This week, currency risk management software vendorFiREapps released its quarterly report on the impact of foreignexchange (FX) on corporate earnings. The report surveyed Q4/2016earnings reports from 1,200 large, publicly traded multinationalsbased in North America and Europe.

Of the 1,200 companies, 296 reported that currency shifts had anegative impact on their earnings in the fourth quarter. Amongcompanies that quantified this effect, the total impact was areduction in earnings of $10.47 billion. This is less than a thirdthe size of the total currency impact FiREapps quantified a yearearlier: $36.85 billion in Q4/2015. The FiREapps report attributesthis difference “not necessarily to lower currency volatility, butto the number of companies that appear to have not reportedmaterial impacts.” In Q4/2015, 409 companies reported negativecurrency impacts.

For the 29 percent of North American companies that reported anegative currency impact in Q4/2016, the average effect on earningsper share was $0.04 per share. This is down significantly fromQ3/2015 ($0.12/share) and Q4/2015 ($0.07/share), but FiREapps seesbest practice as keeping the target currency impact to just $0.01per share.

“We feel that there are still quite a few companies who do nothave this under control,” says Wolfgang Koester, CEO of FiREapps.“There are the 'have' and 'have not' camps. We expect Q1/2017results to be similar to Q4/2016, but we expect increasedvolatility in Q2 and through the European elections.”

The currencies referenced most frequently by North Americancompanies as impacting their bottom line were the British pound,the euro, the Japanese yen, the Chinese yuan, the Brazilian real,and the Canadian dollar.

Among European companies, only 15 percent reported a negativecurrency impact on earnings. “The weakening of the euro has beenbenefiting European corporates, in general,” Koester says. “I findit fascinating that many companies still have headwinds. As theeuro weakens, it should give European companies tailwinds. The onlyexplanation is they have exposures outside of Europe, and possiblymore dollar expenses than expected.”

Regardless of the reason, currency movements were nottop-of-mind for investors and analysts in the fourth quarter. Thereport notes that among companies for which currency shiftsnegatively affected earnings, an “exceedingly” small proportionreceived questions from analysts about those currency impactsduring their earnings calls—18 percent in Europe and 23 percent inNorth America.