Author Bio Reuben Gregg Brewer believes dividends are a window into a company's soul. He tries to invest in good souls. What happened Shares of iconic cosmetics company Revlon (NYSE:REV) were lower by as much as 10.5% on May 10. The cause of the decline was the company's first-quarter 2021 earnings update. Although the company pegged the results as its best first quarter in five years, it was hardly a smashing success. So what Revlon's sales in the first quarter of 2021 came in at $445 million, down about 2% or so from the first quarter of 2020. That, however, was a sequential improvement from the fourth quarter when sales were down roughly 10% year over year. Still, Wall Street had been anticipating $520 million on the top line, so Revlon missed expectations in a pretty notable way. And it's worth noting that the sequential improvement was merely from bad to less bad, which isn't exactly a great outcome despite being, directionally speaking, a good sign.