2014 Working Capital Survey

CFO just published the 2014 working capital survey by REL Consulting. The report indicates that the average days working capital decreased only .2 days over the past year. REL's analysis indicates that the 1,000 large U.S. companies included in the survey could reduce payables and receivables by $266 billion and $331 billion, respectively. While efficiency in short-term financial operations will help profitability, the lack of improvement in working capital management in recent years is likely due to the low interest rate environment. Some of the better performers in day's working capital outstanding include Murphy Oil (negative 60 days), Linn Energy (negative 50 days), Anadarko Petroleum (negative 45 days), and Dell (negative 23 days).

AbbVie Acquires Shire

U.S. pharmacuetical company AbbVie announced that Shire Plc has agreed to be acquired for about $54.7 billion. For AbbVie, the acquisition gives the company Shire's portfolio of expensive medicines, which is needed since AbbVie's Humira, the world's best-selling prescription, loses patent protection in 2016. With any acquisition, you would expect synergies, however, the most important synergy for AbbVie may be that the acquisition will allow the company to relocate to Ireland, which could reduce its tax bill from 22 percent to 13 percent.

Capital Expenditures Slow

Capital expenditures fell by three percent in the first quarter of 2014, to an annualized value of $1.8 trillion. With the lower capital expenditures, the financing gap (think external financing needed) was a negative $77.4 billion, the 21st consecutive negative quarter. U.S. nonfinancial companies issued $4.873 trillion in new debt during the quarter and spent about one-half of that repurchasing equity.

Creating Charts In Excel

While you have done a great job with your data analysis, a chart or graph is often the best way to convey the information. And while we think Excel Master does a good job introducing you to Excel's charting capabilities, for more on creating charts and graphs in Excel, check out this article from PCWorld.

Junk Bond Issuance Grows

The Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global High Yield Index began in 1997 and 12 years later, the value of junk bonds in the index reached $1 trillion. In the last four years, another $1 trillion has been added. During 2013, a record $477 billion in junk bonds were issued, and, so far this year, $338 billion in junk bonds have been issued. A major factor that is causing the rapid increase in junk bond issuance is the "reach-for-yield," that is, investors are looking for a yield on debt in the near zero government bond environment.  Additionally, Moody's measure of the the strength of junk bond covenants is the weakest since the company began tracking covenants in 2011.

Big Projects, Big Problems

A recent article in CFO states that schedules on capital budgeting projects are missed by an average of 55 percent and budgets are missed by 33 percent. One potential problem for capital budgeting is that most projects are evaluated by project advocates within the company, who are often biased in favor of the project. For example, a financial services company found that the initial cost projections for its projects were off by a factor of 2.37, meaning that for every dollar originally projected to begin the project, it actually cost $2.37. A second problem is that small and large projects are evaluated the same way, especially in regards to timing. For example, consider you and three friends are going to dinner together, each from a different starting location. Each of you has a 50 percent probability of arriving on time. What is the probability that you will all arrive on time for dinner? While you might think that it is 50 percent, it is actually 6.25 percent (.50 × .50 × .50 × .50)! In a large project, with intermediate tasks that are dependent on preceding tasks, it is easy to get behind schedule very quickly. 

That's The Way The Cupcake Crumbles

Cupcake company Crumbs announced that it would file a Chapter 7 liquidation. Crumbs, which was founded in 2003 and went public in 2011, had 65 stores in 12 states. The company sold cupcakes in flavors such as Cookie Dough and Girl Scout Thin Mint. For the first quarter of 2014, the company lost $3.8 million, a sharp increase from the 2013 first quarter loss of $2 million.