Financial Leverage Analysis
Regarding financial leverage, the debt percentage ratio increased from 84.95% to 89.92%, indicating an increase in the amount of The Home Depot’s assets that are financed with debt. The debt to equity ratio drastically increased, from 5.65 to 8.92, showing a drastically increased amount of financial leverage in the company. This may not always be good for a company, as it means there is a very large amount of debt. However, the quick ratio had virtually no change (decreased by .01), showing that an increase in debt and financial leverage did not affect cash and cash equivalents. In fact, cash and cash equivalents increased, as stated in the above paragraph citing vertical analysis. The asset to equity ratio increased
…show more content…
Both the working capital and current ratio, which represents the company’s ability to current liabilities with current assets, decreased. Working capital, which is The Home Depot’s current assets minus current liabilities, decreased from $3,960 in 2015 to $3,591 in 2016. The current ratio (current assets divided by current liabilities) decreased from 1.32 to 1 in 2015 to 1.25 to 1 in 2016. This indicates that The Home Depot remained fairly liquid in 2016 but was paying for their current liabilities with current assets at less of rate than they did in 2015. The Home Depot’s quick ratio decreased from .33 to 1 in 2015 to .32 to 1 in 2016. Although this is a slight decrease of .01, the company’s instant ability to pay off its current liabilities in 2016 is slightly less than its ability in 2015. The Home Depot is less liquid in 2016 than 2015 because they do not have as many cash equivalent …show more content…
Looking into this further, one can see why this ratio decreased, as the basic earnings per share increased from $5.46 to $6.45, meaning that this decrease in Price/Earnings is not necessarily a bad thing. Dividend yield percentage, however, did increase. Increasing from 1.88% to 2.0%, this shows that The Home Depot is rewarding its stockholders with a higher percentage of dividend payout. Dividend payout percentage decreased from 43.24% to 42.78%, resulting in a lower percentage of net income being paid to stockholders through cash dividends. This seems backwards considering dividend yield percentage increased, but this is actually the result of a higher increase in net earnings. Overall, The Home Depot’s market conditions are improving as basic earnings per share increased, as well as dividend yield percentage. The decrease in the P/E and dividend payout ratios can be explained through positive
Net working capital represents organization’s operating liquidity. In order to compute the net working capital, total current assets are divided from total current liabilities. When there is sufficient excess of current assets over current liabilities, an organization might be considered sufficiently liquid. Another ratio that helps in assessing the operating liquidity of as company is a current ratio. The ratio is calculated by dividing the total current assets over total current liabilities. When the current ratio is high, the organization has enough of current assets to pay for the liabilities. Yet, another mean of calculating the organization’s debt-paying ability is the debt ratio. To calculate the ratio, total liabilities are divided by total assets. The computation gives information on what proportion of organization’s assets is financed by a debt, and what is the entity’s ability to pay for current and long term liabilities. Lower debt ratio is better, because the low liabilities require low debt payments. To be able to lend money, an organization’s current ratio has to fall above a certain level, also the debt ratio cannot rise above a certain threshold. Otherwise, the entity will not be able to lend money or will have to pay high penalties. The following steps can be undertaken by a company to keep the debt ratio within normal
This decline in its earnings is driven by weakness in the commodity market that impacted its upstream business significantly. XOM’s average realized crude as well as gas prices for the U.S operation fell 46% and 52% respectively for the quarter as compared to the fourth-quarter of 2014. As a result, its upstream earnings
...for Home Depots earnings, with the numbers overall being so close Lowes would probably be a better choice for investing. But, really either company is probably not a bad investment.
Equity ratio and debt ratio are both very important because it shows how much of the assets used for production is really owned by the owner of a company. According to calculations in the appendix, RBC has the highest equity ratio and the lowest debt ratio. This is considered favourable compared to Sun life and BMO’s equity and debt ratio. When it comes to return on total assets BMO has the highest return. Meaning it is earning more per assets than RBC and Sun
Analyzing Wal-Mart's annual report provides a positive outlook on Wal-Mart's financial health. Given the specific ratios and its comparison to other companies in the same industry, Wal-Mart is leading and more than likely continue its dominance. Though Wal-Mart did not lead in all numbers, its leadership and strong presence of the market cements the ongoing success. The review of the current ratio, quick ratio, inventory turnover ratio, debt ratio, net profit margin ratio, ROI, ROE, and P/E ratio all indicate an upbeat future for the company. The current ratio, which is defined as current assets divided by current liabilities, is a measure of how much liabilities a company has compared to its assets. Wal-Mart in the year of 2007 had a current ratio of .90, and as of January 2008 it had a current ratio of .81. The quick ratio, which is defined as current assets minus inventory divided by current liabilities, is a measure of a company's ability pay short term obligations. Wal-Mart in the year of 2007 had a quick ratio of .25, and as of January 2008 it had a ratio of .21. Both the current ratio and quick ratio are a measure of liquidity. Wal-Mart is not as liquid as its competitors such as Costco or Family Dollar Stores Inc. I believe the reason why Wal-Mart is not too liquid is because they are heavily investing their profits for expansion and growth. Management claims in their financial report that holding their liquid reserves in other currencies have helped Wal-Mart hedge against inflationary pressures of the US dollar. The next ratio to look at is the inventory ratio which is defined as the cost of sales divided by average inventory. In the year of 2007, Wal-Mart’s inventory ratio was 7.68, and as of January 2008 it was 7.96. Wal-Mart has a lot of sales therefore it doesn’t have too much a problem of holding too much inventory. Its competitors have similar ratios though they don’t have as much sales as Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s ability to sell at lower prices for same quality, gives them the edge against its competition. As of the year 2007, Wal-Mart had a debt ratio of .58, and as of January 2008, it had a debt ratio of .59. The debt ratio is calculated by dividing the total debt by its total assets. Wal-Mart has a lot more assets than it does debt so Wal-Mart is not overleveraged.
