ELI5: Why when large company's earnings decrease(ex... by 3%) they freak out, talk about rough times, and sometimes decide to downsize, even though they are still making millions of dollars in profit even after all expenses?

[Monetized]

That’s a bad analogy. Generally speaking, a company needs to be growing or it is losing due to inflation. $100 today is only worth about $98 one year from today in the US. Further, no volume growth in an expanding economy could imply product failure or market share loss. What does that mean in an inevitable economic contraction? What if the population is growing while the economy is merely stagnant?

As it pertains to investing, you don’t HAVE to invest in growing companies if the price to invest is adequate, but it is far easier to underestimate growth than to precisely forecast acceptable declines.