I can't really comment on the other group because I never...

I can't really comment on the other group because I never joined. I certainly value everyone's opinion because I don't have all the answers and I've certainly made my fair share of bad calls.

Technically the company is "allowed" to release the announcement on the last day of the month if they choose to. As a positive, I'd say at least there's consistency. As a negative I think it appears as though the results are going to be poor. It shouldn't really matter when they release the data because it's not going to change between Jan 1 and Jan 31 as it's the December data. The issue arises when the market is always trying to get a jump on good news and bad news so that they can make the right call to buy or sell. Relative to that statement it's poor form for a company to release it late.

From personal experience though I will say this, when management are bold enough to ignore these kinds of things it's generally because they know what they are doing and don't really care about bending over for shareholders. They are confident that they will deliver and won't conform just to win over shareholders because the data will speak for itself. That's not to say they don't care about shareholders, rather they see their job as running a company that performs to a high standard rather than pandering to shareholders. If one shareholder sells, another will take their place because the company will deliver. I've seen companies with management that get info out really early and use expressive language to sell the company and 9 times out of 10 it's because the underlying business isn't the best and really need to be sold in this way. This is of course all my own opinion.