krispy Kreme's accounting for franchise acquisitions is the most aggressive we have found" said one analyst at the time. "We surveyed 18 publicly traded companies with franchise operations. four of which had reacquired franchises, and they had amortized them. That clearly seems like the right thing to do " Over the previous three years,krispy Kreme had recorded $174.5 million as intangible assets (reacquired franchise rights), Which the company was not required to amoetize. On the date of the SEC announcement,krispy Kreme's shares fell another 15%, closing at $15.71 a share.
Analysts' Reactions
Since the heady of 2001, When 80% of the equity analysts following Krispy Kreme were making buy recommendation for the company's, the conventional wisdom about the company had changed. By the time the wall Street Journal published the article about Krispy Kreme's franchise-reacquisition accounting practices in may 2004, only 25% of the analysts following Krispy Kreme's were recommending the company as a buy;another 50% had downgraded the stock to a hold. Exhibits 4 and 5 provide tables of aggregate analysts' recommendation and EPS (Earnings per share) estimates. AS Krispy Kreme's troubles mounted during the second half of 2004, analysts became increasingly pessimistic about the stock.