Ally Financial’s Profit Drops by More Than Half

Ally Financial reported a 58% drop in quarterly earnings as its core auto lending business took a hit from stay-at-home orders that kept consumers away from dealerships.For the second quarter, the 17th-largest U.S. bank’s net income fell to $241 million from $582 million. Adjusted earnings declin...

By Matthew Heller • July 20, 2020

Will There Be a Second Round of Paycheck Protection Loans?

Around the country, small businesses are still struggling to survive, despite many states partially reopening. And a bloom of coronavirus cases nationwide ensures that the economic recovery will take a longer time than some economists thought.Therefore, when U.S. lawmakers return to Washington th...

By Vincent Ryan • July 20, 2020

Explore the Trendline➔

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

Netflix Adds 10 Million Subs But Stock Slides

Netflix reported a huge increase in subscribers but its shares fell sharply after it forecast lower-than-expected growth in the current quarter.The streaming giant added 10.1 million net subscribers in the second quarter, benefiting from stay-at-home orders that left people with few options for e...

By Matthew Heller • July 17, 2020

Apple Wins Appeal on $15B Irish Tax Bill

The General Court of the European Union has annulled a 2016 order that said the U.S. tech giant Apple owed Ireland $14.9 billion in taxes.The court ruled that the European Commission did not prove that the Irish government had given the company a tax advantage.“The Commission didn’t succeed in sh...

By Lauren Muskett • July 15, 2020

Goldman Crushes Estimates With $2.4B Profit

Goldman Sachs reported quarterly earnings Wednesday that crushed Wall Street estimates as the bank’s trading business benefited from market volatility caused by the coronavirus pandemic.For the second quarter, Goldman generated net earnings of $2.42 billion, or $6.26 a share, compared with analys...

By Matthew Heller • July 15, 2020

Delta Reports Biggest Loss Since 2008

Delta Air Lines reported a $5.7 billion net loss in the second quarter, citing plummeting demand due to the COVID-19 crisis. It was Delta’s largest loss since early 2008.The company said demand was less than 30% of pre-pandemic levels. It has also reduced the number of flights it planned to add i...

By Lauren Muskett • July 14, 2020

Wells Fargo Announces $2.4B Loss, Dividend Cut

Wells Fargo shares fell nearly 5% on Tuesday after the beleaguered bank reported a larger-than-expected quarterly loss and said it would slash its dividend.The poor second-quarter results “were driven by soaring expenses linked to Wells Fargo’s scandals and surging credit costs caused by the bank...

By Matthew Heller • July 14, 2020

How CFOs Can Push Past Fear to Resilience and Resurgence

As COVID-19 took hold of the global economy, most CFOs went straight into crisis management mode.  The focus was vigilant monitoring of cash balances and running multiple scenario plans to ensure adequate liquidity in the short term. Now, a few months into the pandemic and resulting economic unce...

By Dayton Kellenberger • July 10, 2020

Walgreens Swings to Loss as COVID Hits Sales

Walgreens Boots Alliance reported lower-than-expected quarterly earnings on Thursday as sales took a big hit from the coronavirus pandemic despite a 3% increase in U.S. same-store sales.The retailer said the pandemic had an adverse impact on sales in the third quarter of about $700 million to $75...

By Matthew Heller • July 9, 2020

Big Four Heading for Audit Shakeup in U.K.

The U.K. is moving closer to a far-reaching shakeup of the Big Four accounting firms that would separate their audit and consulting businesses after a series of high-profile audit failures.The Financial Reporting Council, the U.K. accounting watchdog, announced Monday it had asked the firms to ag...

By Matthew Heller • July 7, 2020

The Importance of Accounting Comparability

Accounting standard setters and regulators seek greater comparability in financial reporting. In fact, U.S. GAAP has been significantly evolving over the years, but accounting standards are inherently complex. And, the recent changes in U.S. GAAP actually introduced new analytical challenges for ...

By Vincent Ryan • July 6, 2020

Berkshire Hathaway to Buy Dominion Energy

Berkshire Hathaway has reached an agreement to buy Dominion Energy’s natural gas transmission and storage business for $4 billion. Including debt, the deal has an enterprise value of approximately $9.7 billion, the companies said in a statement.Its Berkshire Hathaway’s first major deal since the ...

