by timeinthemarket
CNBC: Kraft Heinz slashes dividend, discloses SEC subpoena — stock tanks
Kraft Heinz disclosed it has received a subpoena from the SEC as part of an investigation into the company’s procurement accounting policies.
The company is also trimming its dividend as it seeks to strengthen its balance sheet.
It also reported fourth-quarter earnings and revenue below Wall Street expectations.
Terrible earnings and the dividend cut really speaks to the struggles that brand name companies are having.
I think it’s interesting that these long term safe haven names don’t seem so safe anymore. You used to be able to count on these guys to be safe dividend payers in good times and bad but it’s been a struggle lately. Of course, KHC is more leveraged than a lot of the others but it’s still an interesting strategy.
The other part that is worrisome is this from the earnings report “the Company recorded non-cash impairment charges of $15.4 billion to lower the carrying amount of goodwill in certain reporting units, primarily U.S. Refrigerated and Canada Retail, and certain intangible assets, primarily the Kraft and Oscar Mayer trademarks.”
That’s a big impairment charge to some big brand names.
I wonder how Buffet feels about this unless he’s just taking it private eventually.
Just gonna repost this from February last year. Maybe it can be an annual tradition!
Maybe, just maybe, ~$100 Billion companies shouldn’t hire 29-year-olds with less than 7 years working experience to be the CFO of their giant complex corporations.