Here's what companies are saying about Trump by Matt
Krantz, USA Today 12/1/16
After eyeing Donald
Trump with caution leading up to the Presidential election, investors quickly
hoped for the best after his win. Now companies are starting to speak up
cautiously about what they see.
Trump has been
discussed at recent earnings conference calls or at presentations with
investors at 29 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500, including Dow Chemical (DOW), Medtronic (MDT) and Deere (DE), according to a USA
TODAY analysis of data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Wall
Street might have boldly embraced Trump's more bullish platforms such as
lowering corporate taxes, but most companies talking about the incoming
president remain optimistic, but also more tentative as specifics are yet
to be seen.
"Far be it for me
to prognosticate on the elections," said Howard Ungerleider, chief
financial officer at Dow Chemical during a company presentation on Nov. 29.
"But I mean, if you think about a Republican House, Senate, and
Republican-elect presidency as well ... I think the stock market has spoken at
least in a view of lower taxes, potential for repatriation of cash overseas and
potential growth."
While Trump's
inauguration is still weeks away, company managements are looking at how new
policies could affect their operations going forward. A few themes emerging so
far include the need to be:
* Flexible in planning for the future. Given that investors are still in the dark
about what Trump's specific proposals will be, some companies are looking at
several what ifs. "Internally, we're evaluating different scenarios ...
we're looking at what that impact may or may not be. But we're looking at all
kinds of scenarios, because at the end of the day, we want to be prepared
for whatever does become reality," Tony Huegel, director of investor
relations at Deere told investors Nov. 23.
* Observant of the impact on U.S. economy. Several companies are focused on what the
moves could mean for their own investments in America. The "U.S. economy
is the bright spot in the world right now and continues to be. I mean, we're
investing in the U.S. with our U.S. Gulf Coast assets," says Dow's Ungerleider.
Vincent Roche, CEO of electronic chip maker Analog Devices (ADI), stated the company is in a "wait and
see" mode until specifics are known, "but maybe on the margins, it'll
be good, at least for the American business environment." And Robert
Shanks, CFO at Ford, said in a special call to investors on Nov. 17,
"They're (Trump Administration) focused on bringing manufacturing jobs
back to the U.S. They're focused on building a stronger, more competitive
infrastructure, which I think is - that's great for the country as
well."
* Positioned to profit regardless of what
happens. It's widely
believed infrastructure spending will rise under Trump. That's expected to
be a boon for construction planning companies, like Jacobs Engineering (JEC).
Jacobs' CEO Steven Demetriou said Nov. 22 the company was already bullish
about construction, especially transportation projects in Texas, Florida and
California, even before the election and had already invested there. "We
were bullish on our capabilities to grow in transportation regardless of the
election outcome. And so we're pleased to see a lot of the positive hype around
what's going on with the Trump expectations," he says.
* Aware policy changes in motion don't necessarily stop. CEO of medical device maker Medtronic, Omar
Ishrak, was careful to not speculate about the future, but was asked if a
repeal of the Affordable Care Act would hurt business on Nov. 22. Ishrak
reiterated moves in health care toward better outcomes and lower costs
were already underway "and it doesn't really matter which
administration or in which country you're in." The same goes for new rules
on asset managers pushed by the Department of Justice, which Trump has spoken
out against. "I'm not sure if a lot changes. So these are trends, as I said,
that have been in place for years now, a lot of the things that we've been
looking at," says Loren Michael Starr, chief financial officer at
investment firm Invesco (IVZ).
"I kind of think that once the train's out, it's just a little hard to
stop the train."
Most the companies
indicated they will find opportunity, no matter who is in the White House.
"We're getting into our 52nd year now as a company. So we've gone through
many regime changes across the world and many, many ... American presidents. So
I think let's just wait and see," says Roche. "We've been around
for 119 years. We've been through many world wars and many elections and many
economic cycles, and so we're fully prepared to go forward the next
four years as well," Ungerleider says.
S&P 500 COMPANIES THAT HAVE DISCUSSED TRUMP SINCE NOV.15 Company,
symbol, date of mention
United Rentals (URI),
12/1
Republic Services
(RSG), 12/1
CBRE, CBG, 12/1
Parker-Hannifin (PH),
12/1
Jacobs Engineering,
JEC, 12/1
Northrop Grumman, NOC,
12/1
Cognizant Technology,
CTSH, 11/30
Global Payments, GPN,
11/30
L-3 Communications,
LLL, 11/30
Norfolk Southern, NSC,
11/30
Union Pacific, UNP,
11/30
Lockheed Martin, LMT,
11/30
Navient, NAVI, 11/30
Raytheon, RTN, 11/30
CME Group, CME, 11/30
CSX, CSX, 11/30
Kansas City Southern,
KSU, 11/29
Baxter, BAX, 11/29
JP Morgan Chase, JPM,
11/29
Dow Chemical, DOW,
11/29
Tiffany, TIF, 11/29
Deere, DE, 11/23
Analog Devices, ADI,
11/22
Medtronic, MDT, 11/22
Cabot Oil & Gas,
COG, 11/17
BorgWarner, BWA, 11/17
Ford Motor, F, 11/17
Becton, Dickinson,
BDX, 11/17
Anadarko Petroleum,
APC, 11/17
Source: S&P Global
Market Intelligence, USA TODAY
Comments
The
S&P gave $millions to Hillary to protect themselves from her
retaliation. It was like paying
protection money the week before the Mafia went to jail and dissolved.
The only
companies I trust are the oil and coal guys. Most of these weasels were in bed
with the Marxist Globalist cronies and have whiplash over the election. We can
blame them for the Obama era because they knew everything and said nothing.
Now they
are pounding on their calculators to see what their profit prospects are under
a Trump regime. Hopefully, they will put their manufacturing plants in rural
counties through the Midwest and restore the US economy.
Those
companies who were knee deep into Globalism need replace their current Liberal
executives with Constitutional Free Enterprisers.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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