RATIO ANALYSIS

Ratio analysis is the process of determining and

interpreting numerical relationship based on
financial statements. It is the technique of
interpretation of financial statements with the help
of accounting ratios derived from the balance
sheet and profit and loss account.
 Basis Of Comparision
Trend Analysis involves comparison of a firm over a
period of time, that is, present ratios are compared with
past ratios for the same firm. It indicates the direction of
change in the performance – improvement, deterioration
or constancy – over the years.
. Interfirm Comparison involves comparing the ratios of
a firm with those of others in the same lines of business
or for the industry as a whole. It reflects the firm’s
performance in relation to its competitors

Comparison with standards or industry average

 Classification Of Ratios
Analysis of Short Term Financial Position
or Test of Liquidity.
Analysis of Long Term Financial Position
or Test of Solvency.
Activity Ratios.
Profitability Ratios.
 I. Test Of Liquidity
The liquidity ratios are used to test the short term
solvency or liquidity position of the business.
It enables to know whether short term liabilities can be
paid out of short term assets.
It indicates whether a firm has adequate working
capital to carry out routine business activity.
It is a valuable aid to management in checking the
efficiency with which working capital is being
employed.
It is also of importance to shareholders and long term
creditors in determining to some extent the prospects
of dividend and interest payment.
 Important Ratios In Test Of
Liquidity
Current ratio.
Quick ratio.
Absolute liquid ratio.
 Current Ratio
It is the most widely used of all analytical devices based
on the balance sheet. It establishes relationship between
total current assets and current liabilities.
Current assets
Current ratio=
Current liabilities

Ideal ratio: 2:1

High ratio indicates under trading and over
capitalization.
Low ratio indicates over trading and under capitalization.
 Quick Ratio or Acid Test Ratio
It establishes relationship between liquid assets and
liquid liabilities. It is a refinement to current ratio and
second testing device for working capital.

Quick assets
Quick ratio=
Current liabilities

Ideal ratio: 1:1

Usually, a high acid test ratio is an indication that the
firm is liquid and has ability to meet its current or liquid
liabilities in time and on the other hand a low quick ratio
represents that the firm’s liquidity position is not good.
 Absolute Liquidity Ratio
This ratio establishes a relationship between absolute
liquid assets to quick liabilities.

Absolute liquid assets

Absolute liquid ratio=
Quick liabilities

Ideal ratio: 1:2

It means that if the ratio is 1:2 or more than this the
concern can be taken as liquid. If the ratio is less than
the standard of 1:2, it means the concern is not liquid.
 II. Test Of Solvency
Long term solvency ratios denote the
ability of the organisation to repay the loan
and interest.
When an organization's assets are more
than its liabilities is known as solvent
organisation.
Solvency indicates that position of an
enterprise where it is capable of meeting
long term obligations.
 Important Ratios In Test Of
Solvency
Debt-equity ratio.

Proprietary ratio.

Solvency ratio.
 Debt Equity Ratio
It Is calculated to measure the relative claims of
outsiders and the owners against the firm’s assets. This
ratio indicates the relationship between the total debt
funds and the shareholders’ funds.
Total debt
Debt equity ratio=
Shareholders Equity
Ideal ratio: 2:1; It means for every 2 shares there is 1
debt. If the debt is less than 2 times the equity, it means
the creditors are relatively less and the financial
structure is sound. If the debt is more than 2 times the
equity, the state of long term creditors are more and
indicate weak financial structure.
 Proprietary Ratio or Net Worth
Ratio
It establishes relationship between the proprietors fund
or shareholders funds and the total assets

Equity
Equity to Asset ratio =
Total assets

Ideal ratio: 0.5:1

Higher the ratio better the long term solvency (financial)
position of the company. This ratio indicates the extent
to which the assets of the company can be lost without
affecting the interest of the creditors of the company
 Solvency Ratio
It expresses the relationship between total assets and
total liabilities of a business. This ratio is a small variant
of equity ratio and can be simply calculated as
100-equity ratio
Total assets
Solvency ratio=
Total liabilities
No standard ratio is fixed in this regard. It may be
compared with similar, such organizations to evaluate
the solvency position. Higher the solvency ratio, the
stronger is its financial position and vice-versa.
 III. Activity Ratio
Activity ratios indicate the performance of an
organisation.
This indicate the effective utilization of the
various assets of the organisation.
Most of the ratio falling under this category is
based on turnover and hence these ratios are
called as turnover ratios.
Important Ratios In Activity Ratio

Inventory turnover ratio.

