Liquidity Ratios: An Analysis Of Liquidity

1. Liquidity ratios are a class of financial metrics that is used to determine a company's ability to pay off its short-terms debts obligations. Generally, the higher the value of the ratio, the larger the margin of safety that the company possesses to cover short-term debts.

The liquidity of firm can be measured by computing certain ratio’s such as current ratio and acid ratio. For measuring Target Corporation’s 2014 liquidity; the firm’s current ratio and the acid ratio is computed. The company’s current ratio is 0.91 times which is computed by comparing current asset ($11, 573,000) with current liabilities ($12,777, 000) of the year 2014 (TGT Company Financial, n.d). The firm’s acid ratio is 0.26 times which is computed by deducting inventory ($8,278,000) from current assets. The inventory is deducted from current assets because the company has not received any money for the unfinished good or from unsold inventory worth ($8,278,000). To analyze the Target Corporation’s liquidity trend in 2014; the current ratio and acid ratio of 2014 is compared with the 2015’s ratios. In 2015, the firm’s current ratio was 1.20 times and the acid ratio was 0.45 times. These liquidity ratios reflect that the firm’s liquidity was better in 2015 than 2014. (See Table 1).

The current cash debt ratio only measures the ability of a firm 's cash, along with investments easily converted into cash, to pay its short-term obligations. In 2007, the company has a current cash debt ratio greater than 1 and is in better financial shape than in 2006, when the ratio was less than 1.

An organization’s current ratio shows how liquid the assets of the agency are by comparison to the short term debts that the agency must pay to continue its operations. This ratio is calculated by taking the assets that can be converted to cash within a year (current assets) and dividing it by the liabilities that are either currently due or will become due within a year (current liabilities). The current ratio, ideally, should be at

The Current Ratio is used to identify whether or not a company can pay its current obligations.

The current ratio indicates the ability to pay on maturing obligations and to be able to meet unexpected cash needs. Again in this case Tootsie Roll has a higher probability of being able to pay their obligation and meet their unexpected cash needs. They have a $2.34:1 ratio

Liquidity ratios measure how well a company is able to meet its short term obligations without relying on selling inventory (David, Fred). Starbucks three main components in these current categories are cash, inventory and accrued liabilities. The current ratio indicates that if Starbucks needed to liquidate they would be able to cover their current liabilities. They would be unable to meet their outside obligations without selling off inventory to

Overall regards to liquidity ratios, the higher the number the better; however, a too high also indicates that the firms were not using their resources to their full potential. Current ratio of 1.0 or greater shows that a company can pay its current liabilities with its current assets. JWN’s ratio increased from 2.06 in 2007 to 2.57 in 2010, and slightly decreased to 2.16 in 2011. JWN’s cash ratio increased significantly from 22% in 2007 to 80% in 2010. JWN has a cash ratio of 73% in 2011, which is useful to creditors when deciding how much debt they would be willing to extend to JWN. In addition, JWN also has moderate CFO ratio of 46%, indicating the companies’ ability to pay off their short term liabilities with their operating cash

Current Ratio and Acid Ratio evaluates current asset available to pay current obligations whereas acid ratio excludes inventories from the current assets because of its relative illiquidity and evaluates the relationship between quick assets to current liabilities. A comparison between Interserve and Kier shows disparity in both acid and current ratios. Interserve has a lower current ratio (0.82) to that of Kiers (1.19) but a

Liquidity represents a company’s ability to pay its short-term obligations. In the following schedule is the calculation of the ratios that are indicators of the liquidity position of a company.

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.

Liquidity ratios measure the short term ability of a company to pay its obligations and meet their needs for maintaining cash. According to Cagle, Campbell & Jones (2013), “A good assessment of a company’s liquidity is important because a decline in liquidity leads to a greater risk of bankruptcy” (p. 44). Creditors, investors and analysts alike are all interested in a company’s liquidity. After computing liquidity

Liquidity ratios measure the ability of a firm to meet its short-term obligations. A company that is not able

Current Ratio is the measure of short-term liquidity. It indicates that the ability of an entity to meet its

The liquidity ratios are a group of ratios that show the relationship of a firm’s cash and other current assets to its current liabilities. This basically means that the ratios measure how well the company is able to pay its short-term obligations and how well they can confront unexpected needs for cash.