A financial obfuscation of the dot-com era is making a comeback: Hundreds of U.S. companies are trumpeting adjusted net income, adjusted sales and “adjusted Ebitda.”
These adjusted measures paint a rosier picture of corporate earnings. Without them, third-quarter earnings per share fell 13% for the biggest U.S. companies, according to Deutsche Bank research, instead of falling 0.1% with them.
About one in 10 major securities filings this year used the term adjusted Ebidta—or adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization—up from one in 40 a decade ago. About a quarter of earnings-related filings this year included figures that don’t comply with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, as well as more standard measures, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K filings.
The terms now crop up in quarterly earnings releases and securities filings for companies as varied as Grape-Nuts-maker Post Holdings Inc., chemical company Dow Chemical Co. , wireless operator AT&T Inc. and hamburger chain Wendy’s Co.
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