Sageworks Blog

Feb 26, 2013 12:11

Guest columnist John Calia discusses current trends in mergers and acquisitions, including recent deals tied to Warren Buffett, and how these trends affect small businesses. [More]

Feb 25, 2013 14:24

Sageworks’ monthly report on the state of privately held companies in America, released today, shows that private companies in the United States continued to increase sales and improve their net profit margins in the period ending in January 2013. [More]

Feb 22, 2013 08:09

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recently proposed a new model for accounting for credit losses that, if adopted, could force banks to boost their loan loss reserves and recognize losses from loans more quickly.

Feb 21, 2013 12:56

Gas prices continue to rise, but interestingly enough, only a small portion of the profit is actually going into the pockets of gas station owners. According to data from Sageworks, private gas stations have lower net profit margins than the average private company.

“The average private company is making roughly eight cents of profit for every dollar of revenue brought in,” said Sageworks analyst Libby Bierman. “The owners of privately held gas stations, however, are making less than three cents for every dollar. In fact, for at least each of the past ten years, the industry has had a net profit margin of less than 3 percent, at times as low as 1 percent.” [More]

Feb21

Spotlight on manufacturing trends Mary Ellen Biery [email] Research Specialist

Feb 21, 2013 10:09

Manufacturing has been a relative bright spot in the economy since the recession, and President Obama earlier this month called for new efforts to boost manufacturing. So what is the “State of the Union” for privately held manufacturing companies? Sageworks takes a look at sales, profitability trends. [More]

Feb 20, 2013 13:57

These days, you must have more than just the right answer for your ALLL reserve calculation, says Drew Roberts, President of Burton, Roberts & Meredith, LLC. In this guest column, Roberts discusses how ALLL regulation has changed and what institutions can do to improve. [More]

Feb 19, 2013 16:58

What platform are institutions currently using to assist with their ALLL calculation? Sageworks recently polled over 130 financial institutions and found that 84% are using Excel, while the majority of those using third party ALLL solutions use a web-based ALLL methodology. [More]

Feb18

ALLL 101: Infographic on calculating a bank's reserves Libby Bierman [email] Analyst

Feb 18, 2013 15:57

Sageworks' risk management consultants documented the process that banks typically follow when calculating the allowance for loan and lease losses or ALLL in the institution. This is a quarterly process but may be completed monthly if the complexity or performance of the bank's portfolio merits closer attention. Check out this infographic that explains the process! [More]

Feb 15, 2013 16:03

Sageworks analyst Libby Bierman and risk management consultant Regan Camp recently conducted a webinar to discuss three concerns that bank regulators have voiced in recent months regarding increasing competitive pressures in the commercial and industrial (C&I) lending space. In this video, Bierman and Camp discuss the concerns, which center on: Inexperience with business entities: Examiners are worried about departments or individuals analyzing C&I for the first time. Have they had adequate experience or training? Improper global cash flow analysis: Financial institutions with previous concentrations in CRE or consumer lending might be unaccustomed to the global cash flow analysis... [More]

Feb14

Private companies see higher per-worker sales, profits Mary Ellen Biery [email] Research Specialist

Feb 14, 2013 09:34

By one measure, private-company employees in the U.S. are the most efficient they’ve been in years, according to new data from Sageworks. But given the uncertain employment outlook, it’s unclear whether per-employee sales and profits will continue to climb. [More]