always been praised by the investment community for its investor communications. Indeed, only last month the technology giant had to fight off a resolution from shareholders at its annual meeting requesting more information on succession planning.
Despite these concerns, Apple performed well in XbInsight’s research this year and took home the prize last night for most progress in investor relations, seeing off competition from Google and Applied Materials.
Another tech company, Microsoft, claimed the award for best IR website, while FedEx’s IRO Mickey Foster was presented with the lifetime achievement award.
Click here to view the full list of winners.
