Question

Ratio analysis A company reports accounting data in its financial statements. This data is used for financial analyses that provide insights into a company's strengths, weaknesses, performance in specific areas, and trends in performance. These analyses are often used to compare a company's performance to that of its competitors, or to its past or expected future performance. Such insight helps managers and analysts improve their decision making.There are several groups of ratios most decision makers and analysts use to examine different aspects of a company's performance. Based on the descriptions of ratios listed, identify the relevant category of ratios.Ratios that help determine whether a company can access its cash and pay its short-term obligations are called______ratios.Ratios that help determine the efficiency with which a company manages its day-to-day tasks and assets are called______ratios.Ratios that help assess a company's ability to service the interest and repayment obligations on its long-term debt and the degree to which it uses borrowed versus invested financial capital are called______ratios. _______ratios help measure a company's ability to generate income and profits based on its invested capital.______ratios examine the market value of a company's share price, its profits and cash dividends, and the book value of the firm's assets and relate them to other data items to determine how the firm is perceived in the stock market. Ratio analysis is an important component of evaluating company performance. It can provide great insights into how a company matches up against itself over time and against other players within the industry. However, like many tools and techniques, ratio analysis has a few limitations and weaknesses. Which of the following statements represent a weakness or limitation of ratio analysis? A. Seasonal factors can distort data B. Window dressing might be in effect. C. Market data is not sufficiently considered.

Answer 1

Answer: 1. a. Liquidity Ratios

b. Activity Ratios

c. Financial Ratios

d. Profitability Ratios

e. Market Value Ratios

2. A. Seasonal factors can distort data

B. Window dressing might be in effect.

Explanation:

a. Liquidity Ratios give the company an idea of it's ability to access hard currency. Examples include the Current ratio and the Quick ratio.

b. Activity Ratios allows stakeholders know how efficient the company is at running daily operations. Examples include; Receivables Turnover and Asset Turnover ratios.

c. Financial Ratios are very important to the company as they can decide if a company will be able to get loans. They include ratios that measure the firm's ability to pay off debt as well as the overall condition of the firm in terms of it's finances.

Examples include; Net Profit Margin and Debt to Asset ratio.

d. Profitability Ratios

These help ascertain the ability of the business to make returns based on its resources. Examples include Return on Assets and Return on Equity.

e. Market Value Ratio

These essentially help the company and other stake holders know what the company is worth in the market. An example is the Book Value per Share ratio.

2. Seasonal Factors may indeed distort data depending on the type of industry that the firm is into and ratios will usually not show this. For instance, an Ice Cream company will not have strong sales in winter so when interpreting ratio analysis it would be important to note that this could happen.

Another weakness is that ratios are calculated based on the figures that are given by a company. These figures may not truly reflect the actual situation of the company when management supply more optimistic figures than is true. This is called Window Dressing.

It will have the effect of distorting the ratios so that they do not represent a true representation of the actual situation of the company.