Current Ratio Essay

1) Current Ratio The ratio is mainly used to give an idea of the company’s ability to pay back its short-term liabilities (debt and payables) with its short-term assets (cash, inventory, receivables). The higher the current ratio, the more capable the company is of paying its obligations. 2) Quick Ratio An indicator of a company’s short-term liquidity. The quick ratio measures a company’s ability to meet its short-term obligations with its most liquid assets. For this reason, the ratio excludes inventories from current assets 3) Asset Turnover Ratio The amount of sales or revenues generated per dollar of assets. The Asset Turnover ratio is an indicator of the efficiency with which a company is deploying its assets. Asset Turnover = Sales or Revenues/Total Assets Generally speaking, the higher the ratio, the better it is, since it implies the company is generating more revenues per dollar of assets. But since this ratio varies widely from one industry to the next, comparisons are only meaningful when they are made for different companies in the same sector. 4) Fixed Turnover Ratio A financial ratio of net sales to fixed assets. The fixed-asset turnover ratio measures a company’s ability to generate net sales from fixed-asset investments – specifically property, plant and equipment (PP&E) – net of depreciation. A higher fixed-asset turnover ratio shows that the company has been more effective in using the investment in fixed assets to generate revenues. The fixed-asset turnover ratio is calculated as: 5) Inventory Turnover Ratio A ratio showing how many times a company’s inventory is sold and replaced over a period. The days in the period can then be divided by the inventory turnover formula to calculate the days it takes to sell the inventory on hand or â€Å"inventory turnover days.† This ratio should be compared against  industry averages. A low turnover implies poor sales and, therefore, excess inventory. A high ratio implies either strong sales or ineffective buying. High inventory levels are unhealthy because they represent an investment with a rate of return of zero. It also opens the company up to trouble should prices begin to fal 6) Debt Ratio A financial ratio that measures the extent of a company’s or consumer’s leverage. The debt ratio is defined as the ratio of total debt to total assets, expressed in percentage, and can be interpreted as the proportion of a company’s assets that are financed by debt. The higher this ratio, the more leveraged the company and the greater its financial risk. Debt ratios vary widely across industries, with capital-intensive businesses such as utilities and pipelines having much higher debt ratios than other industries like technology. In the consumer lending and mortgage businesses, debt ratio is defined as the ratio of total debt service obligations to gross annual income. 7) Debt Equity Ratio A measure of a company’s financial leverage calculated by dividing its total liabilities by stockholders’ equity. It indicates what proportion of equity and debt the company is using to finance its assets. A high debt/equity ratio generally means that a company has been aggressive in financing its growth with debt. This can result in volatile earnings as a result of the additional interest expense. 8) Equity Multiplier The ratio of a company’s total assets to its stockholder’s equity. The equity multiplier is a measurement of a company’s financial leverage. Companies finance the purchase of assets either through equity or debt, so a high equity multiplier indicates that a larger portion of asset financing is being done through debt. The multiplier is a variation of the debt ratio. 9) Net Profit Ratio A ratio of profitability calculated as net income divided by revenues, or net profits divided by sales. It measures how much out of every dollar of sales  a company actually keeps in earnings. Increased earnings are good, but an increase does not mean that the profit margin of a company is improving. For instance, if a company has costs that have increased at a greater rate than sales, it leads to a lower profit margin. This is an indication that costs need to be under better control. 10) Days Inventory A financial measure of a company’s performance that gives investors an idea of how long it takes a company to turn its inventory (including goods that are work in progress, if applicable) into sales. Generally, the lower (shorter) the DSI the better, but it is important to note that the average DSI varies from one industry to another. Here is how the DSI is calculated: Also known as days inventory outstanding (DIO).  This measure is one part of the cash conversion cycle, which represents the process of turning raw materials into cash. The days sales of inventory is the first stage in that process. The other two stages are days sales outstanding and days payable outstanding. The first measures how long it takes a company to receive payment on accounts receivable, while the second measures how long it takes a company to pay off its accounts payable.