Metric of the Month: Cycle Time To Perform a Financial Evaluation of New Products

How long does it take your finance team to perform financial evaluations for new products? Have you thought about why it takes as long as it does and what might be causing delays in the process? Have you considered the benefits of this process happening faster? This month’s metric, the cycle time...

By Perry D. Wiggins • Nov. 4, 2019

U.S. Treasury Department Mulls 50-Year Bonds

Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Treasury secretary The U.S. Treasury Department said it is considering issuing ultra-long 50-year bonds, the longest ever issued by the U.S. government, as the budget deficit widens to $1 trillion.“Treasury is taking a proactive approach to prepare for prospective future fina...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 31, 2019

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

Altria Takes $4.5 Billion Hit on Investment in Juul

Tobacco giant Altria disclosed Thursday it had written down its investment in Juul by more than a third, citing the regulatory backlash in the U.S. against vaping products.According to Reuters, the writedown “highlights the spectacular reversal in Juul’s fortunes in the last few months, with its ...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 31, 2019

Mattel CFO to Step Down After Whistleblower Investigation

Mattel’s chief financial officer Joseph Euteneuer will leave the company following an investigation into accounting errors that were raised by a whistleblower.The company said the investigation, conducted by the board of directors’ audit committee, found income tax expense was understated by $109...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 30, 2019

Grubhub Shares Tank on Reduced Q4 Outlook

Grubhub reported a 40% decline in quarterly earnings and lowered its guidance for the current quarter, reflecting slowing growth amid intense competition among food-delivery providers.Grubhub’s adjusted third-quarter earnings of $0.27 per share met analysts’ estimates but were down from $0.45 per...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 29, 2019

GM Beats Estimates Despite $1B in Strike Costs

General Motors reported better-than-expected quarterly results on Tuesday but warned it would take a big earnings hit for the year from the 40-day strike at its U.S. factories.For the third quarter, GM had adjusted earnings of $1.72 per share, ahead of analysts’ estimates of $1.31 per share. The ...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 29, 2019

Spotify Shares Gain 14% on Surprise Q3 Profit

Federica Tremolada at a Spotify photocall Spotify shares jumped on Monday after the music-streaming service reported a surprise quarterly report and strong subscriber growth despite intense competition.For the third quarter, Spotify earned $0.41 per share, versus analysts’ estimates of a loss of ...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 28, 2019

Amazon Profit Dives on One-Day Shipping Costs

Amazon posted its first decline in profit in more than two years as its heavy investment in free one-day shipping for Prime members cut into margins.For the third quarter, net income fell 26% to $2.1 billion, or $4.23 per share, missing analysts’ estimates of $4.62 per share. It was the first tim...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 25, 2019

Tesla Shares Jump 20% on Surprise Q3 Profit

Tesla Motor posted a surprise quarterly profit and assured investors that it was on track to achieve “sustained, industry-leading profitability.”For the third quarter, the automaker had net income of $143 million and adjusted earnings of $1.86 per share. Analysts had expected a loss of 24 cents p...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 24, 2019

Nokia Shares Tank as 5G Costs Hit Q1 Outlook

Nokia shares had one of their worst days ever on Thursday after the Finnish telecom equipment supplier reduced its profit outlook to reflect the costs of developing 5G products.The stock fell more than 24% to $3.87 — the largest drop since 1991 — as Nokia also disclosed in its third-quarter earni...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 24, 2019

Investors Want a Clear Story on CECL. Are CFOs Ready to Tell It?

Financial and non-financial institutions alike are nearing adoption of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s new Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) standard, which will take effect at the beginning of the next fiscal year for most public companies.Considered to be one of the most impactful ...