By Lauren Muskett • July 6, 2020

FedEx Gets Boost From E-Commerce Surge

FedEx shares jumped in after-hours trading Tuesday after the logistics giant beat quarterly earnings estimates, reflecting a surge in deliveries to online shoppers under stay-at-home orders.For the fourth quarter, FedEx reported a loss of $334 million, or $1.28 a share, in the quarter, compared w...

By Matthew Heller • July 1, 2020

Microsoft Pauses Advertisements on Facebook, Instagram Globally

Microsoft paused all advertisements on Facebook and subsidiary Instagram’s social media platforms in the United States in May, Axios reported Monday.The veteran technology company recently further paused all advertisements on Facebook and Instagram across the globe, according to Axios.In an inter...

By Lauren Muskett • June 30, 2020

Curtailing Auditors’ Tax Services For Appearances Brings Higher Rates

Heightened by notorious accounting scandals two decades ago involving Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Andersen accountancy, and others, suspicions have persistently dogged firms whose auditors perform consulting services for them in addition to core accounting functions. And perhaps no extra services hav...

By Vincent Ryan • June 30, 2020

U.S. Mortgage Delinquency Rate Jumps to 7.76%

The U.S. mortgage delinquency rate rose in May to its highest level in more than eight years though homeowners have been making a higher share of payments this month.As Americans continue to struggle to pay bills amid the COVID-19 pandemic, another 723,000 homeowners became past due on their mort...

By Matthew Heller • June 25, 2020

Olive Garden Owner Reports Better-Than-Expected Q4

Olive Garden parent company Darden Restaurants reported Thursday with better-than-expected fourth-quarter results.The company also provided a business update and first-quarter outlook.Darden’s results. Darden reported a loss of $1.24 per share for the quarter ended May 31 on revenue of $1.27 bill...

By Vincent Ryan • June 25, 2020

Scorecard: Safeguarding Working Capital

In trying times, the old adage “cash is king” is never truer. For CFOs, ensuring their organizations’ working capital management strategies and processes are best-in-class is again a high priority. After all, tighter working capital performance means well-timed inflows and outflows of cash, essen...

By Ramona Dzinkowski • June 24, 2020

GNC Files For Chapter 11

GNC Holdings, the vitamin and dietary supplement retailer, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware. The company is planning to sell itself and reduce its number of stores after attempts to restructure its debt load failed.  In a recent presentation for investors, according to C...

By Vincent Ryan • June 24, 2020

Congress Looks to Support Charities With Tax Breaks

Last year, Americans gave an impressive $450 billion to charity, but the numbers of donors are dwindling as COVID-19 hints at a global resurgence.A bipartisan effort is underway to expand tax breaks for Americans in an effort to spur donations to nonprofit organizations.Tackling A Common Issue. I...

By Vincent Ryan • June 22, 2020

AmTrust, Ex-CFO Fined for Improper Disclosure

AmTrust Financial Services and its former CFO have agreed to pay $10.5 million to settle charges of accounting malpractice related to the insurance company’s estimates of loss reserves.According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, former finance chief Ronald Pipoly failed to properly ...

By Matthew Heller • June 19, 2020

Ohio Looks To Reclaim GM Tax Break

The State of Ohio is considering clawing back tax credits that it granted to General Motors in exchange for a commitment by the company to keep open its Lordstown auto plant.  According to a report originally published by ProPublica and The Business Journal, based in Youngstown, Ohio, the state D...

By Vincent Ryan • June 19, 2020

Carnival Loses $4B Amid Ship Lockdowns

Carnival Corp. preliminarily reported a massive quarterly loss as the coronavirus pandemic continues to keep its ships mothballed.The world’s largest cruise operator said Thursday that it lost $4.4 billion in the second quarter, its largest loss in at least 25 years. Excluding a $2 billion impair...

By Matthew Heller • June 18, 2020

Oracle Shares Slip as Q4 Sales Drop 6%

Oracle posted lower-than-expected quarterly revenue as customers in such industries as hospitality and retail deferred purchases due to the coronavirus pandemic.For the fourth quarter, Oracle’s total revenue fell 6% to $10.44 billion, missing its guidance in March for between $10.92 billion and $...

By Matthew Heller • June 17, 2020

BP Faces $17.5B Q2 Hit

BP is writing down $17.5 billion in assets in the second quarter and forecasting lower oil prices.The oil company said Monday that it has revised its long-term price predictions and is lowering them and extending the period covered to 2050.“These actions will lead to non-cash impairment charges a...

By Lauren Muskett • June 15, 2020