Financial ratios

Table of Contents

Classification of Financial ratios .................................................................................................................... 3 4 window approach ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Liquidity ratios .............................................................................................................................................. 3 Current ratio: ............................................................................................................................................ 3 Quick ratio:................................................................................................................................................ 5 Financial Slack: .......................................................................................................................................... 6 Profitability ratios ......................................................................................................................................... 6 Sales Based:............................................................................................................................................... 6 Asset Based: .............................................................................................................................................. 7 Indicators for shareholders: ...................................................................................................................... 7 Efficiency ratios ............................................................................................................................................. 9 Overall efficiency / Total asset turnover ratio .......................................................................................... 9 Fixed Asset Turnover ratio ...................................................................................................................... 10 Working Capital turnover ratio ............................................................................................................... 10 Inventory Turnover ratio......................................................................................................................... 11 Debtors turnover ratio ............................................................................................................................ 11 Creditors turnover ratio .......................................................................................................................... 12 Long Term Solvency ratios .......................................................................................................................... 13 Debt-Equity ratio..................................................................................................................................... 13 Debt service coverage ratio .................................................................................................................... 13 Debt Ratio ............................................................................................................................................... 14 Interest Coverage Ratio .......................................................................................................................... 14 Market Based Ratios ................................................................................................................................... 15 Price-Earnings Ratio ................................................................................................................................ 15 Price to Book Ratio.................................................................................................................................. 16 Dividend Yield ......................................................................................................................................... 16 Total Shareholder return ........................................................................................................................ 16

Classification of Financial ratios

Balance sheet ratio (Financial ratio): where both variables are taken from Balance Sheet Profit & Loss ratio (Operating ratio): where both variables are taken from profit and loss statement Mixed ratio (Composite ratio): where one variable is taken from balance sheet and another from profit & loss account

4 window approach
1. 2. 3. 4. Liquidity Efficiency Profitability Leverage

Liquidity ratios
Liquidity ratios attempt to measure a company's ability to pay off its short-term debt obligations. This is done by comparing a company's most liquid assets (or, those that can be easily converted to cash), its short-term liabilities. In general, the greater the coverage of liquid assets to short-term liabilities the better as it is a clear signal that a company can pay its debts that are coming due in the near future and still fund its ongoing operations. On the other hand, a company with a low coverage rate should raise a red flag for investors as it may be a sign that the company will have difficulty meeting running its operations, as well as meeting its obligations.

Current ratio: The current ratio is a popular financial ratio used to test a company's liquidity (also referred to as its current or working capital position) by deriving the proportion of current assets available to cover current liabilities. The concept behind this ratio is to ascertain whether a company's short-term assets (cash, cash equivalents, marketable securities, receivables and inventory) are readily available to pay off its short-term liabilities (notes payable, current portion of term debt, payables, accrued expenses and taxes). In theory, the higher the current ratio, the better.

Formula:

The current ratio is used extensively in financial reporting. However, while easy to understand, it can be misleading in both a positive and negative sense - i.e., a high current ratio is not necessarily good, and a low current ratio is not necessarily bad (see chart below). Here's why: Contrary to popular perception, the ubiquitous current ratio, as an indicator of liquidity, is flawed because it's conceptually based on the liquidation of all of a company's current assets to meet all of its current liabilities. In reality, this is not likely to occur. Investors have to look at a company as a going concern. It's the time it takes to convert a company's working capital assets into cash to pay its current obligations that is the key to its liquidity. In a word, the current ratio can be "misleading." A simplistic, but accurate, comparison of two companies' current position will illustrate the weakness of relying on the current ratio or a working capital number (current assets minus current liabilities) as a sole indicator of liquidity: -Current Assets Current Liabilities Working Capital Current Ratio Company ABC $600 $300 $300 2.0 Company XYZ $300 $300 $0 1.0

Company ABC looks like an easy winner in a liquidity contest. It has an ample margin of current assets over current liabilities, a seemingly good current ratio, and working capital of $300. Company XYZ has no current asset/liability margin of safety, a weak current ratio, and no working capital. However, to prove the point, what if: (1) both companies' current liabilities have an average payment period of 30 days; (2) Company ABC needs six months (180 days) to collect its account receivables, and its inventory turns over just once a year (365 days); and (3) Company XYZ is paid cash by its customers, and its inventory turns over 24 times a year (every 15 days). In this contrived example, Company ABC is very illiquid and would not be able to operate under the conditions described. Its bills are coming due faster than its generation of cash. You can't pay bills with working capital; you pay bills with cash! Company's XYZ's seemingly tight current position is, in effect, much more liquid because of its quicker cash conversion. When looking at the current ratio, it is important that a company's current assets can cover its current liabilities; however, investors should be aware that this is not the whole story on company liquidity. Try to understand the types of current assets the company has and how quickly these can be converted into cash to meet current liabilities. This important perspective can be seen through the cash conversion

cycle .By digging deeper into the current assets, you will gain a greater understanding of a company's true liquidity.

