Financial Analysis: The Financial Report Of Artic PLC

As long as the current ratio, which takes inventories into account, is higher than 1, they do not experience any problems repaying their short-term liabilities. However, the quick ratio is smaller than 1 and has marginally decreased in 2011. Due to this Next Plc might have problems paying off their short-term liabilities if sales decreases in the next years.

Secondary information is collected for this case. This case study limited only one techniques of financial analysis that is Ratio Analysis and also taken a single company. Thus the conclusion of the analysis carried out in a professional manner will be able to correctly describe the evaluation of the company and to substantiate the user’s decisions.

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.

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 quick ratio denotes that the company's ability should satisfy the short-term obligations. In brief, how many times can the firm respond its current liabilities by using current assets without the final stock? As many times it can cover its obligations, as better for the company.

For a successful business, its necessary to keep a track of how efficiently and effectively are its resources being used. Efficiency ratios help in figuring out this factor by studying the inventories, sales, trade receivables, trade payables for a year.

This ratio is similar to current ratio, except that it excludes inventory from current assets. Inventory is subtracted because it is considered to be less liquid than other current assets, that is, it cannot be easily used to pay for the company’s current liabilities. A company having a quick ratio of at least 1.0, is considered to be financially stable. It has sufficient liquid assets and hence, it will be able to pay back its debts easily (Qasim Saleem et al., 2011).

The Quick Ratio also known as Acid Ratio is used by firms to determine liquidity position. It explains if the firm is able to pay all of their current debt liabilities. (Dyson, 2010) The graph above illustrates that over the period from 2007 to 2011 quick ratio was not more that 1, which means that their debts might not be covered all. The graph also indicates that a peak was in 2011.

Liquidity ratio. The firm’s liquidity shows a downward trend through time. The current ratio is decreasing because the growth in current liabilities outpaces the growth of current assets. The quick ratio is also declining but not as fast as the current ratio. From 1991 to 1992, it only decreased 0.35 units while the current ratio decreased 0.93 units. Looking at the common size balance sheet, we also see that the percentage of inventory is growing from 33% to 48% indicating Mark X could not convert its inventory to cash.

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,

These ratios help company in determining its capability to pay short-term debts. Liquidity ratios inform about, how quickly a firm can obtain cash by liquidating its current assets in order to pay its liabilities. General liquidity ratios are: current ratio and quick ratio. Current ration can be obtain by dividing company’s current assets by its’ current liabilities. Generally a current ratio of two is considered as good (Cleverley et al., 2011). Quick ratio also known as acid test determines company’s liabilities that need to be fulfilled on urgent basis. Quick ratio can be obtained by dividing quick assets by current liabilities. Quick ratio is considered as stricter because it excludes inventories from current assets. Generally a quick ratio of 1:1 is considered as good for the company. Higher quick

The quick ratio reflects on a company’s ability to meet its current liabilities without liquidating inventories that could require markdowns. It is a more stringent test of liquidity than the current ratio and may provide more insight into company liquidity in some cases. For Colgate-Palmolive, the quick ratio has declined from 0.73 in 2008 to 0.58 in 2010. While this does not necessarily mean a problem, a higher current ratio and quick ratio analysis will mean that the company will not have difficulty in meeting its short-term obligations from its operations and not by liquidating its assets.

This group of ratios emphasis can easily indicate the Amcor’s capability to meet short term debt obligations. Current ratio and Quick ratio will be calculated in this part. These two ratios are quite similar, short term creditors, such as bankers and suppliers are interested in this class of ratios, because they can measure the short term debt-paying ability of company.

The quick ratio of 1.46 is a further analysis into the actual monetary values that are highly liquid and excluding fixed assets as part of the assets. The CFO/Avg. current liabilities also show a healthy 73%, 28% in 2004, on average of which is still higher than the industry.

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.