Receivable turnover ratio.
Payable turnover ratio.
Wording capital turnover ratio.
Current assets turnover ratio.
Total assets turnover ratio.
 Inventory Turnover Ratio
This ratio establishes the relationship between the cost
of goods sold during a given period and the average
sock holding during that period. It tells us as to how
many times stock has turned over (sold) during the
period. Indicates operational and marketing efficiency.
Helps in evaluating inventory policy to avoid over
stocking.
Cost of goods sold
Inventory turnover ratio=
Average Inventory
Cost of goods sold= sales-gross profit
Beg Inventory + purchases – closing stock

Opening stock + Closing stock

Average stock=
 Interpretation Of Inventory
Turnover Ratio
Ideal ratio: 8 times; A low inventory turnover may
reflect dull business, over investment in inventory,
accumulation of stock and excessive quantities of
certain inventory items in relation to immediate
requirements.
A high ratio may not be accompanied by a relatively
high net income as, profits may be sacrificed in
obtaining a large sales volume (unless accompanied
by a larger total gross profit). It may indicate under
investment in inventories. But generally, a high stock
turnover ratio means that the concern is efficient and
hence it sells its goods quickly.
 Receivable Turnover Ratio
This ratio explains the relationship of net credit sales of
a firm to its book debts indicating the rate at which cash
is generated by turnover of receivables or debtors.
The purpose of this ratio is to measure the liquidity of the
receivables or to find out the period over which
receivables remain uncollected.
Net credit sales
Receivable turnover =
Average Receivable
Opening balance + closing balance
Average Receivable =
2

Debtors include bills receivables along with book debts

 Average Collection Period
The average collection period represents the average
number of days for which a firm has to wait before its
receivables are converted into cash

Number of working day in year

Average collection period=
Debtor turnover ratio
 Interpretation Of Debtor Turnover
Ratio
Ideal ratio: 10 to 12 times; debt collection
period of 30 to 36 days is considered ideal.
A high debtor turnover ratio or low collection
period is indicative of sound management
policy.
The amount of trade debtors at the end of
period should not exceed a reasonable
proportion of net sales. Larger the trade debtors
greater the expenses of collection.
 Payable Turnover Ratio
This ratio indicates the number of times the creditors are
paid in a year. It is useful for creditors in finding out how
much time the firm is likely to take in repaying its trade
creditors.

Net credit purchases

Payable turnover ratio=
Average creditors
Opening balance + closing balance
Average creditors=
2
Number of working days
Average payment period=
Payable turnover ratio
 Interpretation Of Creditor Turnover
Ratio
Ideal ratio: 12 times; debt payment period of
30 days is considered ideal.
Very less creditors turnover ratio, or a high debt
payment period may indicate the firms inability
in meeting its obligation in time.
 Working Capital Turnover Ratio
This ratio indicates the number of times the working
capital is turned over in the course of the year.
Measures efficiency in working capital usage. It
establishes relationship between cost of sales and
working capital
Cost of sales
Working capital turnover ratio=
Average working capital

Opening + closing working

capital
Average working capital=
2
Interpretation of Working Capital
Turnover Ratio
A higher ratio indicates efficient utilization
of working capital and a low ratio indicates
inefficient utilization of working capital.
But a very high ratio is not a good situation
for any firm and hence care must be taken
while interpreting the ratio.
 Total Asset Turnover Ratio
This ratio establishes a relationship between total assets
and sales. This ratio enables to know the efficient
utilisation of total assets of a business.

Net sales
Total assets turnover ratio=
Total assets

Ideal ratio: 2 times

High ratio indicates efficient utilization and ratio less than
2 indicates under utilization.
 IV. Profitability Ratio
Profitability ratios indicate the profit earning
capacity of a business.
Profitability ratios are calculated either in
relation to sales or in relation to investments.
Profitability ratios can be classified into two
categories.
a) General Profitability Ratios.
b) Overall Profitability Ratios.
 General Profitability Ratios

Gross profit ratio.

Net profit ratio.
Operating ratio.
Operating profit ratio.
 Gross Profit Ratio
It expresses the relationship of gross profit to net sales
and is expressed in terms of percentage. This ratio is a
tool that indicates the degree to which selling price of
goods per unit may decline without resulting in losses.

