Sageworks Blog

May19

4 Reasons private companies matter Mary Ellen Biery [email] Research Specialist

May 19, 2013 09:00

Wall Street may get the headlines, but did you know that of the 27 million businesses in the U.S., less than 1 percent are publicly traded on the major exchanges? The rest are privately held, and these private companies represent a vital segment of the U.S. economy. Here are four reasons to learn more about private companies. [More]

Apr24

Pitfalls of traditional methods for predicting default Billy Burnet [email]

Apr 24, 2013 10:43

Exposure to credit risk continues to be a focus of regulators and financial institutions years after the financial crisis, but traditional methods of predicting default may have drawbacks. Institutions that use "homegrown" scoring methods or proprietary scoring models should be cognizant of problems related to the reliability and consistency of data that is used to create the model and perform the analysis on a specific borrower. This post examines some of the pitfalls of the traditional methods and identifies how Sageworks’ probability of default model helps address those challenges. [More]

Apr19

Sageworks hosts Private Company Outlook event in NYC Jackie Peluso [email] VP of Media Relations

Apr 19, 2013 12:25

Due to the limited data available about their performance, private companies are rarely the focus of national news. But private companies will be highlighted at an upcoming, New York City event.
On April 30th, members of the media, business executives and other financial professionals will gather for the Private Company Outlook event to hear the latest information on the current health of U.S. privately held companies. Private companies, which create over 65% of new jobs and more than 50% of GDP, are the driving force of the U.S. economy. [More]

Sep 26, 2012 12:48

When the Census Bureau releases the August report on durable goods manufacturing Thursday, it’s a fair bet that privately held companies will have played a key role in the numbers. After all, private U.S. firms account for 54.5 percent of aggregate non-residential fixed investment. But how are privately held companies faring in general in the current environment? [More]

Sep20

Drought impacts on cattle ranching continue Mary Ellen Biery [email] Research Specialist

Sep 20, 2012 14:12

Widespread drought conditions have been providing cattle producers more incentives to thin their herds on top of last year’s record liquidation, a trend Sageworks recently noted in a financial update on privately held cattle ranching and farming businesses. [More]

Sep06

How do private companies stack up against public companies? Mary Ellen Biery [email] Research Specialist

Sep 06, 2012 08:34

Private companies’ profitability has lagged that of public companies in the S&P 500 through the recession and recovery, according to recent data from Sageworks. But private companies took a less drastic hit to sales, on a percentage basis, and saw less compression and less volatility in their net profit margins during that time period. [More]

Aug07

The 'Dog Days' for jobs Mary Ellen Biery [email] Research Specialist

Aug 07, 2012 10:53

Friday’s jobs report for July was neither decidedly sunny nor gloomy, even though stocks on Wall Street rallied to three-month highs. U.S. employers added a net 163,000 jobs in July, topping forecasts, but the unemployment rate and the number of total unemployed were essentially flat to June levels, indicating hiring is still experiencing its own version of the “Dog Days” of summer. “Even though the number of jobs added was more than expected, the unemployment rate at 8.3 percent is still too high,” said Sageworks CEO Brian Hamilton. [More]

Aug 02, 2012 08:18

Facebook’s recent IPO, the sharp drop in its share price, and the delay of other IPOs in the pipeline have reignited questions about why more U.S. companies aren’t going public and what’s behind the 15-year decline in the number of publicly traded companies. Sageworks CEO Brian Hamilton discusses the factors leading private-company owners to see few benefits to an IPO. [More]

Jul09

(Temporary) Help wanted, apparently - SageworksStats on Forbes.com Mary Ellen Biery [email] Research Specialist

Jul 09, 2012 14:10

June unemployment in the U.S. was flat, and nearly a third of jobs added were in the temporary-help services industry, a field that has shown strong growth over the last 12 months, according to data from Sageworks Inc. “During the last 12 months, privately held employment service firms have seen their revenues grow by almost 20 percent annually, which far outpaces the average annual growth of around 10 percent for private companies across all industries,” said Sageworks analyst Libby Bierman. “That sales growth validates what the employment numbers released this morning showed—the economy has recently been adding a lot of temporary jobs, which are positions that employment service firms routinely fill.” [More]

Jul03

The health care ruling's upside for private companies Mary Ellen Biery [email] Research Specialist

Jul 03, 2012 10:41

Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling is reviving impassioned discussions about whether President Obama's health care law will be positive or negative for businesses, especially smaller ones. And while those debates will continue for months or maybe years, one immediate, positive impact on owners of privately held businesses is that they know more about what to expect in the short term, said Brian Hamilton, co-founder and CEO of Sageworks Inc. [More]