Generally, the most important financial ratios to analyze a company divide in five major categories. It includes Profitability, liquidity, return, asset and debt management. We have created a comprehensive list of 29 accounting and financial ratios that is required for financial analysis.
The below mentioned accounting ratios will help you to evaluate the financial statements, make a financial decision or even prepare for your accounting exams.
Without further ado, lets dive in to the list of financial ratios.
What is a financial ratio?
We take two numerical values from a company’s financial statements to evaluate the overall condition of the company. These values can be taken from income statement, balance sheet or any other financial statements.
Accounting ratios list
We have categorized the financial ratios in five major types.
- Liquidity ratios
- Current ratio
- Quick ratio
- Cash ratio
- CFO ratio
- Defensive interval
- Collection period
- Days inventory held
- Days payable outstanding
- Net trade cycle
- Debt Management
- Debt to assets
- Times interest earned
- Debt to equity
- CFO to interest
- Long-term debt to total capital
- CFO to debt
- Cash flow adequacy
- Asset Management
- Receivable turnover
- Inventory turnover
- Fixed asset turnover
- Asset turnover
- Return on assets
- Profitability
- Gross profit margin
- Return on invested capital (ROIC)
- Operating profit margin
- Cash ROA
- Net profit Margin
- ROA
- ROE
- Return to Investors
- Earnings per share
- ROE
- ROCE
- Dividend yield
- Dividend payout
- P/E
Liquidity ratios
1. Current ratio
Formula: Current Assets ÷ Current Liabilities
Objective: Indicates if the business can pay its short-term obligations and liabilities. Values of current assets and current liabilities are clearly mentioned on the face of the balance sheet.
2. Quick ratio – also known as Acid Test Ratio
Formula: Current Assets – Inventory ÷ Current Liabilities
Objective: Quick ratio emphasis to utilize the readily cash convertible assets to measure the company’s ability to settle the current liabilities.
3. Cash ratio
Formula: Cash ÷ Current Liabilities
Objective: Cash ratio indicates if the cash and cash convertibles can settle the short-term liabilities of the company. If the result is more than 1, then its considered to be a good cash ratio.
4. CFO ratio
Formula: Cash from operations ÷ Current Liabilities
Objective: CFO ratio shows the ability of a company to pay the current liabilities from operations alone.
5. Defensive interval
Formula:365 X Quick ratio numerator ÷ Projected expenditures (= COGS + Other operating expenses except depreciation)
Objective: This ratio shows the conservative view of the company’s liquidity position. It tells the readily available sources of finances with probable expenses needed to operate.
6. Receivable Turnover
Formula: Net Sales ÷ Average net trade receivables (opening receivables + closing receivables ÷ 2)
Objective: It shows the liquidity of the receivables and tells how early can a company collect its sales which were made on credit.
7. Days inventory held
Formula: Average inventory ÷ Cost of goods sold x 365 (or any desired period)
Average inventory can be calculated by adding opening and closing inventory of the period and divide by 2.
Cost of goods sold is the total cost that is incurred to produce the goods. It includes direct and indirect costs.
Objective: As the name suggests, this ratio shows the average number of days that the company holds its inventory before it turns into sales.
8. Days payable outstanding
Formula: Accounts payable x Number of days ÷ Cost of goods sold
Where:
Cost of goods sold= Opening inventory + Purchases – Closing Inventory
Objective: DPO is a measure that tells the average days in which the company settles the bills from the suppliers.
9. Net trade cycle [also known as Cash Conversion Cycle CCC]
Formula: (Average Inventory ÷ (Cost of Goods Sold ÷ 360)) + (Accounts Receivable ÷ (Net Sales ÷ 360)) – (Accounts payable ÷ (Cost of Goods Sold ÷ 360))
Objective: The net trade cycle tells how long the cash is invested in the business before its available for use again. We can say Net Trade Cycle tells us how much time the company takes to take one complete turn of current assets.
