3.5 - Profitability and liquidity ratio analysis Flashcards
What is quantitative analysis?
Quantitative financial analysis is a tool for judging the financial perfomance of the business based on financial statements. Data comes from balance sheet and proft and loss account.
What are the two types of ratios?
Profitability and liquidity
What do profitability ratios do?
Examine an organisations profit making ability:
* Gross profit margin shows the percentage of gross profit in relation to revenue
* Profit margin shows the percentage of net profit before interest and tax in relation to revenue
* ROCE shows how well capital employed is used in making profit
What is gross profit margin?
(Gross profit/revenue) * 100. The higher the GPM, the easier it is to pay expenses.
What are the strategies to improve gross profit margin?
Raise revenue by increasing or reducing prices, increase promotion or decrease costs of sales by using cheaper suppliers or cutting labour costs.
What are the advantages of rasing revenues by increasing/reducing prices?
- If you increase the price and there are not many alternatives, people will still pay the higher price
- if there are many alternatives to your product, decreasing the price will make more people buy your product because it will be cheaper than competitors
What are the disadvantages of rasing revenues by increasing/reducing prices?
Increasing/decreasing prices can impact brand image negatively:
* Increasing prices may lead to customers believing that you are taking advantage of them
* Decreasing prices may make customes doubt the quality of your product
What are the advantages and disadvantages of raising revenues by increasing promotion?
- More people will be aware about your business and product
- Advertising/promotion costs will increase
- No guarantee that if people know about your product they will buy it
What are the advantages and disadvantages to reducing cost of sales by using cheaper suppliers?
Overall lower costs but lower quality
What is the profit margin formula?
(profit before interest and tax/revenue)*100
What does a higher profit margin indicate?
The organisation has better control of its revenue.
What are the methods of improving profit margin?
- Improve working capital by: negotiating longer trade credit period, negotiating discounts
- Reduce expenses by delayering, cutting overheads
What are the disadvantages of improving profit margin through negotiating longer trade credit period?
Relationship with creditors might worsen and the costs might be higher for the business.
What are the advantages of improving profit margin through negotiating discounts?
Lower prices than usual will be paid.
What are the disadvantages of improving profit margin through negotiating discounts?
Puts pressure on the business, as early payments need to be made and cash needs to be available.
What are the advantages of improving profit margin through delayering?
Delayering(getting rid of an entire level of management)-> Managerial costs will decrease
What are the disadvantages of improving profit margin through delayering?
Span of control increases, managers will have to superwise more people and loss of control can occur