Gross profit
Gross profit ratio= X 100
Net sales
A low gross profit ratio may indicate unfavorable
purchasing, the instability of management to develop
sales volume thereby making it impossible to buy goods
in large volume.
Higher the gross profit ratio better the results.
 Net Profit Ratio
It expresses the relationship between net profit after
taxes to sales. Measure of overall profitability useful to
proprietors, as it gibes an idea of the efficiency as well
as profitability of the business to a limited extent.
Net profit after taxes
Net profit ratio= X 100
Net sales

Higher the ratio better is the profitability

 Operating Ratio
This ratio establishes a relationship between cost of
goods sold plus other operating expenses and net sales.
This ratio is calculated mainly to ascertain the
operational efficiency of the management in their
business operations.
Cost of goods sold + operating expenses
Operating ratio=
Net sales
Higher the ratio the less favorable it is because it would
leave a smaller margin to meet interest, dividend and
other corporate needs. For a manufacturing concern it is
expected to touch a percentage of 75% to 85%. This
ratio is partial index of over all profitability.
 Operating Profit Ratio
This ratio establishes the relationship between
operation profit and net sales.
Operating profit
Operating profit ratio= X 100
Net sales

Operating profit ratio= 100-operating ratio

Operating profit= Net sales – ( cost of goods sold +

Administrative and office expenses + selling and
distributive expenses.
 Test Of Overall Profitability
Return on shareholders investment or Net
worth ratio.
Return on equity capital.
Return on capital employed.
Return on total resources.
Dividend yield ratio.
Dividend pay out ratio.
Earning per share.
 Return On Shareholders
Investment

Shareholders investment also called return on

proprietor’s funds is the ratio of net profit to proprietor’s
funds. It is calculated by the prospective investor in the
business to find out whether the investment would be
worth-making in terms of return as compared to the risk
involved in the business.
Net profit (After tax and int)
Return on shareholders investment=
Proprietors funds
 Return On Shareholders
Investment
This ratio is of great importance to the present and
prospective shareholders as well as the management of
the company. As this ratio reveals how well the
resources of a firm are being used, higher the ratio,
better are the results. The return on shareholders
investment should be compared with the return of other
similar firms in the same industry. The inter firm
comparision of this ratio determines whether their
investments in the firm are attractive or not as the
investors would like to invest only where their return is
higher. Similarly, trend ratios can also be calculated for
a number of years to get5 an idea of the prosperity,
growth of deterioration in the company’s profitability and
efficiency.
 Return On Equity Capital
This ratio establishes the relationship between net profit
available to equity shareholders ad the amount of capital
invested by them. It is used to compare the performance
of company's equity capital with those of other
companies, and thus help the investor in choosing a
company with higher return on equity capital.

Net profit – preference dividend

Return on equity capital=
Equity share capital (paid up)
 Return On Capital Employed
This ratio is the most appropriate indicator of the earning
power of the capital employed in the business. It also
acts as a pointer to the management showing the
progress or deterioration in the earning capacity and
efficiency of the business.
Net profit before taxes and
interest on long – term loans and debentures
Return on capital employed=
Capital employed
Ideal ratio: 15%
If the actual ratio is equal ratio is equal to or above 15%
It indicates higher productivity of the capital employed
and vice versa
 Return of total resources
This ratio acts as an yardstick to assess the efficiency of
the efficiency of the operations of the business as it
indicates the extent to which assets employed in the
business are utilised to results in net profit

Net profit
Return on total recourses = X 100
Total assets
 Dividend Yield Ratio
It refers to the percentage or ratio of dividend paid per
share to the market price per share. This ratio throws
light on the effective rate of return on investment, which
potential investors may hope to earn.

Dividend paid per equity share

Dividend yield ratio =
Market price per equity share
 Price Earning Ratio
It shows how many times the annual earnings the
present shareholders are willing to pay to get a share.
This ratio helps investors to know the effect of earnings
per share on the market price of the share. This ratio
when calculated for several years can be used as term
analysis for predicting future price earning ratios and
therefore, future stock prices.

Average market price per share

Price earning ratio=
Earning per share
 Dividend Pay Out Ratio
This ratio indicates the proportion of earnings available
which equity share holders actually receive in the form of
dividend.
Dividend paid per share
Pay out ratio =
Earning per share
An investor primarily interested should invest in equity
share of a company with high pay out ratio. A company
having low pay out ratio need not necessarily be a bad
company. A company having income may like to finance
expansion out of the income, thus low pay out ratio.
investor interested in stock price appreciation may well
invest in such a company though the pay out ratio is low.
 Earning Per Share

This ratio indicates the earning per equity share. It

establishes the relationship between net profit available
for equity shareholders and the number of equity shares.

Net profit available for equity share holders

Earning per share =
Number of equity shares