Highest Number of S&P 500 Companies Citing “Ukraine” on Q1 Earnings Calls in Over 10 Years

Given the continuing military conflict in Ukraine, have S&P 500 companies commented on the situation in Ukraine on their earnings calls for the first quarter?

Searching for Mentions Across Conference Call Transcripts

FactSet Document Search (which allows users to search for key words or phrases across multiple document types) was used to answer this question. Through Document Search, FactSet searched for the term "Ukraine" in the conference call transcripts of all S&P 500 companies that conducted earnings conference calls from March 15 through May 27.

Of these 476 companies, 281 have cited the term "Ukraine" on their earnings calls for the first quarter, which is well above the five-year average of six. In fact, this is the highest number of S&P 500 companies citing "Ukraine" on earnings calls going back to at least 2010 (using current index constituents going back in time).

In addition, the first quarter also marked the highest percentage of S&P 500 companies citing "Ukraine" on quarterly earnings calls going back to at least 2010 at 59% (281 out of 476). By comparison, 85% of S&P 500 companies (406 out of 476) have cited "inflation" on earnings calls for Q1, while 74% of S&P 500 companies (352 out of 476) have cited "supply chain" on earnings calls for Q1.

Sector Impact

At the sector level, the Industrials (48), Information Technology (45), and Financials (43) sectors have the highest number of companies that cited "Ukraine" on earnings calls for Q1. On the other hand, the Energy (76%), Consumer Staples (75%), and Materials (75%) sectors have the highest percentages of companies that cited "Ukraine" on their Q1 earnings calls during this period.

It is interesting to note that although more than half of the companies in the S&P 500 have cited "Ukraine" on earnings calls for Q1, FactSet estimates that S&P 500 companies overall have a combined revenue exposure to Ukraine and Russia of about 1%. The overall international revenue exposure of the S&P 500 is about 40%.

"As a matter of fact, although we saw a bit of a slowdown focused mostly on Europe at the onset of the invasion of Ukraine, we saw a bounce back and we really exited Q1 with momentum." -Autodesk (May 26)

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