Poor Nonfinancial Reporting Tests Investors’ Trust

Corporate executives can talk all they want, for public consumption, about their companies’ strong connections with investors and customers. But when asked anonymously, a good many of them admit that companies aren’t very much trusted.According to a new global study of 1,000 CFOs and controllers ...

By David McCann • Nov. 16, 2018

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Nov. 16

Allen Parker has been appointed to head finance at Zillow Group. He had been vice president, finance, for Amazon Devices, Amazon Pay, and Appstore since 2011.Risk-management provider Constellis has selected Gordon Foster to lead the finance function. He previously held the top finance spot at ASR...

By Joan Urdang • Nov. 16, 2018

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

Financial Systems: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Let’s talk private equity portfolio companies and the financial systems they use.Here’s the good: The overwhelming majority of private equity (PE) stakeholders understand the value of effective financial information systems within portfolio companies. Those systems not only support day-to-day ope...

By Ayla Queiroga and Kristen Contreras • Nov. 15, 2018

Internal Controls Violations in Cyber-Fraud Cases?

(Editor’s note: The author is a former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Enforcement.)Companies are now on notice that they must consider cyber threats when devising and maintaining a system of internal accounting controls.A turning point came in mid-October...

By Howard Scheck • Nov. 15, 2018

Uber’s Spending on New Businesses Hits Profit

Uber’s net loss widened to more than $1 billion in the third quarter as the ride-hailing company invested heavily in future growth businesses ahead of an initial public offering.Other key metrics self-reported by Uber showed gross bookings for its ride-hailing and delivery services rose 6%, the t...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 15, 2018

A Way to Achieve Continuous Improvement at Regulated Utilities

Some think of utilities as a homogenous group that produce steady lackluster returns for shareholders. It is true that on average over the business cycle, utilities earn lower returns than the overall market, but the returns earned by utilities vary considerably.If you had invested $10,000 at the...

By Luke Kim and Gregory V. Milano • Nov. 12, 2018

SoftBank Plans $21 Billion IPO

SoftBank announced it plans to sell $21 billion (2.4 trillion yen) of stock in its mobile telecoms unit, part of Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son’s effort’s to reposition the Japanese company as a global technology investor.The initial public offering would be the largest since Alibaba went ...

By William Sprouse • Nov. 12, 2018

Disney Surge May Accelerate Fox Deal Closing

The Walt Disney Co. reported better-than-expected earnings on Thursday, continuing the company’s strong recent performance. In response, the company’s stock price was up almost 3% in Friday morning trading and has risen about 10% for the year.Disney reported adjusted per-share earnings of $1.48, ...

By David McCann • Nov. 9, 2018

Health-Care Cost Growth Increased in 2018

Employers’ costs for health benefits ticked upward this year by 3.6%, a full percentage point higher than the 2017 rate, according to new research by Mercer.Still, overall growth in health-care costs remains moderate, averaging 3.3% annually over the past five years compared with an average of 5....

By David McCann • Nov. 8, 2018

Fox Reports Earnings Ahead of Disney Sale

Twenty-First Century Fox reported earnings of 52 cents per share, in line with analyst expectations, for the third quarter.The media behemoth reported quarterly income of $1.29 billion, up 54% from a year ago. Revenue was $7.18 billion for the quarter, up 2% from a year ago. Analysts had expected...

By William Sprouse • Nov. 7, 2018

Many Companies Slow to Automate T&E Management

Even as companies increasingly implement modern artificial intelligence and robotic process automation tools, many are figuratively stuck in the stone age when it comes to managing expense reports.According to a survey of 546 finance professionals by web-based expense management vendor Certify, 1...

By David McCann • Nov. 6, 2018

Rising Logistics Costs Fuel Sysco Earnings Miss

Shares in Sysco fell sharply on Monday after the food supplier missed quarterly earnings estimates on rising distribution and transportation costs.For the first quarter, Sysco’s net earnings rose 17.2% to $431 million and sales increased 3.9% to $15.2 billion over the year-ago period.Adjusted ear...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 5, 2018

Metric of the Month: Automated Primary Controls

If you’re not already automating your internal controls, you should be. The cost of the technology has come way down, while its capabilities have increased. Advanced controls automation is now accessible even to smaller organizations, and the return on investment is high. Automation not only effe...

