Analyzing Financial Statements Essay

An organization’s current ratio shows how liquid the assets of the agency are by comparison to the short term debts that the agency must pay to continue its operations. This ratio is calculated by taking the assets that can be converted to cash within a year (current assets) and dividing it by the liabilities that are either currently due or will become due within a year (current liabilities). The current ratio, ideally, should be at

The solvency ratio is the ability for a company to repay debts shown in a percentage. The ratio shows if a business can meet goals of a long term loan by calculating the current and long term liabilities divided by net profit after taxes plus depreciation. In years one through four the

Assess the degree to which the firm’s accounting reflects the underlying business reality. Identify accounting distortions and evaluate their impact on profits and the sustainability of profits.

Most corporate financing decisions in practice reduce to a choice between debt and equity. The finance manager wishing to fund a new project, but reluctant to cut dividends or to make a rights issue, which leads to the decision of borrowing options. The issue with regards to shareholder objectives being met by the management in making financing decisions has come to become a major issue of recent times. This relates to understanding the concept of the agency problem. It deals with the separation of ownership and control of an organisation within a financial context. The financial manager can raise long-term funds internally, from the company’s cash flow, or externally, via the capital market, the market for funds

The accounting system we use today started in Venice in renaissance period over 520 years ago. The trade business increased hugely during this time and all the financial recordings had to be written down to help people see how their business is doing. During that time in 1494 the first book about was published in accounting by Luca Paciolli and was called “The Collected Knowledge of Arithmetic, Geometry, Proportion and Proportionality”. He was called “The father of Accounting” and most of his described principles have been used up until this day.

Landry’s Debt to Asset ratio also increased from year 2002 to 2003. In 2002 Landry had a debt to asset ratio of 0.39. In 2003 Landry’s debt to asset ratio increased to 0.45. While both numbers are acceptable and considerably low, the increase from 2002 to 2003 could influence potential investors to not invest in Landry’s stock. This increase also suggests that Landry’s debt also increased from 2002 to 2003. Overall, while there was a slight increase from 2002 to 2003 Landry’s still had a good debt to asset ratio. We think that a contributing factor to the debt

This paper provides the horizontal and vertical analysis of the income statement and the balance sheet. Equally, financial ratios have been computed to show the leverage, liquidity, efficiency, profitability and the equity of the Hewlett Packard enterprises. Recommendations and conclusion have been made on the results depicted by the analysis. Lastly, an evaluation was made on the different ways that stakeholders utilize the financial statements.

1. A brief history of the two organisations, and their objectives, in as far as they

Another measure of a company’s ability to pay back loans, this time over a long period, measures solvency. Coca-Cola’s debt to total assets ratio is 35% in 2004 and 33% in 2005 compared to PepsiCo’s less attractive ratio of 52% in 2004 to 55% in 2005. Coca-Cola’s debts represent a healthy percentage of assets and in this case the lower the number the better. Coca-Cola’s debt to total assets ratio decreased by 2% from 2004 to 2005 while PepsiCo’s ratio increased by 3%. Were a potential lender or investor to look at these numbers alone they would prefer the performance of Coca-Cola over PepsiCo but there are still many calculations to be made and factors to consider.

Balance sheets and income statements are a snapshot of a company’s stability and financial situation. Combined the statements show the income, expenses, and stockholder’s equity in the company. These statements are often analyzed by financial institutions when a company comes to them needing a loan. Stockholders and other investors also look at these statements to make sure their investment will return a profit for them. This paper will look at four different companies and their balance sheets and income statements. The companies are Eastman Chemical Company, Covenant Transportation

The balance sheet and Income statement are the most important financial statements of the company that help conduct current analysis of company and evaluate its trends overtime. The balance sheet represents the company snapshots of its financial position on the last days of accounting period. Apple balance sheets, which represent a snapshot of its ending balances in asset, liability and equity account as of the date stated on the report, are changes each year from 2003 to 2014. On the other hand, the income statement shows its financial performance over 2003 to 2014. Apple basically ends its accounting period in September. Most of the long-term debts are in the form of the bonds. According to appleinsider.com, Apple recently issues a new euro bond worth about $2.26 billion with a maturity date on January 17, 2024 and coupon rate of 1.375% payable annually. The first payment will occur on January 17, 2016. Moody’s recently assigned a rating of Aa to Apple Inc. 's senior unsecured note issuance. Thus, Apple recent capital expenditure amount to 11,488 million according to morningstar.com. The analysis of financial statements is conduct to compare Apple with one of its closest rival Hewlett-Packard and twelve ratio were calculated. From table1 and chart1, the current ratio that determine the company ability to meet its short term obligation shows Apple’s current ratio is higher than that of Hewlett-Package from 2003 to 2014. That is, Apple is solvent than Hewlett Packard. Table

The long-term liquidity risk ratio such as LT debt/Equity, D/E, and Total Liabilities to Total Assets all show a decline from year 2005 due to the repayment of debts. The interest coverage ratio also shows a healthy number of 29.45 in comparison to the industrial average of 15.04 indicating a high ability to pay out its interest expense. Such a low relative risk is not surprising due to the nature of its business depending heavily in R&D development and large intangible assets.

Financial Statements basically show the historical performance or record of the company at some previous point of time. By the time when financial statements are made public, changes are many economical areas such as market conditions, currency exchange rate and inflations can change the values of assets and liabilities. In this case there often exist discrepancies between book value of assets and their market values.

The Purpose of Financial Statements The financial statements of a business are used to provide information about the status of the business, set performance targets and impose restrictions on the managers of the firm as well as provide an easier method for financial planning. The financial statements consist of the Profit and Loss Account, Balance Sheet and the Cash Flow Statement. There are four areas of information, which we can collect from a company's financial statements. They are: Ÿ

Current ratio of Company X and Y is 1.80, and 2.55 respectively. This ratio presents the proportion of current assets to current liabilities. This ratio provided a measure of degree to which current assets cover current liabilities. Since both companies have excess of current assets over their current liabilities, they met basic requirement of safety margin against uncertainty in realization of current assets and funds flows. Generally, it is suggested that a firm should have neither a very high ratio nor a very low ratio. Very high ratio implies heavy investments in current assets reflecting under utilization of the resources. A very low ratio endangers the business in to risks of not being able to pay short term requirements. Normally, it is advocated to have the current ratio as 2:1 (Baker and Powell, 2009).