Higher Value Equates to Higher Profit Essay

Typically, net profit is measured on a quarterly or annual basis. When compared with a company net profit during other periods, it can provide a useful measure for how profitable a company is over time and the overall performance of the company & management team.

The gross profit margin measures the amount of profits that a company generates from its operations without consideration of its indirect costs. Thehigher thegross profit margin, the greater the efficiency of a company’s operations (Besley & Brigham 2007). It means that the company is generating enough income to cover its operating expenses. On the contrary, a lower gross profit margin indicates that the business is not generating adequate income to cover its operating expenses.

Net Margin is the ratio of net profits to revenues of a company. It is used as an indicator of a company’s ability to control its costs and how much profit it makes for every dollar of revenue it generates. Net Margin is calculated using the formula: Net Margin = (Net Profit / Revenues ) * 100 Net margins vary from company to company with individual industries having typically expected ranges given similar constraints within the industry. For example, a retail company might be expected to have low net margins while a technology company could generate margins of 15-20% or more. Companies that increase their net margins over time generally see their share price rise over time as well as the company is increasing the rate at which it turns dollars earned into profits.

Return on equity tells you how effectively a company is using the dollars invested in it by stockholders. ROE is the most often quoted single statistic when describing a firm 's performance. It is also one of the statistics considered to be most useful by stockholders.

This measures the relationship between net profits and sales of a firm. The net profit margin is indicative of management’s ability to operate the business with sufficient success not only to recover revenues of the period, the cost of merchandise or services, the expenses of operating the business and the cost of the borrowed funds, but also leave a margin of reasonable

Profit Margin: -This ratio relates the operating profit to the sales value (Walker, 2009). It tells us the amount of net profit per pound of turnover a business has earned.

After calculating and analyzing the ratios and their trends the following conclusion regarding the profitability of Home Depot can be made:

Return on equity measures a company’s profitability by calculating how much profit a company generates with the money shareholders have invested. It is important to consider ROE and not just net income in dollar term because it helps for making comparisons among different investment amounts.

The primary financial indicator is the roce which has shown an increases to 53.4 % in 2012 from 52.09 %. But, if the capital employed included the new £300m committed bank facility that yet drawn down at the financial reporting, then the roce show a fall to 42.07 %. The group might understate their long term liabilities.

Gross profit is defined as the difference between Sales and Cost of Sales. The gross margin (or gross profit ratio) expresses the gross profit as a proportion of net sales. The gross profit margin ratio measures how efficiently a company uses its resources, materials, and labour in the production process by showing the percentage of net sales remaining after subtracting the cost of making and selling a product or service. It indicates the profitability of a business before overhead costs. The higher the percentage, the more the business retains of each dollar of sales. So: the higher the gross profit margin ratio, the better.

During this period, the Return on Assets increased from 5.7% in 2012 to 34.6% in 2013. This implies the number of cents earned on each dollar of assets increased from 2012 to 2013. This shows that the business has become more profitable. Equally, the Return on Equity also increased from 12.0% in 2012 to 46.5% in 2013. This similarly implies that the company in 2013 was more efficient in generating income from new investment. This, also can be attributed to the sale of the Digital Business Brand which enabled the company appraise its strategic plan.

Operating profit margin figures in the table above show the return from net sales[13]. However profit margin ratios are high enough for the 3 years, there is a fall from 12.86% to 11.26% during 2011-12. Sales revenue increases with a higher rate than gross profit so there is a poor

Company B (88.9%) has a higher gross profit margin most likely because the firm not only manufactures and mass markets a broad line of prescription pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter remedies, consumer health and beauty products but also manufactures medical diagnostics and devices. Company A is lower (76.1%) due to its limited product range (only manufactures drugs).

Net Profit Margin- The net profit margin of 18.34 percent for 2008 indicates that 18.34 cents of net income was generated for each dollar of sales. The significant increase of 7.83 percent, from 2007’s 10.51 percent, yielded an additional $1.84 billion in profit on the company’s $23.52 billion in revenue.

One of the most important profitability metrics is return on equity. Return on equity reveals how much profit a company earned in comparison to the total amount of shareholder equity. It’s what the shareholders “own”. A business that has a high return on equity is more likely to be one that is capable of generating cash internally. For the most part, the higher a company’s return on equity compared to its industry, the better.