Blackstone Misses Estimates, AUM Hits Record

Investment firm Blackstone Group reported a 36% increase in earnings but missed analysts’ estimates as credit investments were hit by a drop in commodity prices.Blackstone’s economic net income (ENI) — a key metric for U.S. private equity that accounts for unrealized investment gains or losses — ...

By Matthew Heller • July 21, 2017

Malware Bug to Infect Nuance’s Q3 Results

Nuance Communications, a voice transcription service for health care providers, said Friday it expects its third- and fourth-quarter results to be impacted by a malware program that hit businesses around the world last month.Nuance was one of the many corporate victims of the “NotPetya” malware, ...

By Matthew Heller • July 21, 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

GE Shares Sink 2.9% Despite Q2 Earnings Beat

In the last earnings statement of CEO Jeff Immelt’s 16-year tenure, General Electric reported a smaller-than-expected decline in profit but its shares sank to a 21-month low.For the second quarter, GE’s earnings fell to 28 cents per share from 51 cents a year ago as revenue dropped 11.7% to $29.5...

By Matthew Heller • July 21, 2017

Rewards Spending Cuts Into AmEx Profit

American Express reported better-than-expected second-quarter results but net income fell 33% amid heavy promotional spending.The company’s profit dropped to $1.3 billion, or $1.47 per share, from $2.0 billion, or $2.10 per share, in the same period a year earlier. Sales reached $8.31 billion, up...

By Matthew Heller • July 20, 2017

What a Corporate Tax Cut Might Mean to Your Company

On April 26, 2017, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the basics of the Trump Administration’s desired corporate tax reform. In that briefing he stated, in part, “Right now, we have a 35% corporate rate on worldwide income and deferral. It is perhaps the most complicated and uncompetitiv...

By Mark E. Haskins and Paul J. Simko • July 20, 2017

Valspar Costs Weigh on Sherwin-Williams Profit

Paint maker Sherwin-Williams reported sales soared to an all-time quarterly high but costs related to its acquisition of Valspar weighed on its bottom line.The company has benefited from strong consumer spending and that continued in the second quarter as sales jumped 16% to $3.74 billion, beatin...

By Matthew Heller • July 20, 2017

W.W. Grainger CFO to Retire, Stock Falls 7%

Shares in W.W. Grainger tumbled on Wednesday, apparently reflecting investor concern over the retirement of CFO Ron Jadin even though the industrial supplier’s latest quarterly earnings beat Wall Street estimates.Jadin, 56, who joined the company in 1998 and has served as CFO since 2008, announce...

By Matthew Heller • July 19, 2017

BofA’s Retail Unit Hits ‘Milestone’ $2B Profit

Bank of America on Tuesday reported that second-quarter earnings rose 10% as revenue from its consumer banking unit was boosted by strong demand for loans amid low interest rates.CEO Brian Moynihan and CFO Paul Donofrio both described the quarter as one of the best in the bank’s history, with Moy...

By Matthew Heller • July 18, 2017

Revenue Drops 40% at Goldman’s FICC Unit

Goldman Sachs shares fell 2.5% on Tuesday as investors focused on the continuing troubles of the bank’s fixed income, currency, and commodities client execution unit rather than its quarterly earnings beat.For the second quarter, Goldman delivered earnings per share of $3.95, ahead of analysts’ e...

By Matthew Heller • July 18, 2017

Netflix Adds 5.2M Subscribers, Shares up 10%

Netflix shares rose more than 10% after the digital streaming giant said it added 5.2 million new subscribers in the second quarter, easily beating analysts’ projections.The return of marquee content such as “Orange is the New Black” and “House of Cards” helped boost Netflix subscriber growth in ...

By Matthew Heller • July 18, 2017

Falling Global Tax Rates Make U.S. Less Competitive

A country’s corporate tax rate is one of the largest factors that dictate where and how much companies invest their money. Presently, the United States is one of the highest-tax locations in the world, with a federal rate of 35% for corporations plus an extra layer of state taxes. Over the past 1...

By Jason Gerlis • July 18, 2017

The Ideal Federal Tax Rate? 21%

President Trump’s plan calls for cutting the federal corporate tax rate to 15%. However, 15% may not be feasible.Emilio Escandon A rate of 21% — whether applied strictly to business entities that are taxed at the corporate level or also applied to pass-through entities, such as S corporations and...

