Analyzing Historical Financial Performance

11 important questions on Analyzing Historical Financial Performance

What is a type of benchmarking in which a company's performance in a given period is compared to its performance in previous periods?

A trend analysis

How can someone obtain a clearer picture of the overall financial performance of a company?

Through financial ratio analysis

Name four different ratio classification that analyse the financial performance of a company.

  1. Activity ratios
  2. Liquidity ratios
  3. Solvency ratios
  4. Profitability ratios
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Name the 8 activity ratios in financial ratio analysis.

  • Days sales outstanding (DSO) = 365 / receivable turnover (revenue / accounts receivable)
  • Days of inventory on hand = 365 / inventory turnover (COGS / inventory)
  • Days payable outstanding (DPO) = 365 / payable turnover (COGS / accounts payable)
  • Total asset turnover = revenue / total assets
  • Fixed asset turnover = revenue / fixed assets

With what kind of profit margin should a company have a high inventory turnover?

With a low-profit margin, for example, a grocery store.

What does inventory turnover tell you?

Not much, unless it's compared to competitors.

In certain times, inventory might not be a liquid. When does this happen?

It happens when there is a downturn in the economy, for example, a recession or a depression.

Name the 5 solvency ratios in the financial ratio analysis.

  1. Interest coverage (times interest earned) = operating income / interest expense
  2. Debt-to-equity ratio = total debt / total shareholders' equity
  3. Debt-to-assets ratio (debt ratio) = total debt / total assets
  4. Debt-to-capital = total debt / total debt + total shareholders' equity
  5. Equity multiplier (financial leverage) = total assets / total shareholders' equity

What are the profitability ratios in the financial ratio analysis?

Profitability ratios assess a company's ability to earn a profit on sales after deducting expenses incurred from using its assets.

Name the 8 profitability ratios in the financial ratio analysis.

  1. Gross profit margin = gross profit / revenue
  2. Operating profit margin = operating profit / revenue
  3. Pretax profit margin = EBT / revenue
  4. Net profit margin = net profit / revenue
  5. Operating return on assets = operating income / total assets
  6. Return on assets = net income / total assets
  7. Return on invested (total) capital = operating income (1-T) / total debt + shareholders' equity
  8. Return on equity = net income / shareholders' equity

Why is ROIC preferred over ROE?

We don't want to reward a company for good performance simply because they used a lot of debt financing. ROIC is a performance measure that is independent of financial leverage.

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