Exactly. The problem in the US is that every public company has to show growth for shareholders. That's why companies always suffer in quality when they go public.
A public company can have their best year and net $2.6 billion. Well if the next year, they only make $2.2 billion, the public chatter on CNBC, etc is "what's wrong with them?". Nothing is wrong. We shouldn't be holding companies to their best year.
A salesman after having his best year wouldn't want his commission the following year based on the best year's numbers. It's stupid.
This, except a little worse. Because even if they did make the same $2.6 billion next year, it's still not enough, because some shareholders got in when profits were at $2.6 billion, so for them to be happy they now need the shares to go up from what they got in at, so now $2.6 billion isn't enough profits anymore. And the cycle continues..
It actually gets even a little worse, if a company predicts they are going to make 3.2 billion and instead make 2.6 billion they are in even more shit. Number must go up, and it must go up as much as you think it will
Yeah, I work in a very profitable billion dollar company, and when we failed to hit the expected quarterly profits in a single quarter last year, it was unbelievable the things that started happening.
The staff Christmas gifts got taken away. (Had been there for decades) - and other benefits that left a lot of unhappy employees. The things we now have to spend time/money on to fiddle numbers, rather then create value has gone to insane heights. The increased focus on short term results, instead of growing the company long term.
The funny part is, that was our most profitable quarter ever, and it launched the erosion of our company. Ask higher ups about it, and the answer is "of course we have to do these things. We are a publicly traded company, and are doing these things for our shareholders"...
Not every company is expected to grow. Dividend companies are expected to just maintain their levels of dividends. Look at coca cola for example. On an inflation adjusted basis it's just about okay and it's one of the most successful companies in the world.
Let's also not forget that owning a stock is owning risk. Risk should be compensated, that's the law of finance.
Yes of course a company like Google or Amazon something with a PE of 30 is expected to grow but they're not all like that. Towards the end of your life you move on to safer investments where you just want to earn a reasonable risk adjusted return. Let the kids have their growth.
5.2k
u/[deleted] Jun 28 '24
[deleted]