Cindy Shaw Earnings Quotations

We view this as a legal way of artificially boosting earnings by moving expenses to a place where investors generally won't see them.

We have been citing improving execution as a key driver of earnings growth while conventional wisdom and headlines have credited cost cutting. Based on yesterday's results and questions on yesterday's conference call, we think investors are finally realizing that cost cutting is only part of the story.

When earnings are improving, a company is less likely to take a write-off.

We all know this company has been trying to sell itself for 65 bucks (a share) minimum, which was a pretty outrageous price given the earnings outlook.

We do not look favorably upon this tactic as we think it reduces quality of earnings and reduces management accountability and transparency.

In our view, earnings improvement in the last two quarters has been driven primarily by better execution.