Private-company CFOs surveyed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants said they have enough cash or have even increased their cash this year, but they remain reluctant to deploy it. 根据美国会计师协会的调查结果，私营公司
Private-company CFOs surveyed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants said they have enough cash or have even increased their cash this year, but they remain reluctant to deploy it.
Forty-three percent of the 1,250 senior executives in an AICPA Business and Industry Outlook Survey released today have “about the right amount” of cash currently, while 36% said cash assets have increased from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2012. Thirty-six percent also said they specifically had more noncyclical cash and liquid assets, up from 31% in last year’s second quarter. Almost half of those surveyed were CFOs who were also CPAs (the next-most-prevalent title was controller, at 22%), and 69% represented privately owned firms.
But 24% of the total respondent base said they were hesitant to deploy their excess cash, an increase from 20% who felt that way last quarter. Only 12% said they would actually use it.
The reluctance to spend cash stems from an overall negative take on the economy. The AICPA’s CPA Outlook Index dropped two points, to 67 from 69, from this year’s first quarter to the second. Similarly, expectations for revenue, profit, and employment growth slid this quarter, though they were essentially unchanged from last year.
But not all is doom and gloom, according to Jim Morrison, CFO of plastics compounding firm Teknor Apex and of the AICPA’s Business Industry Executive Committee. He does not consider the two-point drop that dire, considering the index has dropped 9 to 10 points in some years.
“We might have been in a holding pattern for a while, but we are going to resume growth,” Morrison says. “It may not happen right away. There’s still optimism that over the next year, we will be on a growth pattern rather than a downward spiral.” The AICPA’s findings back up that sentiment. More than 60% of senior-level CPAs in the survey said they expect their own companies to expand in the next 12 months.
Respondents also showed a slight improvement in their ability to obtain the necessary financing to expand. While more than half viewed credit availability to be about the same, only 10% saw it as a barrier to a stronger liquidity position, down from 13% last quarter.
