Companies have had a lot to say about tariffs this year, and with good reason.  The president’s “Liberation Day” announcement shook financial markets and left many companies scrambling to determine what this dramatic change in US global trade policy would mean for them – and how to communicate that information to investors.  So, it may come as a surprise to learn that, according to FactSet, companies are talking a lot less about tariffs in their 3rd quarter earnings calls than they did in their 1st and 2nd quarter calls:

Given concerns in the market about tariffs, did more S&P 500 companies comment on tariffs during their earnings conference calls for the third quarter compared to the second quarter?

The answer is no. FactSet Document Search (which allows users to search for key words or phrases across multiple document types) was used to answer this question. Through Document Search, FactSet searched for the term “tariff” or “tariffs” in the conference call transcripts of all the S&P 500 companies that conducted earnings conference calls from September 15 through November 14.

Overall, the term “tariff” or “tariffs” was cited on 238 earnings calls conducted by S&P 500 companies during this period. This number reflects a quarter-over-quarter decline of 33% compared to Q2 2025, when the term “tariff” or “tariffs” was cited on 357 earnings calls (from June 15 through September 14). This is also the second straight quarter where the number of earnings calls citing the term “tariff” or “tariffs” has decreased.

For reference purposes, FactSet says that 452 S&P 500 companies mentioned tariffs in the Q1 earnings calls.

To a certain extent, this decline likely reflects the fact that many companies have been pretty transparent with their prior disclosures about the impact of tariffs and simply don’t have much more to add. On the other hand, they’re still saying quite a bit about this topic compared to prior years. According to FactSet, the mentions in Q3 earnings calls are still the fourth highest on record.

– John Jenkins