Tuesday, April 20, 2021

"Companies can't stop talking about higher costs"

 From Yahoo Finance:

Cost pressures are the hottest topic on earnings calls

First quarter earnings season is less than a week old, but the biggest theme management teams are talking about is clear — higher costs. 

On Monday morning, Coca-Cola (KO) served as the week's first Blue Chip company to report its quarterly results. And the impact higher costs could have on the business were a notable part of the conference call conversation. 

"Last quarter, we said that despite a rising commodity environment, we expected a relatively benign impact in 2021, given our hedged positions," Coca-Cola CFO John Murphy told investors Monday morning. 

"While this continues to be the case, we're closely monitoring upward pressure in some inputs such as high fructose corn syrup, PET, metals, and other packaging materials as they impact us as well as our bottling partners." (Emphasis ours.) 

Later in the call, Murphy said in response to a question on costs that higher commodity prices are likely to be "more of a headwind [in 2022]." Murphy added Coke "typically [looks] to take pricing in with inflation." 

In other words, Coke will not be aggressive in raising its prices beyond what broad economic trends dictate. But as many readers are no doubt familiar, the inflation picture into the second half of this year is likely to look quite unique. More widespread vaccinations, loosening COVID restrictions, pent-up demand from excess consumer savings, and supply shortages ranging from service sector labor to vacation rentals are likely to push prices higher across a wide range of goods and services.....

....MUCH MORE

Also at Yahoo Finance:

P&G is raising prices in September — here's why