Breaking with standard practice, companies could decide that they must have some new technology -- faster computers, for example -- although the increased investment might shrink profits, not add to them.
More than it has in years, the pharmaceutical industry fears major legislation that would curb prices and shrink profits.
That means shrinking profit margins for Detroit, and bigger discounts.
"We feel that growing or shrinking profit margins are good leading indicators of stock price performance".
So, Wall Street was confronted with shrinking profit margins when it could least afford them.
Mr. Levkovich, unlike many of his peers, foresees shrinking profit margins in the second half of the year.
That warning, coupled with shrinking profit margins, helped push Nestlé shares down nearly 2percentt in trading in Zurich.
The risk for Dell in selling through stores, analysts said, is shrinking profit margins because it has to share some of the profit with the retailer.
With slow growth and shrinking profit margins in a competitive field, the unit's operating profit fell about 30percentt in the third quarter.
But as the cost of making and marketing movies has skyrocketed amid shrinking profit margins and plummeting stock prices, a different scenario has emerged.