Quick ratio: The quick ratio - aka the quick assets ratio or the acid-test ratio - is a liquidity indicator that further refines the current ratio by measuring the amount of the most liquid current assets there are to cover current liabilities. The quick ratio is more conservative than the current ratio because it excludes inventory and other current assets, which are more difficult to turn into cash. Therefore, a higher ratio means a more liquid current position. Formula: (Current Assets Inventory) / Current Liabilities

Some presentations of the quick ratio calculate quick assets (the formula's numerator) by simply subtracting the inventory figure from the total current assets figure. The assumption is that by excluding relatively less-liquid (harder to turn into cash) inventory, the remaining current assets are all of the more-liquid variety. Generally, this is close to the truth, but not always. As previously mentioned, the quick ratio is a more conservative measure of liquidity than the current ratio as it removes inventory from the current assets used in the ratio's formula. By excluding inventory, the quick ratio focuses on the more-liquid assets of a company. The basics and use of this ratio are similar to the current ratio in that it gives users an idea of the ability of a company to meet its short-term liabilities with its short-term assets. Another beneficial use is to compare the quick ratio with the current ratio. If the current ratio is significantly higher, it is a clear indication that the company's current assets are dependent on inventory. While considered more stringent than the current ratio, the quick ratio, because of its accounts receivable component, suffers from the same deficiencies as the current ratio - albeit somewhat less. In brief, both the quick and the current ratios assume a liquidation of accounts receivable and inventory as the basis for measuring liquidity. While theoretically feasible, as a going concern a company must focus on the time it takes to convert its working capital assets to cash - that is the true measure of liquidity. Thus, if accounts receivable, as a component of the quick ratio, have, let's say, a conversion time of several months rather than several

days, the "quickness" attribute of this ratio is questionable. Investors need to be aware that the conventional wisdom regarding both the current and quick ratios as indicators of a company's liquidity can be misleading. Note : For IT companies Current ratio and Quick ratio are almost the same because there is no inventory..whereas for most FMCG companies Current ratio will be more than Quick ratio Financial Slack:

Cash & Bank balances * 100 / Total Assets Indicates the firms capability to take up opportunities as and when they appear. The ability to borrow more or have the cash on hand to respond quickly to a changing environment .

Profitability ratios
These ratios give users a good understanding of how well the company utilized its resources in generating profit and shareholder value. The long-term profitability of a company is vital for both the survivability of the company as well as the benefit received by shareholders. It is these ratios that can give insight into the all important "profit". Sales Based: The amount of profit (at the gross, operating, pretax or net income level) generated by the company as a percent of the sales generated. The objective of margin analysis is to detect consistency or positive/negative trends in a company's earnings. Positive profit margin analysis translates into positive investment quality. To a large degree, it is the quality, and growth, of a company's earnings that drive its stock price.

Asset Based: ROA This ratio indicates how profitable a company is relative to its total assets. The return on assets (ROA) ratio illustrates how well management is employing the company's total assets to make a profit. The higher the return, the more efficient management is in utilizing its asset base. The ROA ratio is calculated by comparing net income to average total assets, and is expressed as a percentage.

ROCE The return on capital employed (ROCE) ratio, expressed as a percentage, complements the return on equity (ROE) ratio by adding a company's debt liabilities, or funded debt, to equity to reflect a company's total "capital employed". This measure narrows the focus to gain a better understanding of a company's ability to generate returns from its available capital base. By comparing net income/ operating income to the sum of a company's debt and equity capital, investors can get a clear picture of how the use of leverage impacts a company's profitability. Financial analysts consider the ROCE measurement to be a more comprehensive profitability indicator because it gauges management's ability to generate earnings from a company's total pool of capital.

Indicators for shareholders: RONW or ROE The amount of net income returned as a percentage of shareholders equity. Return on equity measures a corporation's profitability by revealing how much profit a company generates with the money shareholders have invested.

