What Is an Earnings Call?

By Jeremy Bowman – Updated Dec 1, 2025 at 12:27 AM EST

Key Points

Earnings calls let investors hear directly from company leaders about financial results and future plans.
These calls follow SEC reports and offer details beyond written disclosures, aiding investor decisions.
Listening to calls provides insights on company challenges, strategies, and Wall Street opinions.

Publicly traded companies communicate with their shareholders and the general public in a number of ways. They issue press releases when they have news to report. They file reports about quarterly earnings and material news events with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and they hold earnings calls each quarter.

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Person using a telephone on a desk. — Image source: Getty Images.

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During these calls, they discuss financial results and topics like company initiatives, the business environment, and the competitive landscape. They also field questions from Wall Street analysts during earnings calls, allowing investor representatives to address company management and solicit more information.

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Following Zuckerberg's presentation, CFO Susan Li discusses the financial results and guidance, including data points, such as its user base, and more qualitative metrics like engagement. She closes her presentation with a review of the company's guidance.

Meta's Q&A session tends to follow a similar cadence to most earnings calls. However, Zuckerberg is more forthcoming than most CEOs, making Meta's earnings calls especially informative.

Whether you're investing in a bull or a bear market, it pays to be an informed investor. And one of the best ways you can do that is by listening to the earnings calls of the stocks you own.

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About the Author

Jeremy Bowman has been a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst, covering technology, consumer goods, and macroeconomic trends since 2011. Before The Motley Fool, Jeremy was a newspaper reporter, restaurant manager, and English teacher abroad. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Colorado College and a master’s degree in business administration from American University. One of his Motley Fool headlines was briefly featured on Late Night with Stephen Colbert.

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Jeremy Bowman has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple and Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.