By David McCann • Oct. 23, 2019

Heineken Lowers Guidance on Americas Sales Dip

Heineken shares fell on Wednesday after the world’s second-largest brewer lowered its profit guidance, reflecting an unexpected sales decline in the Americas.Heineken said operating profit before one-offs would rise by about 4% on a like-for-like basis in 2019, at the bottom of its previous forec...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 23, 2019

WeWork Founder Gets $1.7B Payout to Leave Company

WeWork founder Adam Neumann will get a payout up to $1.7 billion under a bailout deal that will give SoftBank 80% ownership of the beleaguered startup company.As part of the bailout, Neumann will reportedly sell $1 billion worth of WeWork stock to Softbank. Softbank will pay him a $185 million co...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 23, 2019

UBS Profit Dips 16% in Q3 Amid Negative Rates

UBS reported a drop in quarterly profit on Tuesday amid headwinds including negative interest rates and muted investment banking activity.The largest Swiss bank said net profit attributable to shareholders fell 16% in the third quarter to $1.049 billion while operating income dropped 6.6% to $7 b...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 22, 2019

SAP Sales Rise 13% on Strong Cloud Growth

SAP shares rose more than 2% on Monday after the enterprise software giant reported strong quarterly results reflecting the growth of its cloud business.For the third quarter, SAP’s total revenue increased 13% to 6.79 billion euros, with cloud revenue up 37% to $1.79 billion and new cloud booking...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 21, 2019

IBM Sales Slump for Fifth Straight Quarter

IBM shares fell more than 5% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company reported a fifth straight quarter of falling sales despite the first contributions of its Red Hat acquisition.For third quarter, IBM’s sales dropped 3.9% to $18.03 billion, missing analysts’ estimates of $18.22 billio...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 17, 2019

MGM Strikes Deals for Two Las Vegas Properties

MGM Resorts International and Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust are forming a joint venture that will buy MGM’s Bellagio real estate and lease it back to an MGM Resorts unit, the companies announced.Under the deal, MGM will receive cash proceeds of roughly $4.2 billion and its subsidiary will p...

By Lauren Muskett • Oct. 16, 2019

Bridging the Gaps in GAAP

In the Fall of 2011, my son was navigating a treacherous gap in a wall he was scaling during one of his 200 or so missions in Afghanistan’s Helmand Valley (see photo, right). Eight years later, he took the photo below while walking across the Brooklyn Bridge just this past Saturday — ...

By Tony Wayne • Oct. 16, 2019

Wells Fargo Profit Falls on Lower Interest Rates

Wells Fargo missed quarterly earnings estimates amid lower interest rates but delivered growth in loans and deposits as it prepares for new leadership.The bank, which is still recovering from its fake-accounts scandal, reported net income of $4.6 billion in the third quarter, down 23% from a year...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 16, 2019

OECD Takes Aim at Multinational Tax Shelters

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has proposed a radical corporate taxation overhaul to make it harder for multinationals operating across borders to shelter profits.The proposal unveiled Wednesday gives OECD member countries the right to tax a proportion of multinationals...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 9, 2019

Domino’s Misses on Earnings, Launches Buyback

Domino’s Pizza announced another share buyback on Tuesday after reporting lower-than-expected quarterly earnings and same-store sales.CFO Jeff Lawrence said on an earnings call that the pizza delivery giant would repurchase $1 billion shares, bringing total buybacks over the past three years to n...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 8, 2019

Start-Up CFOs: Be Ready to Raise Capital, Recap, or Sell

Being the CFO of a high-growth company can be both exciting and challenging. Business plans change, revenue fluctuates, and markets shift. Yet even with all the uncertainty, managing financial operations at a start-up’s fast pace is something many CFOs find exhilarating.In more traditional busine...

By John McEwan • Oct. 7, 2019

HP to Shed up to 9,000 Jobs in Restructuring

Amid a downturn in its printer business, HP has announced a restructuring plan that will reduce its workforce by as much as 18% over the next three years.HP shares fell 10% on Friday to $16.55 on news that the company will shed between 7,000 and 9,000 jobs from its roughly 55,000 global workforce...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 4, 2019

Costco Shares Drop on 4th Quarter Sales Miss

Costco shares fell in extended trading Thursday after the warehouse retailer reported lower-than-expected sales and slower e-commerce growth.For the fourth quarter, Costco’s revenue rose 7% to $47.5 billion while net income rose to $1.097 billion from $1.043 billion a year ago. Analysts had expec...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 4, 2019

The Link Between Capital Structure and Financial Flexibility

A company’s capital structure — its ratio of debt to the sum of debt and equity market value — is important for assessing the organization’s financial flexibility and ability to access capital in the future.If the company has a high debt-to-equity ratio, for instance, it’s said to be highly lever...

By David McCann • Oct. 3, 2019