Financial Ratios: Uses and Limitations
Financial Ratio Uses
- Valuing a company’s stock.
- Determining a company’s systemic risk (beta risk) exposure.
- Creating a company’s credit rating.
- Predict a company’s likelihood of financial distress (i.e. bankruptcy).
- Preparing pro forma financial statements that provide estimates of financial statements for future periods.
Financial Ratio Analysis Limitations
While financial ratios can provide valuable insights to analysts, they cannot be considered all knowing. Ratio analysis can be limited by:
- Application of different accounting methods by firms which are being compared.
- Multiple firm operations; when a company has multiple business units, it can be difficult to determine the appropriate industry norms for ratio analysis.
- Need to consider all ratio categories when analyzing a company, as one category of ratios may not tell the complete story.
- Analyst judgment; ultimately the analyst must decide what an appropriate ratio range is for a given firm or industry.
LESSONS
- Common Ratios in Financial Analysis
- Inventory Turnover and Days of Inventory on Hand (DOH)
- Receivables Turnover and Days of Sales Outstanding (DSO)
- Payables Turnover and Number of Days of Payables
- Working Capital Turnover Ratio
- Fixed Asset and Total Asset Turnover Ratio
- Activity Ratios – Video Summary
- Liquidity Ratios (Current Ratio, Quick Ratio, and Others)
- Cash Conversion Cycle (CCC)
- Solvency Ratios
- Profitability Ratios
- DuPont Analysis
- Valuation Ratios
- Financial Ratios: Uses and Limitations
R Programming Bundle: 25% OFF
Get our R Programming - Data Science for Finance Bundle for just $29 $39.
Get it now for just $29