Windfall for multinational U.S. firms as U.S. dollar takes a dive

A newly printed U.S. dollar bill is shown at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's Western Currency Facility in Fort Worth, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)

A slump in the U.S. dollar has come to the rescue of some major multinational U.S. companies this earnings season, easing the sting from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs that have driven up costs and upended financial planning.

A weaker dollar enhances the value of foreign earnings of U.S. companies, while also making American exports more competitive.

Companies such as Levi Strauss, Netflix, Pepsi and 3M, which generate significant revenue from overseas sales, reported a boost to their April-June earnings or raised their annual forecasts due to the slump in the dollar.

The greenback has lost about 10 per cent this year, due to rapidly changing U.S. trade policy and worries about growth and ballooning government debt.

Last week, PepsiCo, which relies on international business for about 40 per cent of its total net revenue, forecast a smaller annual profit drop helped by a weaker dollar.

The dollar weakness “can be another source of upside that helps solidify the narrative of a very solid earnings season,” said Angelo Kourkafas, senior global investment strategist at Edward Jones.

“However, there is a limit to how much credit investors will give to companies that demonstrate a large upside surprise to estimates just driven by currency trends.”

Based on two decades of data, every one per cent depreciation in the dollar historically improves S&P 500 earnings per share growth by about 0.6 percentage points, according to LSEG data. Roughly 38 per cent of S&P 500 revenue is derived from international markets.

Information technology, consumer discretionary, health care and industrial companies have the highest international exposure.

“We originally expected over $100 million of headwinds from a strengthening dollar and the reverse has happened,” medical equipment maker Edward Lifesciences CFO Scott Ullem said at a Jefferies conference on June 4.

Tailwind not enough

Still, a forex tailwind isn’t always enough to reassure investors, who are looking out for signs of real growth as skittish consumers curb spending.

Investors typically do not reward FX-driven sales beats the way they reward constant-currency beats, Goldman Sachs strategists said in a note.

“In many ways, investors should consider some of these things as transitory or one-time adjustments that are not sustainable,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Investment Management.

Netflix shares declined more than four per cent on Friday as some investors were disappointed by a revenue forecast raise that was driven more by a weaker dollar than strong demand.

Here’s a list of some the companies that noted a currency-related impact in their latest earnings:

(Reporting by Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)