HSBC Beats Estimates, May Resume Dividend

HSBC shares jumped on Tuesday after Europe’s largest bank by assets reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings and signaled it may resume dividend payouts next year.For the third quarter, HSBC’s revenue fell 11% to $11.9 billion while pretax profit slid 35% to $3.1 billion. But analysts had...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 27, 2020

SAP Shares Fall 23% on Q3 Results, Guidance

SAP shares plunged on Monday after the German enterprise software giant reduced its mid-term guidance to reflect the impact of COVID-19 on its business.In announcing its third-quarter results, SAP said it had “again demonstrated its resilience … with stable total revenue and an improvement in ope...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 26, 2020

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Tax policy shifts: What CFOs need to know to stay ahead

Discover how evolving tax policies are creating new opportunities and challenges for CFOs.

By CFO.com staff

Revitalizing the Global Economy Requires Outside-the-Box Thinking

With the International Monetary Fund’s most recent projections indicating a 3% contraction in the global economy, we face the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression that followed the notorious Wall Street crash of 1929.Following the 2008 global recession, the likes of France an...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 26, 2020

Dunkin Brands Explores Sale or Merger With Inspire Brands

Dunkin Brands Group confirmed a New York Times report that the company has expressed an interest in selling itself.What Happened: Dunkin Brands is the parent company of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins. The New York Times reports the company is in talks to sell itself to private equity backed In...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 26, 2020

Intel Shares Plunge on Falling Margins, Increased Competition

Intel reported a weak third quarter, which barely met revenue and earnings per share estimates.Data-centric revenue fell 10% year-over-year, with its data center group (DCG) revenue falling 7% year-over-year to $5.9 billion.In the DCG group, cloud revenue grew 15% year-over-year due to higher dem...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 23, 2020

Quibi Shuts Down Six Months After Launch

Short-form media streamer Quibi is shutting down six months into its launch, the company’s founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and CEO Meg Whitman said in an open letter to employees and investors.What Happened: Katzenberg and Whitman said they were winding down the business and returning cash to their sh...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 22, 2020

JPMorgan Takes Aim at Top Fintech Players’ SMB Market Share

The largest U.S. bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. is entering the fintech ring dominated by players like Square, PayPal Holdings, and Fiserv, with a service for small business owners, reports CNBC.What Happened: JPMorgan is introducing a fast-funding fintech service paired with a checking account ca...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 21, 2020

Netflix Reports Mixed Q3 Earnings, Slower User Growth

Shares of Netflix traded lower after the streaming video company reported third-quarter results.Netflix said it earned $1.74 per share on revenue of $6.44 billion. The results were mixed compared with the Street’s estimate of $2.13 per share on revenue of $6.38 billion.Revenue was higher by 22.7%...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 20, 2020

China’s Economy Grows Nearly 5%

The Chinese economy grew 4.9% for the quarter from July-to-September compared with the same period last year, according to official government statistics.The sharp uptick was short of the 5.2% growth for the quarter expected by analysts, according to a poll by Refinitiv.“China’s economy continued...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 19, 2020

Kaiser to Leave PCAOB; Chief Auditor to Replace Him

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that James (Jim) G. Kaiser will leave the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) after completing his term as a board member. Kaiser was appointed to the board in December 2017 and his term expires in October 2020. He elected not t...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 15, 2020

Pilgrim’s Pride to Pay $110M to Settle Price-Fixing Charges

Poultry giant Pilgrim’s Pride has agreed to pay a fine of $110.5 million to settle charges from the U.S. Department of Justice that executives at the company conspired to fix prices and rig bids on broiler chicken products.In June, Pilgrim’s Pride chief executive officer Jayson Penn and vice pres...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 14, 2020

Anti-Trust: The Battle Over China-Based Issuers

In a period when China-U.S relations are fractious, it was perhaps inevitable that a perennial issue with Chinese companies listed in the United States would rear its head.But China-based companies are also making headlines this year, and not in a good way. Luckin Coffee, iQiy, GSX Techedu, and T...