By Emilio Escandon • July 17, 2017

Customer Obsession Drives Financial Results: Study

It’s about the customer, stupid.Companies that aren’t putting solutions to customer concerns at the top of their to-do lists risk losing ground to competitors. That might not be a surprising statement, but new research suggests that CFOs are flat-out obsessed with the idea.In a survey of 250 fina...

By David McCann • July 17, 2017

CFOs Pump Out Free Cash Flow

On the heels of last year’s economic recovery, U.S. companies have improved brilliantly this year as generators of free cash flow, mostly by tying up less cash in working capital, a new study finds.“CFOs as a group have once again demonstrated their ability to improve on the generation of cash,” ...

By David Katz • July 14, 2017

House Looks at Tightening Pass-Through Rules

Republican lawmakers appear to be leaning toward coupling a cut in pass-through business tax rates intended for small businesses with rules that would prevent large companies from taking advantage of pass-through treatment.At a hearing on tax reform, Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), who is chairman of...

By Matthew Heller • July 14, 2017

Lower Corporate Taxes Would Spur Capital Investment

A tax rate in the range of 20% to 25% should make the United States an attractive destination for capital investments and help to align the fortunes of the overall economy with those of the stock market and corporations.Urooj Khan U.S. equities recently have been trading at all-time highs, and Am...

By Urooj Khan • July 13, 2017

Square-Off: What Corporate Tax Rate Is Best?

The ayes have it. Our panel of tax and accounting experts, whose opinionated essays are gathered here, voted 3-1 in favor of a major cut in the federal corporate income tax rate.But whether congressional Republicans will have better luck fashioning a new corporate tax structure than they’ve had c...

By David McCann • July 13, 2017

Profit Drop Clouds Delta’s 2.5% Revenue Rise

Delta Air Lines showed growth in a key revenue metric for the first time in two and a half years but sharply higher labor and fuel costs cut into its bottom line.For the second quarter, Delta’s passenger unit revenue — which compares sales to how many seats an airline flies and how far it flies t...

By Matthew Heller • July 13, 2017

Companies Aren’t Paying Their Fair Share of Taxes

Corporations and their lobbyists complain about the 35% federal corporate tax rate. But the effective corporate tax rate — what corporations actually pay after taking advantage of loopholes — is as low as 14%, according to a recent study by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.Frank C...

By Frank Clemente • July 13, 2017

SEC Chair Says Disclosure Burden Excessive

The new head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission believes its fundamental regulatory approach is sound but is concerned that disclosure burdens may be deterring some companies from going public.In a speech Wednesday, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton noted that the commission, lawmakers, and ot...

By Matthew Heller • July 12, 2017

Creating a Cognitive Audit

It’s likely that over the next several years, substantial portions of public and private company audits will be augmented by cognitive technologies. In fact, much of the audit profession is exploring, experimenting, and moving forward with efforts to use various cognitive technologies in the audi...

By Jon Raphael, Thomas H. Davenport, and Deloitte & Touche • July 12, 2017

Metric of the Month: Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting Costs

Today’s organizations are laser-focused on sustainable, profitable growth. To achieve it, they need top-quality business performance management, with a special focus on planning and management accounting. That puts CFOs in the hot seat, as finance and accounting are now expected to deliver strong...

By Michael Hinson • July 11, 2017

PepsiCo Q2 Profit Rises 11%, Beats Estimates

PepsiCo, one of the packaged food industry’s strongest performers, delivered another earnings beat, helped by increased sales of higher-margin healthier foods.For the second quarter, PepsiCo earned $1.50 a share, an 11% gain on a year ago, while revenue climbed 2% to $15.71 billion. Analysts had ...

By Matthew Heller • July 11, 2017

Modern Finance Feat: Stay Stable, Be Dynamic

At the recent “CFO of the Future Summit” — an Accenture Strategy-sponsored gathering of 33 CFOs and future CFOs at Harvard University — the increasingly bifurcated aspects of the job came up again and again.Christian CampagnaCFOs are being asked to live simultaneously in the present and the futur...

By Christian Campagna and Accenture • July 10, 2017

The CFO as ‘Chief Commercial Officer’

Like many finance chiefs who work for startups, Lukas Wickart, the CFO of AutoGravity, a fintech firm launched in 2015, must improvise his role, rather than fit himself into some preconceived set of functions.Lukas Wickart “There is no handbook or training on [the job] out there. As a startup, we...

By David Katz • July 10, 2017