How Foreign Direct Investment Can Drive Business Growth

Globalization seems to be taking a hit in many respects, with persistently weak global trade growth, rising protectionism, and increasing anti-immigrant sentiments in markets around the world. How can CFOs find global growth opportunities? Foreign direct investment (FDI) offers one compelling str...

By Erik R. Peterson and Paul A. Laudicina • April 26, 2017

Twitter Beats Estimates But Revenue Drops 8%

Twitter reported its largest quarterly increase in users since early 2015 but an 8% drop in revenue suggests it is still struggling to monetize its audience.The addition of nine million new monthly active users in the first quarter was a positive sign for Twitter, which had posted several quarter...

By Matthew Heller • April 26, 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

New Products Fuel Eli Lilly Q1 Earnings Beat

Eli Lilly swung to a loss in the first quarter but sales and adjusted profit beat estimates amid strong demand for new drugs including a diabetes injection.The drugmaker posted a net loss of $110.8 million, or 10 cents per share, for the first quarter ended March 31, compared with a profit of $44...

By Matthew Heller • April 26, 2017

In Defense of M&A Fairness Opinions

Editor’s note: The author of this article is employed by valuation and corporate finance advisor Duff & Phelps, the largest provider of fairness opinions for M&A transactions. The content of the article should be viewed in that light.Christopher Janssen The fairness opinion — a profession...

By Christopher Janssen • April 25, 2017

Riecker Named Sears’ Third CFO in Past Year

Sears has named Rob Riecker as its new finance chief, the third person to hold the position in the past year as the retailer struggles to implement a turnaround plan amid severe liquidity problems.Riecker, currently Sears’ controller and head of capital market activities, replaces Jason Hollar, w...

By Matthew Heller • April 24, 2017

GE Beats Estimates in ‘Strong Start’ to 2017

General Electric’s first-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings beat analysts’ estimates but a miss on industrial cash flow helped drive its stock down.GE’s Chief Executive Jeff Immelt called it a “strong start” to the year, citing 7% growth in organic revenues, 10% growth in orders and an increas...

By Matthew Heller • April 23, 2017

Risk Management Costs Dove 5% in 2016

With the insurance industry glutted with capital, corporations were among those benefiting from the oversupply by paying lower prices for property-casualty coverage in 2016, according to the Risk and Insurance Management Society’s annual benchmark study.  The main drivers of a 5% overall decline ...

By David Katz • April 21, 2017

Baseball CFO Looks to Win with CPM Software

Growing up in Philadelphia, Rob Gagliardi did what all baseball fans there do: bleed Phillies red.Rob Gagliaedi So it was “kind of surreal,” Gagliardi says, when, only a year after he landed a job as vice president of finance for the Tampa Bay Rays in 2007, the team had its first winning season a...

By David McCann • April 20, 2017

How to Get Your ROI on Employee Benefits Spending

If you’re like most employers, attracting and retaining the right talent is critical to your success. You want the right people in the right position with the right training to meet your customers’ needs, and you’ve likely made significant investments in your human capital to achieve these goals....

By Ron Shah • April 20, 2017

Trump and the Age of Magical Thinking

The term “magical thinking” refers to how children believe that their thoughts have a direct effect on the rest of the world.And in that vein, last week we learned that the “Trump Bump” is not real. Lower taxes and increased spending — these were never really serious goals, but merely political t...

By Christopher Whalen • April 19, 2017

AmEx Sales Drop 2% to $7.9B, Beat Estimates

American Express posted first-quarter earnings and sales that beat analysts’ expectations as it continues to regroup from the loss of its partnership with warehouse chain Costco.The company’s profit fell to $1.24 billion, or $1.34 per share, from $1.43 billion, or $1.45 per share, in the same per...

By Matthew Heller • April 19, 2017

IBM Shares Sink on Unexpected Revenue Drop

IBM reported a bigger-than-expected drop in revenue amid the continuing weakness of its legacy hardware and software businesses and a surprising decline in its cloud infrastructure segment.Big Blue has been reorganizing itself around a set of emerging cloud, security, and data analytics businesse...

By Matthew Heller • April 19, 2017

Auditors Can Be Friendly as Well as Skeptical, Study Finds

To maintain the professional skepticism that’s required of them, must independent auditors mistrust CFOs and chief executive officers?Following the audit scandals of the early part of this century, during which accounting giant Arthur Andersen went out of business as a result of its alleged fraud...

