Effectiveness Of Leverage And Financial Leverage

This data set is divided into three categories, this paper compares only three ratios for each category; Solvency Ratios: Quick Ratio, Current Ratio, and Current Liabilities to Inventory Ratio; Efficiency Ratios: Collection Period Ratio, Assets to Sales Ratio, and Accounts Payable to Sales Ratio; Profitability Ratios: Return on Sales Ratio, Return on Assets, and Return on Net Worth.

When combining the figures for ROE, ROA and the DuPont analysis it appears that the company is using leverage favourably. ROE is greater than ROA and assets are greater than equity. This is a positive sign for shareholders as it suggests a good investment return in a company that is managing its shareholder equity well (Evans & McDowell, 2009).

Return on Total Assets was 4.43% which is below five percent. That indicates that the company is not accurately converting its assets into profit. The total for Return on Stockholders’ Equity was 8.89%, however financial analysts prefer ROE to range between 15-20 %. The company’s low ROE indicates that the company is not generating profit with new investments. Lastly, Debt-to-Equity ratio for the company was 1.01 which indicates that investors and creditors are equally sharing assets. In the view of creditors, they see a high ratio as a risk factor because it can indicate that investors are not investing due to the company’s overall performance. The totals of these three ratios demonstrate that the company’s financial state is not as healthy as it should be.

The company’s debt ratios are 54.5% in 1988, 58.69% in 1989, 62.7% in 1990, and 67.37% in 1991. What this means is that the company is increasing its financial risk by taking on more leverage. The company has been taking an extensive amount of purchasing over the past couple of years, which could be the reason as to why net income has not grown much beyond several thousands of dollars. One could argue that the company is trying to expand its inventory to help accumulate future sales. But another problem is that the company’s

Also, according to its leverage ratios, the company’s debts are not only very high, but are also increasing. Its decreasing TIE ratio indicates that its capability to pay interests is decreasing. The company’s efficiency ratios indicate that despite the fact that its fixed assets are increasingly being utilized to generate sales during the years 1990-1991 as indicated by its increasing fixed asset turnover ratio, the decreasing total assets turnover indicate that overall the company’s total assets are not efficiently being put to use. Thus, as a whole its asset management is becoming less efficient. Last but not the least, based on its profitability ratios, the company’s ability to make profit is decreasing.

Using the scenarios in case Exhibit 9, what role does leverage play in affecting the return on equity (ROE) for CPK? What about the cost of capital? In assessing the effect of leverage on the cost of capital, you may assume that a firm’s CAPM beta can be modeled in the following manner: BL = BU[1 + (1 − T)D/E], where BU is the firm’s beta without leverage, T is the corporate income tax rate, D is the market value of debt, and E is the market value of equity.

Next is Asset turnover with .55 times which is a measure of the efficiency of asset utilization. Finally the equity multiplier with 2.26 which is a measure of financial leverage of the firm. When compared to the traditional ratios we get similar results; Profit margin 25.44% (27% DuPont) versus 18.75% industry average. Asset turnover is .54 (.55 DuPont) versus .50 industry average. Equity multiplier 2.28 times (2.26 times DuPont) versus 2 times industry average. The results show that the DuPont analysis using ROE as the main determinant are very similar to the regular ratios. Furthermore the ROE of the traditional ratio is 31.32% with DuPont being 33.10% versus the industry average of 18.75% shows that the firms ROE is very robust. While the firm has some challenges with respect to liquidity and inventory management, as well as debt management it still is doing a good job with respect to its shareholders. However it could be doing a little better for the stockholders, and needs to address some of the above issues mentioned.

Financial flexibility (Solvency and leverage) is a company’s ability to adapt to unforeseen events and opportunities. Leverage means using debt (or other third party funds) to increase earnings for the owners. Table 3 presents some financial flexibility and leverage ratios of Amazon.com from 2005 to 2009 and for Ebay from 2008 to 2009. Amazon.com is a fast growing company and in the fiscal year ended 2004, they had a negative total equity, which could skew the ratios. Therefore, we did not present the ratios in 2004.

The effect of financial leverage on the cost of equity is prevalent in the Modigliani-Miller capital structure theory. Since the financial leverage increases the cost of equity, it can be considered one of the disadvantages of borrowing. As shown in Appendix A, the cost of equity, at each debt to capital ratio, increases by 0.1% as the financial leverage increases by 10%. With a higher

Our analysis attempts to answer the question, “What are the things a company must consider when analyzing a new investment or project?” According to the text, a firm’s first objective when deciding to take on new debt should be that its return on net assets (RONA) should be greater than its weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Since we are working with an income statement only and do not have an amount for net assets, we will instead use return on invested capital (ROIC), which measures how well a company is using its money to generate returns. Comparing a company 's return on capital (ROIC) with its cost of capital (WACC) reveals whether invested capital was used effectively. From our spreadsheet calculations we see that using our estimated operating profit provides us with a 19.9% return on invested capital with only a 7.2% weighted average cost for that same capital. If these numbers are even close to correct, George should definitely make the move.

The debt-to-capital ratio gives users an idea of a company's financial structure, or how it is financing its operations, along with some insight into its financial strength. The higher the debt-to-capital ratio, the more debt the company has compared to its equity. Star River has always depended much on debt for its financing and the trend shows this ratio may get higher in future. Star River, with high debt-to-capital ratios, compared to a general or industry average, may show weak financial strength because the cost of these debts may weigh on the company and

Before beginning an analysis of a company it is necessary to have a complete set of financial statements, preferably for the pas few years so that historical trends can be obtained. Ratios are a way for anyone to get an idea of the financial performance of a company by using the information contained in the financial statements. Ratios are grouped into four basic categories, liquidity, activity, profitability, and financial leverage. This document will use a variety of these ratios to analyze the firm, Sample Company, as of December 31,2000.

It seems then that companies should fully leverage the company or a least come close to doing so but there is a probability that the company enters financial distress as its leverage (D/E) increases. Financial distress can be very costly for companies, and the cost for this scenario is shown in the current market value of the levered firm's securities. Investors factor the potential for future distress into their assessment of the present value (this is where PV of distress costs is subtracted from un-levered company value and the PV of the tax-shield.) The value for the costs

Table 1, below, will show financial ratios of PepsiCo Inc. The table consists of 5 major elements. Profitability refers to how much income was generated by PepsiCo Inc. Then, asset management refers to how effectively the invested assets were used in the business by PepsiCo’s management team. Liquidity and solvency are the related conception of analyzing financial risk. Liquidity refers to the ability of PepsiCo Inc. to generate cash and is often considered a good indication of the company’s ability to pay its short-term obligations; while, solvency generally refers to the ability of company to repay its outstanding long-term obligation. Lastly, ROE Model Framework is the return on equity and reveals that a firm’s ROE can be decomposed into the three component ratios of return on sales, asset turnover, and financial leverage which will be used for sustainable growth rate later.

From this set of problems, we can see that leverage is good for the firm. Leverage has increased the value of the firm as a whole and increased the price per share. Although the cost of debt increases the firm's risk because it increases the probability of default and bankruptcy, therefore shareholders will require higher rates of return on the equity they provide, debt also provides tax savings. And we can see that in table 4, where we calculated the total value of the firm as the pure business cash flows plus the tax savings. Another reason why debt increases firm value is the fact that it reduces WACC, because the cost of debt is generally lower than the cost of equity. Another option that shareholders can do is using homemade leverage. Shareholders should pay a premium for the shares of a levered firm when the addition of debt increases value.