Financial Analysis of Woolworths Limited 10 October 2011 By: Huatong (Claire) Liu To: Potential investors Executive Summary The primary purpose of this report is to determine whether Woolworths Limited is an appropriate and profitable company to invest in. Specific objectives include analysis of annual reports of Woolworths and its competitors (Wesfarmers) as well as interpretation of relevant government and industry statistics, stock exchange, market information and media comments. Further, Woolworths’s financial strengths and weaknesses are identified. The potential growth prospects for Woolworths, the future of the food and staples retailing industry, and the risks versus the benefits of investing in Woolworths are all …show more content…
Although the aim of this report is to be as detailed and comprehensive as possible, there are still some limitations exist. First of all, any estimates or projections of future economic performance are impacted by numerous factors, such as market behavior, that are inherently uncertain. Therefore future outcome may not unfold as expected. Further, events may have occurred since I prepared this report which may impact on it and its findings. Moreover, Woolworths and Wesfarmers have some differences in accounting policies. For instance, Wesfarmers values inventories at the lower of cost and net realisable value. Woolworths values short life retail stocks in the same way, but for long life retail stocks, the retail inventory method are used to determine cost by reducing the value of the inventory by the appropriate gross margin percentage which takes into account markdown prices. Different method of recording and valuation may influence the final financial results. Conclusion Having examined Woolworths Ltd financial performance through analyses and comparisons we come to conclusion that Woolworths has a number of financial strengths as well as several weaknesses. Strengths • Strong and trusted brand name • High product quality and safety (persistent implementation of “Fresh Food People” strategy) • Very efficient management (efficient at using assets to generate sales, collecting money
The purpose of this paper is to advise analyze the financial statements of Dillard’s, Inc. in order to recommend whether or not my client should invest $1 million in the large retail company. I will compare the financial statements of Dillard’s, Inc. its competitor, Kohl’s Corporation. Investing in retail can be risky because a retail company’s performance is very heavily influenced by factors that have nothing to do with the actual company such as the overall performance of the economy or the weather during the holiday shopping season. There is, however, potential for profitability within the retail sector. Based on my analysis, I recommend that the client should not invest in Dillard’s, Inc. for the following reasons. First, Dillard’s has experience a decline in net income in the last three years. Second, liquidity ratios indicate that they could face possible liquidity constraints in the future. Third, long-term debt paying ability ratios indicate that the company could have trouble paying off the principal of its current debt obligations. Fourth, the profitability ratios are well below industry averages, suggesting that there are more profitable companies to invest in within the industry. And finally, Investor analysis ratios provide mixed opinion of the future performance of the company. I conclude that retail can be a profitable industry to invest in if an investor has the risk tolerance and risk capacity to withstand the uncertainty, but neither Dillard’s
Macy’s, Inc. is known as the Great American Department Store was established in 1858 and now has 810 stores operating in the United States, coast-to-coast. Macy’s stores nationwide are grouped into 69 geographic districts that average ten to twelve stores each. Most stores are located at urban or suburban areas. As of January 30, 2010, the Company’s operations were conducted through four retail operating divisions – Macy’s, macys.com, Bloomingdale’s, and bloomingdales.com. The Company is a retail organization operating retail stores and Internet websites under two brands (Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s) that sell a wide range of merchandise, including men’s, women’s and children’s apparel and accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings and other
The internal analysis of the company paints a picture of a firm that is well endowed with resources, both human and capital. The company boasts of an asset base of $11.4 billion according to the financial reports for the year 2012. This is huge, and it shows that the company is well grounded and has the capacity to gain a competitive edge in the highly competitive retail market in which it operates (Britton & Jorissen, 2007).
The companies that were chosen for a company analysis include Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Burlington. Since the retail industry has been lagging behind lately, these companies will help determine the prospective financial investment in the retail industry. As Macy’s as our primary company, we chose Kohl’s and Burlington to be the two comparative companies. These companies are comparable due to the same SIC code of 5311 in the subgroup of department stores. These companies offer similar products and services with little differentiation between the three.
The company that I chose to analyze is Tootsie Roll. Throughout my life I have always had somewhat of a sweet tooth and have been very intrigued in the process of business. Now I have the opportunity to look further into such a great company such as Tootsie Roll and really find out how the business is run and what type of work is invested in such a well known business.
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.
In accordance to the annual report of Woolworths Limited 2016, the current accounting practice that is applied to the business regarding its inventory disclosure includes; a perpetual inventory system which continually updates the information by increasing or decreasing inventory from reports throughout the year to verify accounting records (Bragg 2016). A perpetual inventory system in comparison to a periodic inventory system is more efficient and effective for larger corporations. With entities like Woolworths, many transactions occur between themselves and other stakeholders, so by utilising a perpetual inventory system, it saves time and also money (Woolworths 2016)
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.
Bunnings is the market leader in this industry who gains 64% of total market share, followed by Mitre 10 with 13.0%, and Masters with 8.0% of market share (The Australian, 2016). The company’s revenue continuous increased since they started the business in 2011 to 2014, they gained total revenue around $1527 million in 2014 (Woolworths, 2015) but the company still got the loss from their operation expenses. Moreover, the sales dropped by 16% in 2015 that was the main reason for Lowe’s to delist the joint venture in the beginning of 2016 as it claimed that Masters has poor profit performance (IBIS, 2016). In the meantime, Woolworths publicised its intention either to selling the business or shutting it down (ABC, 2016, para. 15). Thus, there are several causes of these problems that Masters should solve in order to survive in this business and compete with its competitors.
The world of finance in today’s market is one of numerous ups and downs. With the global economy in constant flux, it is more important than every for companies to examine their financial status and compare their position to that of the relative market as well as their fellow competitors. In order to better understand the ways in which today’s managers examine their position on the market and evaluate their current value as a company we will examine the financial data of Lockheed Martin Corporation and perform a detailed financial analysis on the company. In this
The purpose of the report is to measure the performance, financial position and liquidity of the general retailer, Debenhams plc. Its operation would be compared to that of the prior year as well as that of a rival company in the same industry.
Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is well known in the apparel clothing field. The corporation engages in the design, marketing and distribution of lifestyle product. This analysis paper will illustrate the current financial situation and forecast the future free cash flow based on the previous financial statement and financial data collected. These information and forecast are served for the potential investor to have a general understanding of RL Corporation and make the right choice on their money.
In January 2006, company-owned bottling operations were brought together to form the Bottling Investments operating group, now the second-largest bottling partner in the Coca-Cola system in terms of unit case volume.
The following report will investigate the Australian retail/grocery supermarket Woolworths and its parent company Woolworths Limited. This report will explore the success Woolworths and its contribution to the Australian economy.
Woolworths is the major supermarket grocery store chain in Australia, owned by Woolworths Limited. Woolworths is an incorporated public company, listed on the Australian stock exchange. This company has incomplete permissible responsibility through its shareholders and lies in the tertiary industry and retail sectors. Through their authoritative organization strategies and processes Woolworths has been able to make available to its 1.3 million customers a level of service, expenditure and manufacturing available across their franchise stores located across Australia. Woolworths' function as one of the largest public companies is obvious through its nature of management. This report will explain the nature and responsibilities of management in light of Woolworths.