Trump says the US should do away with quarterly earnings reports

Key Points

• President Donald Trump advocates for eliminating the requirement for companies to issue quarterly earnings reports in favor of a six-month reporting period.
• Supporters argue that quarterly reporting is too costly and pressures executives to focus on short-term targets instead of long-term growth.
• The Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) plans to petition the SEC to change the reporting requirements, allowing companies the option to file earnings results semi-annually.
• Opponents of the change believe that quarterly reports provide essential updates for investors, helping them assess the financial health and risks of companies.

President Donald Trump wants to do away with the quarterly earnings report.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said securities regulators should stop requiring companies to issue financial reports every three months and instead switch to a six-month reporting period. The Securities and Exchange Commission has required publicly traded companies to report on a quarterly basis since 1970.

“This will save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies,” Trump wrote.

Trump asked the SEC to examine the three- versus six-month reporting requirement during his first term. No change was made.

Supporters of the change say quarterly reporting is too costly and time-consuming and discourages companies from wanting to go public. They also say company executives focus too much on hitting quarterly earnings targets and not enough on long-term planning.

The Long-Term Stock Exchange has also been calling for a shift in how often companies are required to report financial results. The LTSE, a stock marketplace that advocates for companies to focus on long-term goals and performance, said earlier this month it will file a petition to the SEC to require companies to report earnings results semi-annually, with the option to file quarterly.

“This petition takes a critical step toward enabling genuinely long-term companies to focus on sustainable growth rather than quarterly noise," said Maliz Beams, LTSE's CEO, in a statement about the planned petition.

Those who favor quarterly earnings say the reports provide investors with valuable financial updates and make them aware of any new risks a company is facing.

A report in 2024 from David S. Koo, an assistant professor of accounting at the Donald G. Costello College of Business at George Mason University, said that more frequent reporting often provides more context and perspective for investors who need to gauge a company's health and prospects.

Koo also said that was the original rationale for the SEC's policy shift in 1970 that required companies to disclose their financial results on a quarterly basis, rather than on a semi-annual basis. It stemmed from a booming post-World War II economy that then ran into a recession. Companies that were thriving during that expansion were then able to hide their shrinking profits during the downturn, which hurt investors.

“The purpose of quarterly reporting was to reduce that information asymmetry,” Koo said.