Twitter May Be Headed for First Profit in Q4

Twitter shares jumped more than 18% on Thursday after the social media platform posted better-than-expected quarterly results and indicated it could turn its first-ever profit in the next quarter.For the third quarter, Twitter’s revenue fell 4% to $590 million but beat analysts’ estimates of $586...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 26, 2017

Chipotle Sales Rise 8.8% But Stock Dips 9.5%

Chipotle Mexican Grill’s turnaround from a food-safety scandal hit a setback as the fast-food chain’s quarterly earnings and same-store sales missed analysts’ estimates.The third quarter featured Chipotle’s initial pilot and then chainwide rollout of Genuine Queso, a blend of cheddar cheese with ...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 25, 2017

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

Boeing Stock Drops 3% Despite Delivery Record

Boeing set a new record for commercial aircraft deliveries in the third quarter but its shares dropped more than 3% as two key businesses saw declines in revenue.The aerospace giant on Wednesday also announced a further $329 million in charges on the troubled KC-46 military tanker aircraft progra...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 25, 2017

Whirlpool Lowers Guidance, Shares Drop 6%

Whirlpool shares fell more than 6% in after-hours trading after the appliance maker reported quarterly earnings and sales below expectations and lowered its guidance for the full year.Whirlpool said Monday it earned $276 million, or $3.72 a share, in the third quarter, compared to $238 million, o...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 24, 2017

Caterpillar’s Q3 Results Roar Past Estimates

Caterpillar shares rose nearly 5% on Tuesday after the construction and mining giant announced quarterly results that blew by analysts’ estimates amid continued strong demand for heavy equipment in North America and China.For the third quarter, Caterpillar posted revenue of $11.4 billion, up 24% ...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 24, 2017

Promotions Drive McD’s 6% Comp Sales Jump

McDonald’s reported Tuesday that same-store sales rose 6% in the third quarter as promotions and fresh foods offerings offset any effects from the recent hurricanes.The third-quarter gain followed a 6.6% jump in the previous quarter — the best in five years — and topped analysts’ expectations of ...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 24, 2017

Kimberly-Clark Misses on Sales, Profit Beats

Kimberly-Clark reported lower-than-expected quarterly sales on Tuesday amid continued weakness in the North American market but the personal care company’s cost-cutting helped drive a 3% increase in profit.For the third quarter, Kimberly-Clark’s net revenue totaled $4.64 billion, up 1% from $4.59...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 23, 2017

P&G Sales Rise 1% on Grooming Weakness

A week after fending off Nelson Peltz’s bid for a board seat, Procter & Gamble (P&G) delivered another quarter of stagnant sales, possibly giving more ammunition to the activist investor.For the first quarter, P&G’s net sales rose just 1% to $16.65 billion, missing analysts’ expectati...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 23, 2017

GE Broods on Cash-flow Woes

Times are tough at General Electric, and the big problem is cash.That much was evident on an extraordinary third-quarter earnings call on Friday, with outgoing GE CFO Jeffrey Bornstein saying that “the buck stops with me” and CEO John Flannery declaring, “We can, and we will, and we must improve ...

By David Katz • Oct. 23, 2017

GE Chief Exec Calls Q3 Results ‘Unacceptable’

General Electric’s third-quarter report highlighted the challenges facing new CEO John Flannery, who called it “completely unacceptable” and indicated there are big changes ahead for the conglomerate.Excluding one-off items, GE earned 29 cents per share from continuing operations in the third qua...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 20, 2017

‘Nimble’ Rivals Take Bite out of Unilever Sales

Unilever is a Goliath of the consumer products world but its latest quarterly results suggest some relative minnows are nibbling away its sales.The maker of Dove soap, Lipton tea, Hellman’s mayonnaise and other major brands said Thursday that underlying sales grew 2.6% in the third quarter to 13....

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 20, 2017

Forecast of ‘Dynamite’ Q4 Boosts SAP Shares

German business software giant SAP missed estimates for third-quarter revenue and profit but its shares rallied after its CEO predicted a “dynamite” fourth quarter.For the third quarter, SAP’s revenue grew 8% to 5.59 billion euros ($6.6 billion) from a year earlier, while core profit excluding sp...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 19, 2017

Directors’ Experience Doesn’t Always Pay Off

It may seem obvious that shareholders stand to benefit when outside directors on a company’s board have experience in the industry the company operates in.However, a forthcoming research paper contends, that doesn’t hold true in the case of highly diversified companies, where directors tend to “p...

