Accounting Ratio And The Financial Performance

The gross profit margin measures the amount of profits that a company generates from its operations without consideration of its indirect costs. Thehigher thegross profit margin, the greater the efficiency of a company’s operations (Besley & Brigham 2007). It means that the company is generating enough income to cover its operating expenses. On the contrary, a lower gross profit margin indicates that the business is not generating adequate income to cover its operating expenses.

To analysis financial statements there are various tools. Ratio analysis is one of them. In ratio analysis we establish relationship between two or more items of financial statements and derive some vital information about the business.

Gross profit is defined as the difference between Sales and Cost of Sales. The gross margin (or gross profit ratio) expresses the gross profit as a proportion of net sales. The gross profit margin ratio measures how efficiently a company uses its resources, materials, and labour in the production process by showing the percentage of net sales remaining after subtracting the cost of making and selling a product or service. It indicates the profitability of a business before overhead costs. The higher the percentage, the more the business retains of each dollar of sales. So: the higher the gross profit margin ratio, the better.

Ratio analysis is a very useful tool when it comes to understanding the performance of the company. It highlights the strengths and the weaknesses of the company and pinpoints to the mangers and their subordinates as to which area of the company requires their attention be it prompt or gradual. The return on shareholder’s fund gives an estimate of the amount of profit available to be shared amongst the ordinary shareholders; where as the return on capital employed measures an organization 's profitability and the productivity with which its capital is utilized. Return on total assets is a profitability ratio that measures the net income created by total assets amid a period.

Ratios are highly important profit tools in financial analysis that help financial analysts implement plans that improve profitability, liquidity, financial structure, reordering, leverage, and interest coverage. Although ratios report mostly on past performances, they can be predictive too, and provide lead indications of potential problem areas. Financial ratios are important because they help investors make decisions to buy hold or sell securities.

Charles_T._Horngren (2005) stated that “people perform financial analysis for different reasons, Supplier want to see if a customer can afford a price hike, Customers want to know if a company will still be around in a year to honor a warranty, Managers, creditors, investors, and the CEO’s all have their reasons for reading the statements, regardless of your interest in the company. Financial statement analysis involves using financial data to assess some aspect of a company’s performance” Horngren added ”Although many analysis methods exist, the cornerstone of financial statement analysis is the use of ratios”

There is a essential use and limitations of financial ratio analysis, One must keep in mind the following issues when using financial ratios: One of the most important reasons for using financial ratio analysis is comparability and for this, a reference point is required. Usually, financial ratios are compared to historical ratios of the business itself, competitor’s financial ratios or the overall ratios of the industry in question. Performance may be adjudged as against organizational goals or forecasts. A number of ratios must be analyzed together to get a true and reliable picture of the financial performance of the business. Relying on each ratio

Ratio analysis shows the correlation within certain figures of financial statements, like current assets and current liability, and is used for three types of company needs- within, intra- and inter-company. Association can be shown in proportion, rate, or percentage and can evaluate company’s liquidity, profitability, and solvency. Liquidity ratios show company’s ability to pay obligations and fulfill needs for cash; profitability ratios show wellbeing and success for the certain time period; and solvency ratios show company’s endurance over the years.

The paper illustrates that financial ratio analysis is an important tool for firm’s to evaluate their financial health in order to identify areas of weakness so as to institute corrective measures.

Accounting information is used by management in various ways to make the business decisions. Accounting information is used to compute financial ratios and comparing the financial data of one period with other. Various Ratios are used by the managers and accountants for controlling the functioning of the organization. These ratios are also known as accounting or financial ratios, these ratios play very important role in the organization. Following are the ratios of Verizon wireless for last three years:-

Ratio analysis are useful tools when judging the performance of a company by weighing and evaluating the operating performance (Block-Hirt). There are 13 significant ratios that can separate by four main categories,

The calculation of ratios is the calculation technique for analyzing a company’s financial performance that divides or standardize one accounting measure by another economically relevant measure. Financial ratios can be used as a tool to demonstrate financial statement users for making valid comparisons of firm operating performance, over time for the same firm and between comparable companies. External investors are mostly interested in gaining insights about a firm’s profitability, asset management, liquidity, and solvency.

Financial results and conditions vary among companies for a number of reasons. One reason for the variation can be traced to the characteristics of the industries in which companies operate. For example, some industries require large investments in property, plant, and equipment (PP&E), while others require very little. In some industries, the competitive productpricing structure permits companies to earn significant profits per sales dollar, while in other industries the product-pricing structure imposes a much lower profit margin. In most low-margin industries, however, companies often experience a relatively high rate of product throughput. A second reason for some of the

Firms and Companies include ‘Ratios’ in their external report to which it can be referred as ‘highlights’. Only with the help of ratios the financial statements are meaningful. It is therefore, not surprising that ratio analysis feature are prominently in the literature on financial management. According to Mcleary (1992) ratio means “an expression of a relationship between any two figures or groups of figures in the financial statements of an undertaking”.

Ratio analysis is generally used by the company to provide some information on how the company has performed during that year, so that the parties involved including shareholders, lenders, investors, government and other users could make some analysis before making any further decision towards that particular company. As mentioned by Gibson (1982a cited in British Accounting Review, 2002 pg. 290) where he believes that the use of ratio analysis is such an effective tool to evaluate the company’s finance, and to predict its future financial state. Ratios are simply divided in several categories; these are the profitability, liquidity, efficiency and gearing.