Reports Pay Dividends

The time and effort companies put into their annual reports is worth it, a new survey says.

Securities analysts, portfolio managers and individual investors generally use the reports in making their investment decisions, according to the survey conducted by Yankelovich Partners for Potlatch Corp.

Sixty percent of the respondents said they don’t mind companies spending for glossy pictures and computer-drawn graphics found in most annual reports, as long as the firms’ overall financial performance is strong.

Forty percent of the individual investors surveyed believe a report produced with cheap materials is a sign that business is bad.