Calcbench

  On May 5 the Securities and Exchange Commission unveiled a proposal to allow public companies to adopt semi-annual rather than quarterly reporting. That proposal is out for public comment until July 6.  Calcbench believes semi-annual reporting would be a serious mistake for the U.S. capital markets. Below is the full text of a comment letter we submitted to the SEC earlier this week stating that opposition. You can submit your own comments via the SEC website . To: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission RE: Reforming Proposed Amendments to Permit Optional Semiannual Reporting by Public Companies - File Number S7-2026-15 Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Securities and Exchange Commission's proposal to permit domestic reporting companies to file one semiannual report on Form 10-S and one annual report per fiscal year, in lieu of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. I am writing on behalf of Calcbench, a financial data platform used by institutional and individual i...

Today we have yet another entry in the annals of unusual tariff disclosures — this time from beleaguered children’s clothing retailer Children’s Place ($PLCE), which apparently has decided to sell its expected tariff refunds as a short-term cash infusion. First let’s look at the big picture, which is not particularly good for Children’s Place right now. As described in its latest quarterly report, filed on June 12 , year-over-year sales declined 11.1 percent, its operating loss grew by 74.9 percent, and quarterly net loss went from $34 million to $53.2 million, a jump of 56.3 percent. Management lamented that “our value customer has been impacted by higher gas and grocery prices,” and talked about “transformation efforts in a challenging retail environment.”  Then came the interesting stuff.  Children’s also reported that it has filed for $40 million in tariff refunds. That’s about 3.1 percent of Children’s total 2025 sales, which were $1.21 billion. (The U.S. Supreme Court o...

Today we return to tariffs, which continue to be a vexing issue for companies and financial analysts alike. What are companies paying for tariffs? How much are tariffs squeezing margins? How much money might companies recoup from tariff refunds, if any at all?  Consumer products giant Procter & Gamble ($PG) provided a fascinating example of what companies are disclosing in its latest quarterly report, filed on April 24 . In the Management Discussion & Analysis section, tucked away on Page 19, of the filing, Procter & Gamble disclosed that gross margin decreased 150 basis points to 49.5 percent of net sales for the quarter. Then came a long list of bullet points for why gross margins were getting squeezed (emphasis ours): 180 basis points of decline from unfavorable product mix, 100 basis points of product and packaging investments,  50 basis points of higher restructuring costs, 50 basis points of higher costs from tariffs, 20 basis points of other items and round...