Accentuating the caveat emptor perspective with critical commentary on financial disclosure. I adopt a skeptical persona and look for chinks in the teflon coating of financial disclosure. My job is to identify financial warts. Perhaps a Black Swan. Disclosure: I do not hold positions in stocks mentioned for three trading days before or after blog post.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Illinois Tool Works Confuses Investors
Illinois Tool Works (ITW) issued a sneaky press release on Monday Feb 15 when most markets were closed. The press release purports to provide financial information but does not include any financials. The verbiage is challenging and confusing. They headlined a 9% increase in operating revenues for the quarter ending Jan 31, 2010. They continue to headline that base revenues are improving and in the same headline sentence lets investors know that base revenues declined 2%. The claim to improvement is because the comparable quarter is a 10% decline. The improvement is partially attributed to easier comparisons. They do not explain what was easier or why.