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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hurricanes to Cut $44M From JetBlue Revenue

The recent string of hurricanes created some turbulence for JetBlue Airways, which said Wednesday that revenue and profit for the second half of the year would be hit by the weather.The airline said that on a preliminary basis, the hurricanes negatively impacted third-quarter revenue by about $44...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 11, 2017

E-Commerce to Power Walmart Sales in 2019

Wal-Mart Stores shares rose to the highest level in two years on Tuesday after the retailer predicted continued strong growth in online sales as it competes aggressively with Amazon.The Walmart chain’s U.S. e-commerce sales increased 60% in the last quarter, reflecting its efforts to integrate br...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 10, 2017

Metric of the Month: Hurricane-Proof Accounts Receivable

Delays in accounts receivable (AR) equal less working capital and liquidity, making AR one area where improving efficiency can pay off exponentially. One measure of an efficient process is the number of people it takes to get the work done: The fewer the people it takes to do the job, the more li...

By Michael Hinson • Oct. 9, 2017

JOBS Act Causes Post-IPO Volatility: Study

New research lends credence to concerns that there are inadequate protections for investors in companies that go public under the JOBS Act, resulting in higher risk premiums for issuers.The Jumpstart our Business Startups Act was signed into law in 2012 in the hope of spurring job creation by eas...

By David McCann • Oct. 6, 2017

CFOs on the Move: Week Ending Oct. 6

Joshua Smiley has been promoted to the top finance spot at Eli Lilly and Co., effective Jan. 1. Smiley, who is currently treasurer and senior vice president of finance, takes over for the retiring Derica Rice.Xia Liu Xia Liu has been named CFO and treasurer at Georgia Power, an electric subsidiar...

By Joan Urdang • Oct. 6, 2017

Investors Uneasy Over Costco Profit Growth

Shares of Costco Wholesale have fallen more than 7% since Amazon announced its acquisition of Whole Foods and Costco’s latest quarterly earnings report didn’t do much to ease investors’ concerns.For the fourth quarter, net income attributable to Costco rose to $919 million, or $2.08 per share, fr...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 6, 2017

EU Finds Amazon’s $294M Tax Break Illegal

Striking another blow against tax breaks for Silicon Valley giants, the European Commission has ruled that Luxembourg improperly allowed Amazon to avoid taxes on three quarters of its profits.The ruling follows a three-year investigation into a tax benefit that Luxembourg initially granted Amazon...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 4, 2017

Directorship Gains and Pains

Running finance at a large, publicly traded company is, of course, a big job with long hours and little downtime. So why would a CFO want to expend time and energy serving on the board of another company? Turns out there are many reasons—intellectual stimulation, skills building, an education in ...

By David McCann • Oct. 4, 2017

Paychex’ HR Services Fuel 4% Revenue Jump

Shares in Paychex rose more than 3% on Tuesday after the payroll processing services provider beat quarterly earnings estimates and forecast continued strong revenue growth in its HR outsourcing and services business.For the first quarter, Paychex posted net income of $227.8 million, or 63 cents ...

By Matthew Heller • Oct. 3, 2017

The Best Path Forward

“Money is everything,” goes the old saw, and in the current economy, many U.S. companies are swimming in it. The pile of cash held by U.S. corporations is more than $2 trillion and growing, stoked by low-cost bond issues, stringent cost-cutting, and sizable profits. But success brings its own cha...

By Russ Banham • Oct. 3, 2017