ROE is expressed as a percentage and calculated as: RONW = Net Income(Profit after Tax)/Shareholder's Equity(Net worth) EPS The portion of a company's profit allocated to each outstanding share of common stock. Earnings per share serves as an indicator of a company's profitability. Calculated as:

When calculating, it is more accurate to use a weighted average number of shares outstanding over the reporting term, because the number of shares outstanding can change over time. However, data sources sometimes simplify the calculation by using the number of shares outstanding at the end of the period. Earnings per share is generally considered to be the single most important variable in determining a share's price. It is also a major component used to calculate the price-to-earnings valuation ratio. For example, assume that a company has a net income of $25 million. If the company pays out $1 million in preferred dividends and has 10 million shares for half of the year and 15 million shares for the other half, the EPS would be $1.92 (24/12.5). First, the $1 million is deducted from the net income to get $24 million, then a weighted average is taken to find the number of shares outstanding (0.5 x 10M+ 0.5 x 15M = 12.5M). An important aspect of EPS that's often ignored is the capital that is required to generate the earnings (net income) in the calculation. Two companies could generate the same EPS number, but one could do so with less equity (investment) - that company would be more efficient at using its capital to generate income and, all other things being equal, would be a "better" company DPS DPS = Proposed dividend / No of shares Dividend per share (DPS) is the total dividends paid out over an entire year (including interim dividends but not including special dividends) divided by the number of outstanding ordinary shares issued. DPS can be calculated by using the following formula:

D - Sum of dividends over a period (usually 1 year) SD - Special, one time dividends S - Shares outstanding for the period Dividends per share are usually easily found on quote pages as the dividend paid in the most recent quarter which is then used to calculate the dividend yield. Dividends over the entire year (not including any special dividends) must be added together for a proper calculation of DPS, including interim dividends. Special dividends are dividends which are only expected to be issued once so are not included. The total number of ordinary shares outstanding is sometimes calculated using the weighted average over the reporting period. For example: ABC company paid a total of $237,000 in dividends over the last year of which there was a special one time dividend totalling $59,250. ABC has 2 million shares outstanding so its DPS would be ($237,000-$59,250)/2,000,000 = $0.0889 per share. Dividends are a form of profit distribution to the shareholder. Having a growing dividend per share can be a sign that the company's management believes that the growth can be sustained.

Payout ratio (Dividend payout ratio) = Proposed dividend / Profit after tax (Net income) The payout ratio provides an idea of how well earnings support the dividend payments. More mature companies tend to have a higher payout ratio.

Efficiency ratios
Ratios that are typically used to analyze how well a company uses its assets and liabilities internally. Efficiency Ratios can calculate the turnover of receivables, the repayment of liabilities, the quantity and usage of equity and the general use of inventory and machinery.

Overall efficiency / Total asset turnover ratio

A measure of total asset utilisation. Helps to answer the question - what sales are being generated by each pound's worth of assets invested in the business.

= Sales/ Capital employed = Sales / Assets

Asset turnover measures a firm's efficiency at using its assets in generating sales or revenue - the higher the number the better. It also indicates pricing strategy: companies with low profit margins tend to have high asset turnover, while those with high profit margins have low asset turnover.

Fixed Asset Turnover ratio

A financial ratio of net sales to fixed assets. The fixed-asset turnover ratio measures a company's ability to generate net sales from fixed-asset investments - specifically property, plant and equipment (PP&E) - net of depreciation. A higher fixed-asset turnover ratio shows that the company has been more effective in using the investment in fixed assets to generate revenues. The fixed-asset turnover ratio is calculated as:

This ratio is often used as a measure in manufacturing industries, where major purchases are made for PP&E to help increase output. When companies make these large purchases, prudent investors watch this ratio in following years to see how effective the investment in the fixed assets was.

Working Capital turnover ratio

A measurement comparing the depletion of working capital to the generation of sales over a given period. This provides some useful information as to how effectively a company is using its working capital to generate sales.

A company uses working capital (current assets - current liabilities) to fund operations and purchase inventory. These operations and inventory are then converted into sales revenue for the company. The working capital turnover ratio is used to analyze the relationship between the money used to fund operations and the sales generated from these operations. In a general sense, the higher the working capital turnover, the better because it

means that the company is generating a lot of sales compared to the money it uses to fund the sales. For example, if a company has current assets of $10 million and current liabilities of $9 million, its working capital is $1 million. When compared to sales of $15 million, the working capital turnover ratio for the period is 15 ($15M/$1M). When used in fundamental analysis, this ratio can be compared to that of similar companies or to the company's own historical working capital turnovers

Inventory Turnover ratio

A ratio showing how many times a company's inventory is sold and replaced over a period.

Although the first calculation is more frequently used, COGS (cost of goods sold) may be substituted because sales are recorded at market value, while inventories are usually recorded at cost. Also, average inventory may be used instead of the ending inventory level to minimize seasonal factors. This ratio should be compared against industry averages. A low turnover implies poor sales and, therefore, excess inventory. A high ratio implies either strong sales or ineffective buying. High inventory levels are unhealthy because they represent an investment with a rate of return of zero. It also opens the company up to trouble should prices begin to fall.