By Perry D. Wiggins • Nov. 5, 2018

Audit Committees Say More About Auditor Choices

Audit committees are continuing a long-term trend of providing more disclosure about their selection of independent auditors.For the fifth year, the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) and Audit Analytics (AA) analyzed all proxy statements filed by the S&P Composite 1500 companies between July 1 a...

By David McCann • Nov. 5, 2018

Apple Shares Fall 6.5% on Disappointing Outlook

Apple’s fourth-quarter earnings beat analysts’ estimates due to hikes in iPhone prices but its outlook for the holiday season disappointed investors, sending its shares down more than 6% in after-hours trading Thursday.The company reported earnings of $2.91 per share on revenue of $62.9 billion, ...

By Matthew Heller • Nov. 2, 2018

Avon Turnaround Proceeding Slowly

Avon Products reported break-even earnings per share for the quarter ended September 30, down from three cents per share a year ago.The cosmetics company reported net income excluding one-time items of $7 million, down from $18 million last year. The company said including one-time items it poste...

By William Sprouse • Nov. 1, 2018

GM Price Hikes Drive Earnings Beat for Q3

General Motors shares jumped 9% on Wednesday after the automaker delivered better-than-expected quarterly earnings, with strong demand for more expensive vehicles offsetting a decline in sales volume.GM’s vehicle sales volume dropped by 14.7% in the third quarter from the previous year, reflectin...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 31, 2018

Facebook Beats on Earnings, Raises Outlook

Facebook reported lower-than-expected revenue for a second straight quarter but earnings beat analysts’ estimates despite the company’s recent public relations troubles.For the third quarter, Facebook’s revenue rose 33.5% to $13.73 billion, compared with estimates of $13.78 billion. The revenue m...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 31, 2018

Why CFOs Shouldn’t Come From Public Accounting

Editor’s note: This opinion article is adapted from the author’s comment on our recent article, “The Dark Side of Accounting Expertise.”As a former CPA with public accounting experience and a former controller or CFO for three different public companies, I have long held that companies shouldn’t ...

By Danny Severns • Oct. 29, 2018

Business Spending Falls Again

Orders for U.S. durable goods were up 0.8% in September, driven by a sharp increase in orders for defense goods, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday. But that 0.8% was a paltry number compared to August’s jump of 4.6%.Economists surveyed by MarketWatch said they had expected a 1.9% dip i...

By William Sprouse • Oct. 26, 2018

The Dark Side of Accounting Expertise

How important is it for CFOs or other top corporate executives to have accounting expertise?Around the turn of the century, when the financial director of a major bank stated that “the day of the finance director as bean counter is well and truly over,” he was reflecting much contemporary thinkin...

By David McCann • Oct. 25, 2018

IRobot Shares Plunge on China Tariff Worries

Robotic vacuum maker iRobot’s quarterly revenue and earnings easily beat estimates but its shares fell more than 9% in extended trading Tuesday amid concerns over supply chain disruption due to U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports.In a rollercoaster after-hours session, the stock initially jumped 10.6...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 24, 2018

McDonald’s Shares Jump 6% on Earnings Beat

McDonald’s shares had their best day in three years on Tuesday after the fast-food giant reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings amid a store modernization program that has depressed customer traffic.Revenue at McDonald’s fell 7% to $5.37 billion in the third quarter while net income dec...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 23, 2018

Auditing: Time for an Adjustment?

Failure to detect corruption, negligence in approving an accounting treatment, lack of professional skepticism, failure to unmask fraud, and inappropriate familiarity with the client. The Big Four have been accused of all of these transgressions, and more, in the past three years.Material account...

By Vincent Ryan • Oct. 23, 2018

Lessons on Auditing from Carillion’s Collapse

If past is prologue, U.K. accounting regulators may want to take a hard look at the great American business tragedy known as Enron.In 2002, the scandalous collapse of the energy company caused the demise of one of the Big Five audit firms, Arthur Andersen, resulting in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act’s st...

By Russ Banham • Oct. 23, 2018