The World 's Largest Nickel Producer

• Net profit margin has been negative and no major patterns over the 9 year period on net profit since the trend of the industry is based mostly on economic factors, and whether or not they secure contracts. Due to high percentage of COGS they are only left with a net profit of $980 or

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.

This report will analyse and outline the company’s profitability, liquidity, solvency and investment potentials based on 15 ratios. All information is taken from the Next plc 2011 statement.

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.

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

In addition to affecting profits by adjusting useful life and depreciation; key ratios will also be affected. The net profit margin can be influenced both ways to fit the purpose of business strategy. It could be increased to make it seem more profitable, or it can be influenced in a negative way to write off as much expenses as possible – if the year held disappointing results – in order to show next year more positively in comparison.

When combining the figures for ROE, ROA and the DuPont analysis it appears that the company is using leverage favourably. ROE is greater than ROA and assets are greater than equity. This is a positive sign for shareholders as it suggests a good investment return in a company that is managing its shareholder equity well (Evans & McDowell, 2009).

Return on Total Assets was 4.43% which is below five percent. That indicates that the company is not accurately converting its assets into profit. The total for Return on Stockholders’ Equity was 8.89%, however financial analysts prefer ROE to range between 15-20 %. The company’s low ROE indicates that the company is not generating profit with new investments. Lastly, Debt-to-Equity ratio for the company was 1.01 which indicates that investors and creditors are equally sharing assets. In the view of creditors, they see a high ratio as a risk factor because it can indicate that investors are not investing due to the company’s overall performance. The totals of these three ratios demonstrate that the company’s financial state is not as healthy as it should be.

As the financial analyst of the company, this report is written in respect to how the financial position of the company can be improved. This report is aimed for the senior management team.

Also, according to its leverage ratios, the company’s debts are not only very high, but are also increasing. Its decreasing TIE ratio indicates that its capability to pay interests is decreasing. The company’s efficiency ratios indicate that despite the fact that its fixed assets are increasingly being utilized to generate sales during the years 1990-1991 as indicated by its increasing fixed asset turnover ratio, the decreasing total assets turnover indicate that overall the company’s total assets are not efficiently being put to use. Thus, as a whole its asset management is becoming less efficient. Last but not the least, based on its profitability ratios, the company’s ability to make profit is decreasing.

Next is Asset turnover with .55 times which is a measure of the efficiency of asset utilization. Finally the equity multiplier with 2.26 which is a measure of financial leverage of the firm. When compared to the traditional ratios we get similar results; Profit margin 25.44% (27% DuPont) versus 18.75% industry average. Asset turnover is .54 (.55 DuPont) versus .50 industry average. Equity multiplier 2.28 times (2.26 times DuPont) versus 2 times industry average. The results show that the DuPont analysis using ROE as the main determinant are very similar to the regular ratios. Furthermore the ROE of the traditional ratio is 31.32% with DuPont being 33.10% versus the industry average of 18.75% shows that the firms ROE is very robust. While the firm has some challenges with respect to liquidity and inventory management, as well as debt management it still is doing a good job with respect to its shareholders. However it could be doing a little better for the stockholders, and needs to address some of the above issues mentioned.

Based on Next Annual Report and Account January (2011), the chief executive's review present the A New Normal of company overview, due to the changing consumer environment, Next PLC need to have New avenues of growth, and brand new way to control cost, also, it will be important that retailer have to generate the healthy cash flow with cautious management. Furthermore, enable to know how company efficiently use asset to generate revenue and whether there was improvement between 2010 and 2011, the activity ratios have to calculate out. The ROCE in 2010 and 2011 were 38.91%,41.79%, this number showed how profit generated by capital employed, and the growth figure of ROCE lead to level up efficiency asset used.((NEXT PLC, 2011 page43, 45) The figure for inventory turnover, receivable turnover, and payable turnover in 2010 and 2011 were 46.81 days, 54.98 days; 66.07days, 68.23 days; 83.36days,81.3days; respectively. (ibid) It is clearly show that the inventory and receivable turnover in 2010 was taken lesser day than 2011, in which means inventories took less day to sold out to costumer and the cash credit receive more faster than the 2011, besides, the payable turnover had longer period than 2011, it was also a good example to illustrate that there was more cash flow holding by company, and the overall image of these figure present that the resource had been

The Net Profit Margin in 2012 was 10.5% while in 2013 it was 66.6%. This increase in the Net Profit Margin can be attributed to the increase in net profits after taxes despite the fact that there was a slight decrease in revenues.

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

Interest Expense Rate is continuously increasing from 1992 to onward. It shows that company is paying high financial charges over short term and long term borrowings.