Debtors turnover ratio

An accounting measure used to quantify a firm's effectiveness in extending credit as well as collecting debts. The receivables turnover ratio is an activity ratio, measuring how efficiently a firm uses its assets Debtors Turnover Ratio = Net Credit Sales / Average Trade Debtors The two basic components of accounts receivable turnover ratio are net credit annual sales and average trade debtors. The trade debtors for the purpose of this ratio include the amount of Trade Debtors & Bills Receivables.

The average receivables are found by adding the opening receivables and closing balance of receivables and dividing the total by two. It should be noted that provision for bad and doubtful debts should not be deducted since this may give an impression that some amount of receivables has been collected Credit sales $25,000; Return inwards $1,000; Debtors $3,000; Bills Receivables $1,000. Calculate debtors turnover ratio Debtors Turnover Ratio = Net Credit Sales / Average Trade Debtors = 24,000* / 4,000** = 6 Times *25000 less 1000 return inwards, **3000 plus 1000 B/R Accounts receivable turnover ratio or debtors turnover ratio indicates the number of times the debtors are turned over a year. The higher the value of debtors turnover the more efficient is the management of debtors or more liquid the debtors are. Similarly, low debtors turnover ratio implies inefficient management of debtors or less liquid debtors. It is the reliable measure of the time of cash flow from credit sales.

Creditors turnover ratio

This ratio is similar to the debtors turnover ratio. It compares creditors with the total credit purchases. It signifies the credit period enjoyed by the firm in paying creditors. Accounts payable include both sundry creditors and bills payable. Same as debtors turnover ratio, creditors turnover ratio can be calculated in two forms, creditors turnover ratio and average payment period owing formula is used to calculate creditors turnover ratio: Creditors Turnover Ratio = Credit Purchase / Average Trade Creditors A short-term liquidity measure used to quantify the rate at which a company pays off its suppliers. Accounts payable turnover ratio is calculated by taking the total purchases made from suppliers and dividing it by the average accounts payable amount during the same period.

The measure shows investors how many times per period the company pays its average payable amount. For example, if the company makes $100 million in purchases from suppliers in a year and at any given point holds an average accounts payable of $20 million, the accounts payable turnover ratio for the period is 5 ($100 million/$20 million). If the turnover ratio is falling from one period to another, this is a sign that the company is taking longer to pay off its suppliers than it was before. The opposite is true when the turnover ratio is increasing, which means that the company is paying of suppliers at a faster rate.

Long Term Solvency ratios

Debt-Equity ratio

A measure of a company's financial leverage calculated by dividing its total liabilities by stockholders' equity. It indicates what proportion of equity and debt the company is using to finance its assets.

or Long term debt / Shareholders Equity

Note: Sometimes only interest-bearing, long-term debt is used instead of total liabilities in the calculation. A high debt/equity ratio generally means that a company has been aggressive in financing its growth with debt. This can result in volatile earnings as a result of the additional interest expense. If a lot of debt is used to finance increased operations (high debt to equity), the company could potentially generate more earnings than it would have without this outside financing. If this were to increase earnings by a greater amount than the debt cost (interest), then the shareholders benefit as more earnings are being spread among the same amount of shareholders. However, the cost of this debt financing may outweigh the return that the company generates on the debt through investment and business activities and become too much for the company to handle. This can lead to bankruptcy, which would leave shareholders with nothing. The debt/equity ratio also depends on the industry in which the company operates. For example, capital-intensive industries such as auto manufacturing tend to have a debt/equity ratio above 2, while personal computer companies have a debt/equity of under 0.5.

Debt service coverage ratio = Cash flow from operating activities after tax / (Interest + Installments paid during the year on long term loans)

In corporate finance, it is the amount of cash flow available to meet annual interest and principal payments on debt, including sinking fund payments. 2. In government finance, it is the amount of export earnings needed to meet annual interest and principal payments on a country's external debts. 3. In personal finance, it is a ratio used by bank loan officers in determining income property loans. This ratio should ideally be over 1. That would mean the property is generating enough income to pay its debt obligations. In general, it is calculated by:

A DSCR of less than 1 would mean a negative cash flow. A DSCR of less than 1, say .95, would mean that there is only enough net operating income to cover 95% of annual debt payments. For example, in the context of personal finance, this would mean that the borrower would have to delve into his or her personal funds every month to keep the project afloat. Generally, lenders frown on a negative cash flow, but some allow it if the borrower has strong outside income.