By Ramona Dzinkowski • Oct. 14, 2020

IBM to Spin Off Infrastructure Unit

IBM is spinning off its managed infrastructure services unit into a new public company. In a statement, the company said the move would help accelerate its hybrid cloud growth strategy and drive digital transformation.“IBM is laser-focused on the $1 trillion hybrid cloud opportunity,” IBM chief e...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 8, 2020

Macy’s Invests in ‘Buy Now, Pay Later’ Company Klarna

Macy’s is investing in Swedish payments company Klarna.The five-year deal includes Macy’s using Klarna’s “buy now, pay later” service at online checkout, which allows customers to make payments in four equal, interest-free installments at the online checkout.Financial details were not disclosed.I...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 6, 2020

Leverage Technology for Smoother Tax Compliance

What did we learn from the 2018 and 2019 tax compliance seasons?Well, for one, we learned that hope is not a strategy. As tax professionals during the 2018 tax-year compliance season, we also learned that tax compliance in the Tax Cut & Jobs Act’s aftermath will not be simple or straightforwa...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 6, 2020

Metric of the Month: What is the Ideal Number of Budget Iterations?

Budgeting season is upon us, and the usual stresses and headaches that come along with it will likely be compounded by an especially volatile year. Reviewing and editing draft after draft of your budget will be time consuming, frustrating, and may even risk disengagement from your stakeholders. I...

By Perry D. Wiggins • Oct. 1, 2020

Hertz Loses Another CFO

Hertz Global Holdings is getting its second chief financial officer since August as the company goes through bankruptcy proceedings.  The company named Kenny Cheung to replace R. Eric Esper, who resigned after little more than a month in the position. Esper is joining United Natural Foods chief a...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 29, 2020

GM Ordered to Repay Ohio $28M In Tax Credits

The Ohio Tax Credit Authority has instructed General Motors to repay $28 million, an amount the company received in tax credits over the years.The government sanction is a direct result of GM’s decision to shut down its Lordstown plant last year, the Ohio Development Services Agency suggested in ...

By Vincent Ryan • Sept. 29, 2020

Costco Posts 11.4% Same-Store Sales Increase

Costco posted its largest quarterly gain in same-store sales on record as shoppers continued to stock up on everything from food and paper supplies to patio furniture amid the coronavirus pandemic.As Barron’s reports, Costco is “one of a cohort of big essential retailers that has seen the most be...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 25, 2020

Audit Partner Rotation Delivers Few Benefits: Study

A perennially contentious issue, auditor rotation has led regulators in both the United States and Europe to require public companies to change auditors periodically—in the European Union by requiring firms to invite bids from other audit firms after ten years and in the U.S. by mandating rotatio...

By CFO Editorial Staff • Sept. 25, 2020

Digitally Innovate to Create Real Value

One of the biggest challenges C-suite executives face today is around the disparity that exists in how revenue is valued by Wall Street. Depending on a company’s business model, one company can generate a dollar and Wall Street measures it as a dollar. Another company, such as Zoom, can make a do...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 24, 2020

General Mills Sales Rise on At-Home Food Demand

General Mills’ quarterly results beat analysts’ estimates as the cereal maker benefitted from increased demand for food consumed at home amid the coronavirus pandemic.For the first quarter, General Mills reported Wednesday that net sales rose 9% to $4.4 billion, led by a 14% increase for the comp...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 23, 2020

Digital Sales Surge Fuels Nike Earnings Beat

Nike reported better-than-expected quarterly results as strong digital sales drove the company’s rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.For the first quarter, Nike reported net income of $1.52 billion, or 95 cents per share, from $1.37 billion, or 86 cents per share, as revenue fell 0.6% to $10.59...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 23, 2020

Deloitte Fined Record $19M Over Audit Failures

Concluding a years-long investigation, the U.K.’s accounting watchdog has fined Deloitte a record 15 million pounds ($19.4 million) for “serious and serial failures” in its audits of software firm Autonomy.The Financial Reporting Council’s investigation focused on Deloitte’s audits of Autonomy’s ...

By Matthew Heller • Sept. 18, 2020

Opendoor to Go Public Through SPAC Merger

Online residential real estate platform Opendoor is listing shares publicly through a reverse merger that values the company at $4.8 billion.In a statement, Opendoor said it entered into a definitive business combination agreement with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings II, a publicly traded spec...

By Lauren Muskett • Sept. 15, 2020