MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, US — Cargill has announced that, starting with its latest earnings cycle, it will no longer publicly disclose quarterly earnings. Instead, the Minneapolis-based company said it only will share publicly its annual revenue and percent of operating cash flow that is reinvested back into the company.
Cargill said the move will take effect with its next earnings cycle, which will be announced July 16 and represents the end of the company’s fiscal year. Cargill skipped the release of its third-quarter financials at the end of March. At the time, the company said the decision reflected its desire to shift its focus back toward its customers and feeding the world during the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Cargill is a company focused on long-term growth and investment that benefits our customers, employees and communities,” the company said. “We are now aligning our reporting practices to those goals. As a private organization, it’s also fiscally responsible to limit the costs needed to publicly report short-term financial performance. We prefer to invest in sharing market insights and progress against our strategic priorities. Short-term financial performance — especially in volatile commodities markets — doesn’t reflect our long-term focus, nor is it representative of where we are going.”
As it undertakes the change in the reporting process, Cargill said it will continue to share the appropriate financial information to its stakeholders, including investor and lender audiences, as well as its customers and governments around the world.
Cargill also reaffirmed its commitment to its customers, saying it will hold itself accountable and remain transparent about what it is doing and how it is doing it. The company said it plans to continue sharing its annual report, provide regular updates on progress against goals and targets it has set across sustainability, investments, growth and culture and discuss market challenges and opportunities.
“Our decision to refocus away from public reporting of quarterly financial performance is an enterprise-wide decision and does not stem from our company’s performance over the last quarter or year,” Cargill said. “We will share in July our annual revenue for the latest fiscal year.”