Swot Analysis : Whole Foods Market

Financial statements paint a picture of financial health of an organization. Important aspects of the financial statement of a health care organization are ratios. Analysis of ratios show how two numbers relate or compare to one another. Ratios are a way for organizations to make comparison. These comparisons not only encompass what is happening presently but can also be used to make comparisons about numbers and ratios over time. Ratios are a way for organizations to compare themselves with competitors and the industry. (Finkler, Kovner, and Jones, 2007). There are four major ratios that financial statements analyze 1) liquidity 2) activity 3) leverage and 4) profitability. The financial statement for Mayo Health System

The success of a business depends on its ability to remain profitable over the long term, while being able to pay all its financial obligations and earning above average returns for its shareholders. This is made possible if the business is able to maximize on available opportunities and very efficiently and effectively use the resources it has to create maximum value for all involved stakeholders. One way the performance of a company can be measured on critical areas such as profitability, its ability to stay solvent, the amount of debt exposure and the effectiveness in resource utilization, is performing financial analysis where a set of ratios provides a snapshot of company performance and future

Some main strengths of Trader Joe’s are the strong brand image, their employees, organic and private label products, customer loyalty, and offered unique products. Trader Joe’s strong brand image helps them to attract and retain more customers. Their private labels are named according to the background and nationality of food. They offered an extensive line of private label items with brand names such as Trader Joe’s, Trader Ming’s, Trader Jose, Trader Giotto. Due to their strong brand image, they established themselves as a leading retailer of food and non-food items in the US. Americans ranked Trader Joe’s overall as No. 1 retailer in 2013 (Ager & Roberto, 2014). Trader Joe's offered unique and high-quality products from different countries which attract customers to try new items and stocks of 4,000 items, 80% of which bear one of its own brand names. Trader Joe's describes itself as "your neighborhood grocery store" (Wikipedia, Trader Joe’s). Trader Joe’s claimed that 80% of its customers had attended college. The company described its target market as “intelligent, educated, inquisitive individuals” and they reach this customer by opening store among well-educated residents (Ager & Roberto, 2014). Their customers are too loyal towards their brand image so they keep coming back. Instead of targeting all customers, they need to target new customers in order to grow their business and to keep being a leader in the retail industry in the US. And also, their employee are valuable assets of the company, who led them towards the further growth of the company, therefore they are treated fairly and trained to provide the nice and friendly service to Trader Joe’s customers. Almost most of the people want to work at Trader Joe’s because they pay more than minimum wage and higher compare to other retail stores. New part-time hires earned $12 per hour and full-time employees earned approximately $50,000 per year which is above minimum wages. Plus, they contribute 15.4% of employee's salary towards retirement Saving. Furthermore, they offer good health and others benefits even to part-time employees (Ager & Roberto, 2014).

Ratios of ten companies are presented in this study. The companies are all headquartered in the United States and the financial statements are the most recent annual financials for the respective fiscal years ending in 1999 or 2000.

Consumers view Whole Foods Markets as being very expensive and have given the retailer the nickname “Whole Paycheck”. Whole Foods carries a wider variety of organic foods and healthier brands besides their private brands. Whole Foods is experiencing a decline in sales due to other stores; like Wal-Mart, who are stocking organic foods at much lower prices; which has decreased differentiation (Lutz, 2014). Its decentralized business model decreases efficiency in procurement, distribution, and marketing efforts.

In general there are 10 ratios that govern the finances of an organization. But, we have been given only three ratios though all the ratios are essential because they acquire nearly 90 percent of the information contained in the financial statements. These can be any but we have to choose the best three that certainly makes the difference. The major three ratios would be the operating margin, it is an essential ratio that deals with the organization’s profitability

Next, we looked at the Current Ratio, a liquidity ratio calculated by dividing a company’s total current assets by their total current liabilities. This ratio gives an investor insight into whether or not a company is able to meet its short-term debt obligations and be able to remain a viable organization (Brigham & Houston 87). Again Whole Foods with a Current Ratio of 1.9 times assets to debt exceeds the industry average of 1.4 and is ahead of each of the competitors we looked at as well. This tells prospective investors that the financial health of

This paper examines financial ratio analysis by defining, the three groups of stakeholders that use financial ratios, the five different kinds of ratios used and their applications, the analytical tools used in analysis, and finally financial ratio analysis limitations and benefits.

Kroger and Whole Foods are the two giants in the grocery industry; however, their capital structure and financial measures paint vastly different pictures. The liquidity ratios, which measure short term solvency of the company, were calculated for both companies. The current ratio for Kroger was calculated to be .76 compared to a current ratio for Whole Foods of 1.60. At a glance, Whole Foods is more able to pay their short term debt obligations compared to Kroger. In the same vein, Whole Foods has a much higher quick ratio at 1.20 compared to .25 for Kroger. The capital structure of the two companies

At Universal Health Services, Inc. we want to evaluate our financial condition, so that we can assess how we are doing compared to our competitors. We also want to create a strategic financial plan for the next three years, so that we can continue to grow stockholder’s equity and to keep up and even take over our competition. One way to analyze our financial condition is through financial ratios. “Financial ratios are often used in benchmarking. Comparisons are made between the financial ratios of a firm and those of its peers or an industry standard. A financial ratio can be used as a yardstick for measuring how the firm stacks up against its competition” (Beckham, 2015).

It is important for healthcare organizations to understand their present performance and weak areas in order to generate more effective operational strategies. Financial ratio analysis is an effective tool to determine hospital’s performance on several indicators such as ability to pay debt, capability to generate revenue, and sales performance etc. The objective of this paper is to describe role of different financial ratios in understanding organizational performance and in developing new strategy. The paper also presents comparative ratio analysis of local healthcare organization and industry

Before beginning an analysis of a company it is necessary to have a complete set of financial statements, preferably for the pas few years so that historical trends can be obtained. Ratios are a way for anyone to get an idea of the financial performance of a company by using the information contained in the financial statements. Ratios are grouped into four basic categories, liquidity, activity, profitability, and financial leverage. This document will use a variety of these ratios to analyze the firm, Sample Company, as of December 31,2000.

The calculation of ratios is the calculation technique for analyzing a company’s financial performance that divides or standardize one accounting measure by another economically relevant measure. Financial ratios can be used as a tool to demonstrate financial statement users for making valid comparisons of firm operating performance, over time for the same firm and between comparable companies. External investors are mostly interested in gaining insights about a firm’s profitability, asset management, liquidity, and solvency.

Associated British Foods PLC is a British multinational food processing and retailing company which was founded in the year 1935 by a Canadian named Willard Garfield Weston and from that date the rest is history. (Grace’s Guide, 2016).

Firms and Companies include ‘Ratios’ in their external report to which it can be referred as ‘highlights’. Only with the help of ratios the financial statements are meaningful. It is therefore, not surprising that ratio analysis feature are prominently in the literature on financial management. According to Mcleary (1992) ratio means “an expression of a relationship between any two figures or groups of figures in the financial statements of an undertaking”.