Question

Financing activities		2017				2016				2015
Common share repurchases		(1,500		)		(1,280		)		(1,200		)
Cash dividends paid		(2,773		)		(2,261		)		(1,786		)
Proceeds from common stock issuances		688				429				402
Repayments of long-term debt		(4,398		)		(2,596		)		(1,041		)
(Repayments of) proceeds from commercial paper, net		(3,508		)		(382		)		3,666
Proceeds from issuance of long-term debt		5,291				3,968				11,982
Customer funds administered		3,172				1,692				768
Other, net		(413		)		(581		)		(552		)
Cash flows (used for) from financing activities		(3,441		)		(1,011		)		12,239
Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents		(5		)		78				(156		)
Increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents		1,551				(493		)		3,428
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period		10,430				10,923				7,495
Cash and cash equivalents, end of period		$	11,981			$	10,430			$	10,923

Explain and describe what the statement is showing. For example, what do the values mean? Is it good? Is it bad?

Answer 1

Here we are given a cash flow statement regarding Financing activities of the company for the year 2016 and 2017.

As we see that the company is repurchasing its common shares in both the years 2016 & 2017 and we see the amount of repurchasing of common shares increased from 2016 to 2017 which is not a good sign, further we see that the company trend for dividend payment has also increased from 2016 to 2017.

We also see here that the company is repaying its long term debt and the amount has increased from 2016 to that of 2017 which is not a good sign and from the statement we can see that the company there has been a increase in the amount of repayment of commercial paper from the year 2016 to 2017.

In the given statement we can also see that both proceeds from common stock issuance and proceeds from issuance of long term debt has increased from 2016 to that of 2017 which is a good sign.

Furthermore, overall we see that the amount of cash flow from financing activities has decreased from -1011 in 2016 to -3441 in 2017 which is not a good sign.