4: Analysis of Financial Statements

  • Ratio analysis
    • Liquidity ratios
      • Current Ratio: the primary liquidity ratio.
        • Measures a company’s ability to pay short-term obligations with its short-term assets
        • Current Ratio = Current assets / current liabilities
      • Quick or Acid test ratio
        • More stringent liquidity ratio that excludes inventories from current assets to assess a company’s ability to cover short-term liabilities without relying on inventory sales
        • Quick or acid test ratio = ( current assets – inventories ) / current liabilities
    • Asset management ratios
      • Inventory turnover ratio
        • How efficiently a company manages its inventory by comparing sales to average inventory levels
        • Inventory turnover ratio = sales / inventories
      • Days sales outstanding
        • The average number of days it takes for a company to collect payment after a sale has been made
        • Days sales outstanding (DSO)
        • = Receivables / Average sales per day
        • = Receivables / (Annual sales / 365)
      • Fixed assets turnover ratio
        • How efficiently a company is using its fixed assets to generate sales
        • Fixed assets turnover ratio = Sales / Net fixed assets
      • Total assets turnover ratio
        • How efficiently a company is using its total assets to generate sales
        • Total assets turnover ratio = Sales / Total assets
    • Debt management ratios
      • Total debt to total capital
        • Measure of a company’s financial leverage, indicating the proportion of debt financing relative to its total capital
        • Total debt / total capital = total debt /  (total debt + equity)
      • Times-interest-earned ratio
        • Measure of a company’s ability to meet its interest payments, indicating its financial stability and risk level
        • Times-interest earned (TIE) ratio = EBIT / Interest charges
    • Profitability ratios
      • Operating margin
        • Percentage of revenue remaining after deducting operating expenses
          •  efficiency with which the company operates
        • Operating margin = EBIT / Sales
      • Profit margin
        • Percentage of revenue that a company retains as profit after accounting for expenses
          • efficiency with which the company converts sales into net income
        • Profit Margin = net income / sales
      • Return on total assets
        • Measures a company’s ability to generate profit from its assets
        • Return on total assets (ROA) = Net income / Total assets
      • Return on common equity
        • Indicates how well the company is using its capital to generate earnings
        • Return on common equity (ROE) = net income / common equity
      • Return on invested capital
        • Total return that the company has provided for its investors
        • Return on invested capital (ROIC) = EBIT( 1-T ) / Total invested capital
        • Return on invested capital (ROIC) = EBIT( 1-T ) / ( Debit + equity )
      • Basic earning power (BEP) ratio
        • Raw earning power of the firm’s assets before the influence of taxes and debt
        • Basic earning power (BEP) ratio = EBIT / total assets
    • Market value ratios
      • Price/earning ratio
        • Shows how much investors are willing to pay per share per dollar of reported profits
        • Price/earning ratio (P/E)(PE) = price per share / earnings per share
      • Market/book ratio
        • Shows how investors value the company
        • Market/book ratio = common equity / shares outstanding
        • = market price per share / book price per share
      • Enterprise value/ ebitda ratio
        • Looks at the relative market value of all the company’s key financial claims
        • Enterprise value = market value of equity + market value of total debt + market value of other financial claims – cash and equivalents
    • Dupont equation
      • Return on equity (ROE) = Return on assets (ROA) * Equity multiplier
      • ROA = Profit margin * Total assets turnover
      • Equity multiplier = Total assets / Total common equity
      • Profit margin= Net income / sales
    • Like all other ratios, ROE is not the whole picture and maximizing it isn’t necessarily the best thing for stakeholders.
      • Economic value added
        • A measure of how much management has added to shareholders’ wealth during the year
        • Economic value added (EVA) = EBIT(1-T) – (Total invested capital * After-tax cost of capital)
    • Using these financial ratios to assess performance
      • Comparison to industry averages
        • Compare these ratios to industry averages to rate the firm (ie poor, ok, risky, etc)
      • Benchmarking
        • Compare each metric in a list alongside competitors to show performance of the firm
      • Trend analysis
        • Compare the metrics over time to competitors to show whether the numbers are getting better or worse for each
    • Uses and limitations of ratios
      • Managers use these ratios to analyze and control performance
      • Creditors use these ratios to determine availability of credit and debt
      • Stock analysts use these ratios to determine whether to buy or sell a firm’s shares
    • Looking beyond the numbers
      • Financial analysis metrics are not the whole picture of the company