The Earnings Edge, how the world's top companies are navigating volatility

Businesses must navigate increasingly tricky terrain between geopolitical tensions, protectionist agendas, and growing uncertainty. To understand which issues matter most to the world's largest companies, Penta's Intelligence team used our proprietary analytics to comb through the most recent quarterly earnings calls for the Fortune 250 to identify not only the volume and frequency of nine key topics, but also determine the tone and sentiment of the discussion. Our platform allows us to spot trends across business sectors, pinpoint outliers, and over time, measure and track changes in the discussion.

Jump to:

Issue sentiment among sectors

Issue frequency among sectors

Most-mentioned issues

Issue frequency change over time

3 key takeaways

Issue sentiment among sectors

The below chart reflects quarter-over-quarter change from Q3 to Q4 2024 earnings call transcript data (the latter being released in early 2025) as it relates to topic sentiment.  For example, earnings calls for tech companies included less optimistic language around the labor market in Q4 compared to Q3, thus the cell intersecting Labor and Tech is red. Note that industries in this chart are ordered by overall least optimistic to most optimistic, left to right.

Tariffs, inflation lead most-mentioned issues

The breakdown below reflects the distribution of issue mentions among sectors.  For example, financial firms mentioned inflation more than any other sector, as their calls highlighted higher interest rates boosting earnings in lending and fixed-income investments.

Issue volume over time: Inflation surpasses DEI in Q4

This line graph reflects how the volume of our nine issues within earnings calls has changed throughout 2024. Several noticeable shifts in the last quarter of the year include: an upward slope of corporate tax mentions in the second half of the year, as well as an increased frequency of mentions relating to inflation in Q4, which overtook DEI as the most-mentioned issue to end the year.

3 Takeaways

1. Retailers are gloomy, while oil and gas, aerospace fly high

The retail industry was the most pessimistic sector we studied, displaying negative sentiment across six of our nine key topics. Companies highlighted cost pressures, shifting consumer behavior, and regulatory uncertainties as factors dampening their outlook. Rising inflation and labor costs were key concerns, as firms struggle with maintaining margins amid higher operating expenses. Additionally, tax policy changes and supply chain disruptions created uncertainty in financial planning.

Conversely, the aerospace and oil and gas industries were optimistic in their Q4 earnings calls compared to those in Q3. The two sectors showed optimism in nearly every issue, as the aerospace industry looks to the possibility of increased defense spending in the Trump administration and the prospect of expanded drilling projects could be a boon to oil and gas firms.

2. Trump tariffs take center stage, particularly among the automotive industry

Mentions of tariffs across the 10 industries we analyzed remained relatively low through most of 2024, consistently ranking among the least discussed issues until President Trump’s election, as tariff mentions surged from around 50 per quarter to over 150 in Q4 2024.

Automotive companies discussed tariffs the most, in line with the exposure of the industry and its supply chain. On March 26, Trump announced 25 percent on imported cars and auto parts, and some analysts have forecasted U.S. vehicle sales could slump this year amid higher costs for manufacturers and consumers. 

Companies in the oil and gas industry were the second-most likely to reference tariffs in their earnings calls. Trump has also directly targeted oil imports with new levies, and some energy executives have expressed concern over the impact of tariffs on steel and other materials on the cost of drilling.

3. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion dominates mentions in 2024 -until Q4

For most of last year, the world's largest companies discussed diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) more often than any other of the policy issues we tracked, averaging a rate of roughly 200 times per quarter. However, by Q4, DEI was overtaken by inflation as the top issue. Conversation dropped off across the board: healthcare, retail, technology, oil and gas, utilities, aerospace, and industrial.  

However, our proprietary sentiment analysis found that the tone of the discussion was mostly positive despite the highly publicized efforts to roll back DEI policies in the United States.

Methodology

Penta Intelligence used our proprietary platform to analyze the quarterly earnings calls of the Fortune 250 to determine both the frequency of key issues (mentions in the transcripts) as well as the sentiment of the discussion.  

The results of our inaugural analysis, "Earnings Edge," included some unexpected results as well as confirmation of our own instincts. At Penta, this combination of data and insights are the foundation of our strategic approach to stakeholder engagement. To learn more about our proprietary platform and experienced analysis, please contact us here.