By David Katz • April 19, 2017

J&J Posts $17.7B in Revenue, Misses Estimates

Johnson & Johnson reported first-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates amid tepid growth in its pharmaceutical and consumer product sales.The company, which is on track to close its $30-billion acquisition of Actelion in the current quarter, on Tuesday posted net earnings of $4.42 b...

By Matthew Heller • April 19, 2017

Here’s Why Executive Pay Gets a Bum Rap

Maybe some executives are overpaid. The good ones, however, are not. In fact, a good case can be made that many of them are underpaid.D. Kevin Berchelmann Executive pay gets a bum rap. Looking at a total compensation number without context, it’s easy to understand why. Examine the real magnitude ...

By D. Kevin Berchelmann • April 18, 2017

Trading Revenue Drop Hurts Goldman Profit

Goldman Sachs surprised Wall Street on Tuesday, reporting a rare earnings miss as trading revenue fell 2% to $3.36 billion.The firm’s shares dropped 4.7% to $215.59, a 4-1/2 month low, on the first-quarter report, which also showed earnings per share of $5.15 and revenue of $8.026 billion. Analys...

By Matthew Heller • April 18, 2017

Blockchain: Should CFOs Believe the Hype?

Tipped as one of the technologies set to revolutionize how business is done across a range of industries, blockchain has risen to prominence in recent years. In Gartner’s 2016 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, which listed blockchain as an “at the peak” technology,  the firm estimated that it...

By Jeanne Boillet • April 14, 2017

Four Pitfalls Keeping Big Companies from Getting Bigger

Large companies are continuing to recover from the last recession, an economic tsunami that remains relevant even though it happened almost a decade ago. At the same time, “recovery” doesn’t necessarily equate to robust growth.The fact is, sustained growth has proven elusive for a majority of suc...

By David McCann • April 13, 2017

Wells Fargo Earnings Hit by Accounts Scandal

Wells Fargo on Thursday reported flat earnings and a decline in revenue amid signs that the scandal over fake accounts is continuing to hurt its business.Net income for the first quarter totaled $5.5 billion, or $1 a share, actually beating analysts’ estimates of earnings of 96 cents a share. but...

By Matthew Heller • April 13, 2017

Citi Earnings Beat Estimates With 17% Gain

Citigroup’s first-quarter earnings topped analysts’ estimates on both the top and bottom line as the bank’s institutional business posted double-digit sales growth across almost all business lines.Citigroup reported Thursday that net income for the first quarter rose 17% year over year to $4.1 bi...

By Matthew Heller • April 13, 2017

The New World of the R&D Tax Credit

When it comes to the research and development (R&D) tax credit, it’s a new world out there for U.S. startups and small businesses — and their CFOs should be getting in front of this potentially game-changing opportunity, no matter when their companies file their taxes.In December 2015, Congre...

By Dean Zerbe • April 13, 2017

Pier One Earnings Top Estimates But Sales Fall

Pier One reported fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday that topped analysts’ estimates while its top line benefited from a 28% increase in e-commerce sales.For the quarter ended Feb. 25, Pier One earned an adjusted 34 cents a share on sales of $528.4 million. Analysts had expected earnings of 33 cen...

By Matthew Heller • April 12, 2017

Toshiba Issues ‘Going Concern’ Warning

Hard on the heels of the bankruptcy filing of its U.S. nuclear power unit, Toshiba has warned that it may not be able to stay in business.The warning came as the ailing Japanese conglomerate released unaudited third-quarter results showing it lost 648 billion yen ($5.9 billion) and projected a 1....

By Matthew Heller • April 11, 2017

The Great Divide

All the attention on corporate income taxes at the federal level means state corporate income taxes in the United States rarely get discussed. While some states are raising taxes to address budgetary crises, others are lowering tax rates to lure businesses to operate within their borders. The res...

By CFO Editorial Staff • April 10, 2017

POTUS Primer: Kill the Tweets

Senior finance executives in the United States are concerned that President Trump’s off-the-cuff Twitter posts and public comments may affect business, specifically by causing market fluctuations and uncertainty. Finance chiefs also consider some of the president’s signature policy and tax initia...

By CFO Editorial Staff • April 6, 2017