Main takeaways:
  • Foreign profits represent 40% of domestic profits for US corporates.
  • Profits increased 1.4% p.a. since 2011.
  • Adjusting for currency valuation, profits increased 2.5% since 2011.
  • Profit growth in the last 4 quarters slowed in both measures: from 3.6% to 0.9% in headline profits and from 5.7% to 4.0% when adjusting for FX.
Foreign profits represent about 40% of domestic profits (for US corporates, based on national accounts data).

The chart below adjusts the portion of the foreign profits for the currency effect (assuming that the currency composition of foreign profits is equivalent to the currency composition of the trade-weighted dollar calculated by the US Fed).
The "adjusted profits" show a slightly higher trend growth since 2011 -- 2.5% vs 1.4%.

Chart below shows the YoY growth of corporate profits with and without FX adjustment.