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- FIGS is tapping into the growing power of retail investors by letting them ask questions on its upcoming earnings call.
- The company is crowdsourcing questions from investors and will answer the most popular ones.
- Shares of the healthcare apparel brand jumped as much as 18% in Wednesday trades.
Healthcare apparel brand FIGS on Wednesday said it would crowdsource questions from retail investors in its upcoming earnings call.
The move bucks a long held Wall Street tradition of only allowing sell-side analysts that cover the company to ask questions on earnings conference calls, and adds to the growing influence of retail investors.
The stock was up as much as 18% in Wednesday's session.
Beginning Wednesday, verified shareholders of FIGS are able to submit and upvote questions to the company's management team via an online platform. The company will then answer the most popular questions during its November 10 third-quarter earnings call.
As of Wednesday afternoon, representing 6,400 FIGS shares and receiving 243 votes, the most popular question came from Conor S. who asked:
"Over the past three months, we've seen a little over a 6% fall in share price. As supply chains become a much larger issue than we realize, and going into the holiday season, how does the company plan on trying to curb the issue in directly affecting how share prices do?"
Other questions asked on the crowdsourcing platform were about FIGS' long-term strategy and future color scheme plans for its clothing that is made for hospital workers.
FIGS isn't the first company to give a louder voice to individual shareholders, with Robinhood recently taking questions from retail investors on its earnings call. But the practice goes as far back as 2018, when Tesla CEO Elon Musk referred to Wall Street analyst questions as "boneheaded" and allowed a YouTuber to ask a question on the EV manufacturer's earnings call.
The trend follows a supercharged year for retail investors, who have been participating in the market in record numbers during the pandemic. The surge in investing was in part driven by growing interest from millennials, who now own 2.5% of stock market assets.