Home Depot and Lowe's are two home improvement chains in the United States. Home Depot is the leading company in this industry followed by Lowe's as the second largest. This paper uses financial ratios to compare these companies regarding operating profitability, asset utilization, and risk management in the years 2005 and 2006. The evaluation compares the performances of these stores against the industry.
According to its annual financial reports Bed Bath & Beyond has shown a small but steady increases in sales and revenue for the past four years (Appendix, Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., 2016). But only by 3.28% for 2015, compared to 14.89% in 2013, showing a decline in growth (Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., 2016). Although this company’s net income growth has been declining over the last three years its gross profit margin is higher than industry the average at 38.17% (Bed Bath & Beyond Inc., 2016). Since 2010, the company has spent over $7.5 billion repurchasing its stock to increase outstanding stock value, demonstrating Bed Bath & Beyond’s commitment to its shareholders (Duprey,
Looking at the individual ratios seen in exhibit 1 and comparing it to the industry average shown in exhibit 2 gives a sense of where this company stands. Current ratio and quick ratio are really low and have been decreasing. For 1995, the current ratio is 1.15:1, which is less than the industry average of 1.60:1, however to give a better sense of where this stands in the industry, as seen in exhibit 3, it is actually less than the average of the bottom 25% of the industry. The quick ratio is 0.61 is less than the industry is 0.90. Both these ratios serve to point out the lack of cash in this company. The cash flow has been decreasing because, it takes longer to get the money from customers, but the company still needs to pay for its purchases. Also, the company couldn’t go over the $400,000 loan limit, so they were forced to stretch their cash.
If a bank wanted to look at the big picture when making their decision to give out loan to a company, they would look at the Cash Ratio, because cash is the most important of all assets, it provides the bank or creditor an idea of the likelihood of the company being able to pay them back on the loan. In the comparison between Home Depot and Lowe’s we find that the trends are very similar to the quick ratio with Home Depot having more cash to cover its liabilities than Lowe’s. As expected, the cash ratios are lower than the quick ratios, because short-term investments and receivables are taken out of the equation. Over the past six years, both companies’ cash ratios have been declining with an average of 0.186 for Home Depot while the average
The consistent high spending of capital equipment is the first reason why one would recommend reducing the debt to equity ratio. A company with higher levels of debt is less flexible in being able to adjust to new market demands and conditions that require the company to make new products or respond to competition. Looking at the pecking order of financing, issuing new shares to fund capital investing is the last resort and a company that has high levels of debt, must move to the equity side to avoid the risk of bankruptcy. Defaulting on loans occur when increased costs or bad economic conditions lead the firm to have lower net income than the payments on loans. The risk of defaulting on loans and the direct and indirect cost related to defaulting lead firms to prefer lower levels of debt. The financial distress caused by additional leverage can lead to lower cash flows available to all investors, lower than if the firm was financed by equity only. Additionally, the high debt ratio that Du Pont incurred also led to them dropping from a AAA bond rating to a AA bond Rating. Although the likelihood of not being able to acquire loans would be minimal, there are increased interest costs with having a lower bond rating. The lower bond rating signals to investors that the firm is more likely to default than if it had a higher (AAA) bond rating.
Quick Ratio – Constant grow for the last three years. From 3.56 in 2001 to 3.76 in 2002 to 4.17 in 2003. The reason of grow is constant increase in Current Assets.
Overall, Horizontal analysis and financial ratios are essential factors that businesses use to monitor its liquidity. Therefore, in order to improve Apple’s ratios and profitability, the company needs to implement a strategy to increase the company’s liquidity. Business owners or managers should monitor current ratio and acid test ratio as these ratios help us to ensure the company has the proper liquid assets to pay current liabilities, to stay in operations and to expand the company. As we noted in our acid test ratio and current ratio for the company, we show a lower ratio for acid test ratio than the current ratio, which means that the company’s current assets rely on inventory. Therefore, the company needs to convert old inventory into
As of December 26, 2004, our liquid assets totaled $10,924,000. These assets consisted of cash and cash equivalents in the amount of $10,642,000 and short-term investments in the amount of $282,000. The working capital deficit increased slightly from $50,359,000 as of December 28, 2003 to $51,041,000 as of December 26, 2004. This increase was due primarily to increases in the loss reserve and unearned premiums related to the captive insurance subsidiary and accounts payable and was partially offset by increases in inventories and receivables.
Finding the perfect capital structure in terms of risk and reward can ensure a company meets shareholder expectations and protects a firm in times of recession. Capital structure refers to how a business puts its money to “work”. The two forms of capital structure are equity capital and debt capital. Both have their benefits and limitations. Striking that perfect balance between the two can mean the difference between thriving versus trying to survive.
In 1993 the Debt to Equity Ratio was .45. In 1994 it was .68 and in 1995 it was .73. This is a trend that Clarkson will have to take into consideration as he refinances his company.