35. Financial Statement Analysis : Applications
A. Evaluate a company’s past financial performance and explain how a company’s strategy is reflected in past financial performance :
Trends in a company’s financial ratios and differences between its financial ratios and those of its competitors or industry average ratios can reveal important aspects of its business strategy.
B. Forecast a company’s future net income and cash flow :
A company’s future income and cash flows can be projected by forecasting sales growth and using estimates of profit margins and the increases in working capital and fixed assets necessary to support the forecast sales growth.
C. Role of financial statements analysis in assessing the credit quality of a potential debt investment :
Credit analysis uses a firm’s financial statements to assess its credit quality. Indicators of a firm’s creditworthiness include its scale and diversification, operational efficiency, margin stability, and use of financial leverage.
D. Use of financial statement analysis in screening for potential equity investments :
Potentially attractive equity investments can be identified by screening a universe of stocks, using minimum or maximum values of one or mire ratios. Which (and how many) ratios to use, what minimum or maximum values to use, and how much importance to give each ratio all present challenges to the analyst.
E. Appropriate analyst adjustments to a company’s financial statements to facilitate comparison with another company :
When companies use different accounting methods or estimates relating to areas such as inventory accounting, depreciation, capitalization, and off-balance-sheet financing, analysts must adjust the financial statements for comparability.
LIFO ending inventory can be adjusted to a FIFO basis by adding the LIFO reserve. LIFO cost of goods sold can be adjusted to a FIFO basis by subtracting the change in the LIFO reserve.
When calculating solvency ratios, analysts should estimate the present value of operating lease obligations and add it to the firm’s liabilities.
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