Finacial Analysis Staples & Office Depot Essay

The company’s increase in inventory (illustrated on the statement of cash flows) rose after 1970 and culminated by a drastic increase in 1973. This increase in inventory (especially in 1973) appears to be heavily financed by short-term and long-term borrowing rather than the typical accounts payable. This is a bit unusual and in 1973 (when they acquired the greatest amount of debt equity, their accounts payable decreased. Their sales were not sufficient to offset the large outflows of inventory related costs. Furthermore, Grant’s decentralization was also a cause of their financial woes because rather than corporately controlling credit extension and credit terms, they allowed each store manager to set their own policies (and manipulate them as they desired). This disastrous policy imploded in 1975 when the company had to make a $155.7 million provision for bad debt expense. So not only did the company have substantial debt and bad debt to equity ratios, they were forced to write off about 8.8% of their total sales from 1975.

Wells Fargo shows a much higher profitability ratio than Samsung, with over 8X that of Samsung. This is to be expected as services are typically more profitable than hardware sales which operate on leaner margins. Wells Fargo also outperforms Samsung significantly on return on sales with over 25X better performance. This again is attributable to better margins on services than hardware. Wells Fargo has a much stronger return on equity than Samsung with a Dupont ratio over 5X higher than Samsung's. Samsung has a stronger financial leverage ratio than Wells Fargo with almost 20% lower ratio for Samsung. Samsung also has a much lower total asset turnover than Wells Fargo. This is attributable to the quick turnover of assets in the manufacturing industry compared to the slow turnover of assets in the financial services sector.

The decline of inventory turnover presents the incresed possibility of inventory obsolescence which is likely to be assessed as higher business risk. In debts to equity part, the ratio in current year is much higher than that of preceeding year, which means the extent of use of debt in financing company is much higher than before. Pinnacle has used most of its borrowing capacity and has little cushion for addional debt.This action brought high business risk to Pinnacle. In addition, Pinnacle puchase more inventory in current year that that of preceeding year, and net sales are increasing also compared previous year. However, the net income is decreased significantly. These changes show expenses (maybe direct or indirect) have increased dramaticly. The company uses more expensive materials and labors to manufacure and sell products.

A vertical and horizontal analysis of each company's balance sheet and income statement in this particular case will be enlightening. A vertical analysis will for instance shed some light on how revenue is being used. In this case, each component of the companies' financial statements will be converted into a percentage of a key component of either the balance sheet or the income statement. A special common size balance sheet and income statement will be utilized to ease comparison. The

Home Depot and Lowe’s are both large successful home improvement retailers. This paper discusses the background of both companies and goes into detail about the financial ratios including profitability and liquidity ratios. The paper also discusses business risks, audit risks, and the proper audit procedures that are necessary. The paper focuses on audit procedures of three important asset accounts: Cash, inventories, and accounts receivable.

Life insurance is meant to provide funds to replace a breadwinner's to protect and support dependents. Chad and Haley are dependents, not income providers. Therefore, the purchase of life insurance is unnecessary and not recommended. The Dumonts should use the money they would spend on policies for the children to increase their own coverage.

4. May Department Stores is a merchandising company and I would link it with balance sheet number four. First clue are the inventories, 23, 2 % of total assets, usual for this type of company. As stated above, the offer their own credit cards, which can be explained the level of account receivables, 25, 7 % of total assets. Compared to the other five companies, May Departments Stores have an amount of PPE (20 % of total assets) that suits best for this type of company. The current liabilities are relatively high, 38, 3 % of total liabilities and shareholders’ equity, usual for merchandising company and a low level of long term debt, 9, 3 %.

This analysis contains references to years 2010 and 2009 for Dollar General Corporation, which represent fiscal years ended January 28, 2011 and January 29, 2010 respectively. The main issues which the company is concerned about are its ability to increase sales and profitability and reduce costs in the current economic situation; another issue is an ability to repay an extensive amount of long-term debt which increases its risks.

Home Depot, Lowe's and Wolseley are all major building equipment retailers, Wolseley having a more global presence as a UK-based firm that started in Australia. Home Depot is a North American operator and Lowe's is generally in the US only. This paper is going to analyze the balance sheets of these different firms to determine how each has performed over the course of recent years.

In the Table __ and Fig __, you can see how the company has been performing. The overall profitability of the company has increased. Profitability ratios have increased since 2010. In particular, Harvey Norman’s Gross Profit Margin saw a significant growth, it grew 44.7% since 2010. Operating Profit Margin saw a similar result, finishing with a ratio of 10.5 in Financial Year 2015. Harvey Norman’s Net Profit Margin (when positive), have been at best maximum and are further illustrative of the paper-thin margins typically associated with the retail sector. Investments of Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) were also substantial, comparing 2010 and 2015 there was a relative decrease in ROA and ROE which doesn’t make much of a difference if the Gross Profit Margin has a strong game. Thus, on the basis of the financial results over the last 6 years, shareholders would definitely be confident about investing in Harvey Norman, unless there is a decline in current asset and equity returns.

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 productive assets of property, plant, and equipment changed dramatically in 1996 they were 5,581 to 2010 an increase to 21,706. In total current assets there was a increase in 1996 from 5,910 to in 2010 21,579. Another significant change is in long term debt in 1996 of 1,116 to in 2010 an increase to 14,041. Also an important figure to note is in the retained earning in 1996 they were 94% (15,127) to 2010 68%

Moving onto the balance sheet, it is safe to assume that the cash position in the firm will increase the rate of the sales growth going forward. In actuality, cash has historically increased faster than the growth of revenue with 2004 being an exception. To calculate the assumption for accounts receivable, inventory, and accounts payable, we averaged the four years worth of data

The financial analysis expressed in this paper shows a comparison of two large firms in the communication and technology industry. Microsoft and Apple Inc. both deal in telecommunication gadgets and accessories within the United States and around the world. The paper focuses on the financial comparison of the two companies for two fiscal years of the year 2014 and 2015. A close analysis of the financial ratios is employed in bringing up the comparison. These rates are derived from the balance sheet and statement of income of both firms.

4. Uniform adoption of new financial performance indicators which helps identify trends on a more reliable basis and does not give false impressions.