Researching Analysts for Financial Earnings Calls

During the question and answer portion of the financial earnings call several analysts will ask questions to the company representatives on the call. Identifying them can sometimes be quite the feat. However, if you're lucky, they'll be the analysts that usually handle reporting for that company, making them easy to locate.

The first place to check for analyst names would be Yahoo! Finance or the company website. If you look at the Yahoo! Finance page for Ford Motor Company (F) there is an Analyst Coverage section in the left column. Under "Star Analysts" you'll find a list of their top research analysts and other analysts. Hopefully the ones on your call can be found here.

If an analyst asks a question and is not on the analyst list on Yahoo! Finance sometimes the easiest thing to do is do a Google search. They should be introduced with their firm name, so searching the name of their firm and possible spellings of their first and last name can often lead to success. Other places to look include the previous quarter's financial earnings call transcript where the participant names should be listed at the top, the company's investor relations page on their website or possible online databases that the company you're transcribing for provided login information for. If you can't find the correct spelling of an analyst's name mark it as the company specifies and move on. You can always come back to look again if you have extra time after proofing, and sometimes you just won't be able to confirm the spelling of their name.