Name
Virtual Analyst Private Meetings
Date & Time
Monday, July 6, 2026, 2:35 PM - 3:00 PM
Description

We examine whether and how financial analysts benefit from attending virtual private meetings held by companies. Using data from China, we find that analysts who attend virtual private meetings exhibit greater improvement in earnings forecast accuracy after the meetings than those who attend site visits. When private meetings accommodate a larger number and greater diversity of participants, analysts benefit more from attending virtual meetings and benefit less from attending site visits. Additional analyses show that analysts attending virtual meetings issue more timely forecast revisions than analysts attending site visits. Furthermore, while both analysts attending virtual meetings and site visits reduce their forecast optimism after the meetings, forecast optimism of analysts attending virtual meetings is positively associated with managers’ tone during the meetings. This paper underscores the significance of virtual analyst meetings for analysts’ research production.

Yajing Tian
Keywords
analysts; virtual meeting; private meeting; site visit
Theme
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING
Author 1
Xia Chen
Author 2
An-Ping Lin
Author 3
Yajing Tian