By David McCann • Oct. 19, 2017

Six Ways to Reduce Days Sales Outstanding

Cash flow is the lifeblood of any business. And a key measure to track for a healthy cash flow is Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). DSO represents the number of days it takes for a company to convert its accounts receivable into cash. The sooner the company gets that cash, the stronger its cash flow ...

By James Daly • Oct. 19, 2017

IBM Stock up 5% on Renewed Turnaround Hopes

IBM shares climbed more than 5% in after-hours trading as the company’s stronger-than-expected third-quarter results revived hopes that its turnaround strategy is back on track.Big Blue has been reorganizing itself around a set of emerging cloud, security, and data analytics businesses that CEO G...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 18, 2017

Rio Tinto, Ex-CFO, Former CEO Inflated Assets: SEC

The Securities and Exchange yesterday charged Rio Tinto, as well the company’s ex-CFO and former chief executive, with hiding the impairment of a Mozambican coal business, thus enabling the global mining giant to inflate the value of the coal assets it had bought for $3.7 billion. Three years lat...

By David Katz • Oct. 18, 2017

U.S. Bancorp Posts Record Revenue, Profit

U.S. Bancorp reported Wednesday that quarterly revenue grew faster than expenses for the first time since the end of 2015 but the U.S. Bank parent’s shares fell amid concerns over loan growth.For the third quarter, U.S. Bancorp’s net income increased 4%, to $1.56 billion, or 88 cents a share, fro...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 18, 2017

Incentive Comp: Lessons Learned from Wells Fargo

It’s already been more than a year since the fake-accounts scandal at Wells Fargo came to light. The matter not only led to the removal of the company’s CEO and other top executives but also left a trail of lawsuits and a significantly damaged brand reputation in its wake.Steve Giusti Yet, despit...

By Steve Giusti • Oct. 17, 2017

Netflix Posts Record Q3 Subscriber Growth

Netflix posted another quarter of strong subscriber growth but earnings missed analysts’ expectations as the digital streaming giant continued to spend heavily on content.Netflix said Monday it finished the third quarter with 109.25 million streaming subscribers worldwide, up 5.3 million on the p...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 17, 2017

US Slump Continues to Weigh on Harley-Davidson Sales

Despite a continued sales slump in the U.S., Harley-Davidson is aiming to add 2 million new riders over the coming decade. Its third-quarter results illustrated the challenges in the way of achieving that goal.The world’s largest manufacturer of heavyweight motorcycles reported on Tuesday that ne...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 17, 2017

What Are Auditors Looking For This Year?

Across virtually every sector of the economy, corporations face unprecedented changes in the business environment, driven by global economic trends, technological developments, and regulatory initiatives, among other forces. Ultimately, the impact of these changes will be evident in the companies...

By Robert Rostan • Oct. 16, 2017

Be Cautious About ‘Sweating Your Assets’

Although there are countless operating initiatives we can pursue to create value in business they all can be characterized in one of three ways.First, we can make investments that deliver a return over the life of the investment above the required return on capital. Second, we can improve the pro...

By Gregory V. Milano • Oct. 16, 2017

Citigroup Profit up 8% to $4.1B, Earnings Beat

Citigroup’s investment banking division boosted its third-quarter results, with profit up 8% and earnings handily beating analysts’ estimates.The bank’s net income rose to $4.13 billion from $3.84 billion in the year-ago quarter and earnings per share increased about 15% to $1.42, reflecting Citi...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 13, 2017

SEC Endorses Simplification of Disclosure Rules

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has moved a step closer toward lightening the compliance burden on public companies by simplifying disclosure requirements.The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of December 2015 directed the SEC to modernize and simplify the requirement...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 12, 2017

Consumer Loans Drive JPMorgan Earnings Beat

JPMorgan Chase reported quarterly earnings on Thursday that beat analysts’ estimates as better-than-expected loan demand offset continued weakness in trading operations.For the third quarter, the bank posted net income of $6.7 billion, or $1.76 per share, on revenue of $26.2 billion. Analysts had...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 12, 2017