Financial ratios are used to provide a quick assessment of potential financial difficulties and dangers. Ratios provide you with a unique perspective and insight into the business. If a financial ratio identifies a potential problem, further investigation is needed to determine if a problem exists and how to correct it. Although there are often specific benchmarks attached to ratios to indicate when there is cause for concern, ratios should also be thought of as a continuum from weak to strong with the stronger the ratio the better. Ratios can identify problems by the size of the ratio but also by the direction of the ratio over time.
Liquidity Ratios
Current Ratio - A firm’s total current assets are divided by its total current liabilities. It shows the ability of a firm to meets its current liabilities with current assets.
Quick Ratio - A firm’s cash or near cash current assets divided by its total current liabilities. It shows the ability of a firm to quickly meet its current liabilities.
Net Working Capital Ratio - A firm’s current assets less its current liabilities divided by its total assets. It shows the amount of additional funds available for financing operations in relationship to the size of the business.
Asset Management Ratios
Days Sales Outstanding - A firm’s accounts receivables divided by its average daily sales. It shows the average length of time a firm must wait after making a sale before it receives payment.
Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio - A firm’s total sales divided by its net fixed assets. It is a measure of how efficiently a firm uses its plant and equipment.
Inventory Turnover Ratio - A firm’s total sales divided by its inventories. It shows the number of times a firm’s inventories are sold-out and need to be restocked during the year.
Total Assets Turnover Ratio - A firm’s total sales divided by its total assets. It is a measure of how efficiently a firm uses its assets.
Debt Management Ratios
Debt to Asset Ratio - A firm’s total debt divided by its total assets. It is a measure of how much of the firm is debt financed.
Debt Coverage Ratio or Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) - A firm’s cash available for debt service divided by the cash needed for debt service. It is a measure of a firm’s ability to service its debt obligations.
Times Interest Earned Ratio (TIE) - A firm’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) divided by its interest charges. It shows a firm’s ability to meet its interest payments. It is also called the interest coverage ratio.
Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) Coverage Ratio - A firm’s cash flow available to meet fixed financial charges divided by the firm’s fixed financial charges. It shows the ability of a firm to meet its fixed financial charges.
Profitability Ratios
Profit Margin on Sales - A firm’s net income divided by its sales. It shows the ability of sales to generate net income.
Basic Earning Power (BEP) - A firm’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) divided by its total assets. It shows the earning ability of a firm’s assets before the influence of taxes and interest (leverage).
Return on Total Assets (ROA) - A firm’s net income divided by its total assets (both debt and equity supported assets). It shows the ability of the firm’s assets to generate net income. Interest expense is added back to net income because interest is a form of return on debt-financed assets.
Return on Equity (ROE) - A firm’s net income divided by its equity. It shows the ability of the firm’s equity to generate profits.
Return on Investment (ROI) - A firm’s net income divided by the owner’s original investment in the firm.
Earnings per Share - A firm’s net income per share of stock.
Market Value Ratios
Price/Earnings Ratio (P/E) - The price per share of a firm is divided by its earnings per share. It shows the price investors are willing to pay per dollar of the firm’s earnings.
Price/Cash Flow Ratio - The price per share of a firm divided by its cash flow per share. It shows the price investors are willing to pay per dollar of net cash flow of the firm.
Financial ratios are measurements of a business' financial performance. Ratios help an owner or other interested parties develop an understand the overall financial health of the company.
Financial ratios are used by businesses and analysts to determine how a company is financed. Ratios are also used to determine profitability, liquidity, and solvency. Liquidity is the firm's ability to pay off short term debts, and solvency is the ability to pay off long term debts.
Commonly used financial ratios can be divided into the following five categories.
Liquidity and Solvency Ratios
Liquidity ratios focus on a firm's ability to pay its short-term debt obligations. The information you need to calculate these ratios can be found on your balance sheet, which shows your assets, liabilities, and shareholder's equity.
Common liquidity ratios are the current ratio, the quick ratio, and the cash ratio. The current ratio is an indicator of your company's ability to pay its short term liabilities (debts).
The quick ratio (sometimes called the acid-test) is similar to the current ratio. The difference between the two is that in the quick ratio, inventory is subtracted from current assets. Since inventory is sold and restocked continuously, subtracting it from your assets results in a more precise visual than the current ratio.
The cash ratio is different from both the quick and current ratios in that it only takes into account assets that are the easiest to convert into cash. These assets are cash and cash equivalents, such as marketable securities, money orders, or money in a checking account.
The solvency ratio represents the ability of a company to pay it's long term obligations. This ratio compares your company's non-cash expenses and net income after taxes to your total liabilities (short term and long term).
Financial Leverage Ratios
The financial leverage or debt ratios focus on a firm's ability to meet its long-term debt obligations. They use the firm's long-term liabilities on the balance sheet such as payable bonds, long-term loans, or pension funds.
Common financial leverage ratios are the debt to equity ratio and the debt ratio. Debt to equity refers to the amount of money and retained earnings invested in the company.
The debt ratio indicates how much debt the firm is using to purchase assets. In other words, it shows if the company uses debt or equity financing.
Turnover Ratios
Sometimes called asset efficiency ratios, turnover ratios measure how efficiently a business is using its assets. This ratio uses the information found on both the income statement and the balance sheet.
The turnover ratios used most commonly are accounts receivable turnover, accounts payable turnover, and inventory turnover. Accounts receivable turnover indicate how effective your company is at collecting credit debt.
Accounts payable turnover expresses your efficiency at paying your accounts, and inventory turnover is a measurement of the amount of time it takes to consume and restock your inventory.
When used together, turnover ratios describe how well the business is being managed. They can indicate how fast the company's products are selling, how long customers take to pay, or how long capital is tied up in inventory.
Profitability Ratios
These are ratios that measure if a business' activities are profitable. Frequently used ratios are the net profit ratio and the contribution margin ratio. The contribution margin ratio indicates if your products or services are generating a profit after variable expenses.
The net profit ratio expresses profits after taxes to net sales. This ratio illustrates the percentage of profits remaining after taxes and all costs have been accounted for.
Market Value Ratios
There are many market value ratios, but the most commonly used are price per earnings (P/E) and dividend yield.
The P/E ratio is used by investors to determine if a share of a company's stock is over or underpriced. The dividend yield is an important ratio for investors as it illustrates the return on their investment.