CFOs cited employees' healthcare costs as the biggest threat to earnings, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch's 2015 CFO Outlook survey.
The study surveyed 250 middle market CFOs from a variety of industries across the country.
Approximately 38 percent of all companies surveyed cited healthcare costs as the main threat to earnings. The two segments most likely to be concerned about healthcare costs are companies which sell mainly to consumers (47 percent) and small companies with sales between $25 and $74 million (42 percent).
Other threats to earnings include increased competition (32 percent of companies), shortage of skilled talent (32 percent), regulatory issues (30 percent) and weak consumer demand (29 percent).