Debt Ratio
A ratio that indicates what proportion of debt a company has relative to its assets. The measure gives an idea to the leverage of the company along with the potential risks the company faces in terms of its debt-load.

A debt ratio of greater than 1 indicates that a company has more debt than assets, meanwhile, a debt ratio of less than 1 indicates that a company has more assets than debt. Used in conjunction with other measures of financial health, the debt ratio can help investors determine a company's level of risk

Interest Coverage Ratio

=(PAT + Interest)/Interest

A ratio used to determine how easily a company can pay interest on outstanding debt. The interest coverage ratio is calculated by dividing a company's earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of one period by the company's interest expenses of the same period:

The lower the ratio, the more the company is burdened by debt expense. When a company's interest coverage ratio is 1.5 or lower, its ability to meet interest expenses may be questionable. An interest coverage ratio below 1 indicates the company is not generating sufficient revenues to satisfy interest expenses

Market Based Ratios

Price-Earnings Ratio
A valuation ratio of a company's current share price compared to its per-share earnings. Calculated as: Market Value per Share Earnings per Share (EPS)

For example, if a company is currently trading at $43 a share and earnings over the last 12 months were $1.95 per share, the P/E ratio for the stock would be 22.05 ($43/$1.95). EPS is usually from the last four quarters (trailing P/E), but sometimes it can be taken from the estimates of earnings expected in the next four quarters (projected or forward P/E). A third variation uses the sum of the last two actual quarters and the estimates of the next two quarters. Also sometimes known as "price multiple" or "earnings multiple". In general, a high P/E suggests that investors are expecting higher earnings growth in the future compared to companies with a lower P/E. However, the P/E ratio doesn't tell us the whole story by itself. It's usually more useful to compare the P/E ratios of one company to other companies in the same industry, to the market in general or against the company's own historical P/E. It would not be useful for investors using the P/E ratio as a basis for their investment to compare the P/E of a technology company (high P/E) to a utility company (low P/E) as each industry has much different growth prospects. The P/E is sometimes referred to as the "multiple", because it shows how much investors are willing to pay per dollar of earnings. If a company were currently trading at a multiple (P/E) of 20, the interpretation is that an investor is willing to pay $20 for $1 of current earnings. It is important that investors note an important problem that arises with the P/E measure, and to avoid basing a decision on this measure alone. The denominator (earnings) is based on an accounting measure of earnings that is susceptible to forms of manipulation, making the quality of the P/E only as good as the quality of the underlying earnings number

Price to Book Ratio

= Market price of share / Book value of share A ratio used to compare a stock's market value to its book value. It is calculated by dividing the current closing price of the stock by the latest quarter's book value per share. A lower P/B ratio could mean that the stock is undervalued. However, it could also mean that something is fundamentally wrong with the company. As with most ratios, be aware that this varies by industry. This ratio also gives some idea of whether you're paying too much for what would be left if the company went bankrupt immediately.

Dividend Yield The dividend yield or the dividend-price ratio on a company stock is the company's annual dividend payments divided by its market cap, or the dividend per share, divided by the price per share
= Proposed Equity Dividend/ Market Cap

A financial ratio that shows how much a company pays out in dividends each year relative to its share price. In the absence of any capital gains, the dividend yield is the return on investment for a stock. Dividend yield is calculated as follows:

Dividend yield is a way to measure how much cash flow you are getting for each dollar invested in an equity position - in other words, how much "bang for your buck" you are getting from dividends. Investors who require a minimum stream of cash flow from their investment portfolio can secure this cash flow by investing in stocks paying relatively high, stable dividend yields. To better explain the concept, refer to this dividend yield example: If two companies both pay annual dividends of $1 per share, but ABC company's stock is trading at $20 while XYZ company's stock is trading at $40, then ABC has a dividend yield of 5% while XYZ is only yielding 2.5%. Thus, assuming all other factors are equivalent, an investor looking to supplement his or her income would likely prefer ABC's stock over that of XYZ

Total Shareholder return

= Dividend per share + ( Closing market price of share opening market price of share) / opening market price of share Total Shareholder Return (TSR) is a concept used to compare the performance of different companies stocks and shares over time. It combines share price appreciation and dividends paid to show the total return to the

shareholder. The absolute size of the TSR will vary with stock markets, but the relative position reflects the market perception of overall performance relative to a reference group. With Pricebegin = share price at beginning of period, Priceend = share price at end of period, Dividends = dividends paid and TSR = Total Shareholder Return, TSR is computed as TSR = (Priceend Pricebegin + Dividends) / Pricebegin