Within all US sectors, there are outstanding IR practitioners – but over the years, healthcare seems to have produced more than its fair share. At the IR Magazine Awards – US over recent years, this sector has often taken home the big prizes.
For example, Covidien claimed the award for best overall IR (large cap) for five years in a row before being acquired by Medtronic. Wright Medical Group, meanwhile, extended its run of major awards to four in a row at this year’s US Awards. ViroPharma and HealthSouth are two other companies to receive best overall IR awards in the last six years.
So which companies are the best IR performers within this sector? Below we’ve pulled the top five companies from the healthcare sector in 2017 and included comments from investors and analysts who took part in the research.
The rankings are decided by an independent survey of investors and analysts. They are asked to name the best companies for IR across a range of categories, such as financial reporting, investor meetings and corporate governance. The scores from the individual categories are then added up to provide the rankings of the best overall performers.
Top five companies for IR in US healthcare sector
1. Danaher
‘It is both the frequency and the depth of information that make Danaher stand out. Also, senior management and the IR team make themselves available for one-on-ones’ – buy side
2. Medtronic
‘The supplementary slide decks Medtronic provides at earnings are extremely helpful, given the amount of information in the release’ – sell side
3. Wright Medical Group
‘As with all aspects of Wright Medical Group’s investor relations, the acquisition of Tornier was well explained in a timely manner’ – buy side
4. Boston Scientific
‘We have excellent communications with Boston Scientific: the company is open and transparent’ – sell side
=5. Pfizer
‘The chief financial officer at Pfizer is phenomenal’ – sell side
=5. UnitedHealth Group
‘UnitedHealth offers a thorough investor day where it really explains everything well and lays out the strategy by business sector. The firm also gives us earnings guidance expectations and it is responsive to calls any time we need to set up meetings’ – sell side
Click here to find out more about the IR Magazine Investor Perception Study – US 2017.
