The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Newell Brands earnings at $78M
Pandemic plays havoc with big companies’ fortunes worldwide.
Newell Brands, the Atlanta-based consumer goods company that makes Rubbermaid, Papermate, Coleman and dozens of other name-brand products, on Friday reported second-quarter earnings of $78 million. On a per-share basis, the Atlanta-based company said it had net income of 18 cents. Earnings, adjusted for amortization costs and restructuring costs, came to 30 cents per share.
The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 18 cents per share.
The company posted revenue of $2.11 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.03 billion.
Newell Brands shares have fallen nearly 8% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has stayed nearly flat. The company’s stock has climbed 25% in the last 12 months.
Other notable quarterly reports
Alphabet. Google’s holding company reported its first-ever drop in quarterly revenue compared to the prior year. Although it was only a 2% decline, it was a telling sign of a major downturn in the digital ad market — and of the fact that the economy is in even worse shape than it was a decade ago during the Great Recession.
Facebook. An 11% increase in
revenue from the prior year was the company’s slowest growth since going public eight years ago.
Exxon. The oil giant lost $1.1 billion in the second quarter and brought in $32.6 billion in revenue, less than half of what it brought in at the same time last year. The quarter was one of the worst on record for the oil industry. The price of a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude fell below $0 in April, a stunning downfall that had not before been seen in the industry.
Caterpillar. Cutting operating costs by 25% helped the heavy-equipment maker make up for slowing sales after the pandemic ravaged demand. Dealers slashed inventories by $1.4 billion. Caterpillar sees a similar percentage decrease in end-user demand in the third quarter, and expects dealers to cut stockpiles by more than $2 billion for the year.
Chevron. Most of the company’s $8.27 billion losses during the quarter hit its upstream operations, or oil and gas production, including a $2.1 billion hit in the U.S. and $4 billion internationally, a sharp contrast to the $4.3 billion it earned at the same time last year. Chevron brought in $13.49 billion in revenue, about a third of what it brought in last year.
Merck. Surging sales of cancer medicines and reduced spending across the board helped Merck overcome a big hit from the coronavirus pandemic and pushed second quarter profits up by 12%, blowing past Wall Street projections. Merck boosted its financial forecast for the year even as it spends heavily on the development of two experimental vaccines and a possible treatment for COVID-19.
Fiat Chrysler. Forced to idle plants for about seven weeks, Fiat Chrysler still managed to make $46.2 million before taxes. Overall, the Italian-American automaker lost just over $1.2 billion and predicted improving conditions for the remainder of 2020.
Ford. The automaker’s results, posted Thursday, weren’t as grim as expected. Second-quarter net profit was $1.2 billion, pushed into the black by a $3.5 billion gain on the value of its stake in the Argo AI autonomous vehicle operation. Without the one-time gain, the company lost $1.9 billion, or 35 cents per share.
Nokia. Net profit for the quarter was up 22% at $376 million, though sales were down 11%. Outgoing CEO Rajeev Suri said that Nokia has now concluded 83 commercial deals for 5G.