Financial Ratios Flashcards
the problem with absolute figures in financial statements
lacks context; needs to be connected to other figures for meanigful analysis
Limitations of ratio analysis
(core) profitability ratios
concerned with effectiveness at generating profit
- ROE / ROSF
- ROCE
- Operating profit margin
- Gross profit margin
- Mark-up %
(core) efficiency ratios
concerned with efficiency of using assets/resources
- Average inventory days
- Average trade receivables (debtors) days
- Average trade payables days
- Net asset turn / Sales to capital employed
(core) liquidity ratios
concerned with the ability to meet short-term obligations
- Current ratio
- Quick/Acid test ratio
- Cash generated from operations to maturing obligations
(core) debt management ratios
concerned with relationship between equity and debt financing
- Capital gearing (leverage)
- Interest cover
(core) investment ratios
concerned with returns to shareholders
- Dividend cover ratio
- Dividend yield ratio
- Earnings per share
- Price/earnings ratio
Limitations of ratio analysis
- Quality of financial statements
- Inflation
- The restricted view of ratios
- The basis for comparison
- Statement of fianncial position ratios (you can distort ratios)
Using ratios to help predict financial health
- Horizontal and Trend analysis
- Cross-section analysis
-
Comparison with other companies in the same industry for the same year
- Things to watch out for…
- Differences in company characteristics should always be accounted for in interpretation
- Things to watch out for…
-
Comparison with industry averages
- Things to watch out for…
- Multi-product companiesDefinition and size of industry groupings
- Things to watch out for…
-
Comparison with other companies in the same industry for the same year
Common-size financial statements
- The process of standardising financial statements by introducing a common denominator.
- In a common-size SOFP each component of the statement of financial position is expressed as a percentage of total assets
- In a common-size income statement each item is expressed as a percentage of sales
This allows
- comparison of companies of different size (in terms of total assets and sales)
- (internal) structural analysis of the financial statements of a company
- relative magnitude of asset, liability, equity and income statement components
- Combination of horizontal and vertical analysis
key steps of financial ratio analysis
- identify users and what they need to know
- select and calculate appropriate ratios
- interpret and evaluate results
ROE aka. ROSF
Return on Equity aka. Return on Ordinary Shareholders Funds
Profit available to ordinary shareholders
/
Ordinary shareholders equity
=
%
Most companies will use average equity over the year
= (opening Equity + closing Equity)/2
Year end figures can be used if there is not enough information i.e. there needs to be comparability using like for like (year end with year end or average with average).
Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
Operating profit
/
Total capital employed
=
%
Operating profit % = operating profit / sales
‘Profit available to Ordinary Shareholders’ = profit before dividends
Net asset turnover = sales / total capital employed = sales / (total assets - current liabilities)
two drivers of ROCE
gross profit ratio
gross profit
/
sales revenue