Debt Management ratios
10. Debt to assets
Formula: Debt (Current and long term debts) ÷ Total Assets
Objective: Debt to assets ratio shows the contribution of the debtors on the total asset.
11. Times interest earned (TIE)
Formula: Earning before interest and tax (EBIT) ÷ Interest payable on bonds and other debts
Objective: TIE shows the company’s position to settle its interest using its income.
12. Debt to equity
Formula: Total Debt ÷ Total Equity
Objective: Debt to equity ration shows the level of debt element in the company. If the D/E number is high, it means the company is highly leveraged through debt, therefore, considered as risky for shareholders.
13. Long-term debt to total capital
Formula: Long term debt ÷ Total Capital
Objective: This ratio depicts the contribution of long-term debts in the overall business funding. Investors are usually more interested in getting to know of the long-term debts instead of short-term. If the ratio gives higher number, then it is considered to be a riskier position of a company.
14. CFO to debt
Formula: Cashflows from operation ÷ Total Debt
Objective:CFO to Debt ratio tells shows the company’s ability to show how long it will take if the total cash generated from the operations are utilized to pay off the debt.
15. Cash flow adequacy
Formula: Cash flow from operations ÷ (Long Term debt + Fixed Assets purchased + Dividends paid)
Objective: Cash flow adequacy ration explains the company’s ability to settle its short term cash expenses. If a company’s does not have adequate cash to pay its short term loans and expenses, then it would be difficult to attract more debts and settle its current financing commitments.
Asset Management
16. Fixed asset turnover
Formula: Net Sales ÷ Average Fixed Assets
Objective: FAT shows how well a company is leveraging its fixed assets to generate sales.
17. Asset turnover
Formula: Total sales ÷ Average Total Assets
Objective: Asset turnover ratio gives us a broader view as compared to Fixed Asset Turnover ration. It tells how well the company is using its total assets to generate sales.
18. Return on assets
Formula: Net Income ÷ Total Assets
Objective: Return on assets shows how well the company is generating profits utilizing its total assets. Just like return on investment, where we see the company’s profits on the money invested.
Profitability ratios
19. Gross profit margin
Formula: Net sales – GOGS ÷ Net sales
Objective: It shows how much money is left over if we deduct the COGS (cost of goods sold) from the total sales. Gross profit margin is a great tool if we just want to see the profit margins only considering the direct costs.
20. Return on invested capital (ROIC)
Formula: Net operating profit after tax ÷ Invested Capital
Objective: Return on invested capital shows how well a company uses its capital to generate profits.
21. Operating profit margin
Formula: Operating profits (before Interests and taxes) ÷ Total Sales
Objective: It tells us how much profit is being made from the main operations of a company.
22. Cash ROA
Formula: Net income ÷ Total average assets
Objective: Cash return on Assets shows the actual cash flows to assets without being affected by income.
23. Net profit Margin
Formula: Net profit (after deducting COGS, Operating expenses, Interest and Taxes) ÷ Total sales
Objective: Net profit margin tells us how much net profit is generated in percentage after deducting all expenses. It is a great measure to see if the company is incurring unnecessary expenses on operations.
24. ROA
Formula: Net Income ÷ Total Assets
Objective: Return on Assets shows how much income is generated on leveraging the total assets of the company. It shows the efficiency of a company to generate income.
25. ROE
Formula: Net Income ÷ Average Shareholder’s Equity
Objective: ROE is a tool which shows the total return earned by the company on the equity invested in the business. This measure is very important for those investors who want to buy stake in a company.
Return to Investors
26. Earnings per share
Formula: Net Income – Preferred Dividends ÷ Outstanding Shares at the End of period
Objective: It shows the net income earned by a shareholder on a single share. This metric is widely used to calculate the value of a company.
27. Dividend yield
Formula: Annual Dividends per share ÷ price per share
Objective: This ratio shows the amount of cash out paid in terms of dividend on each share divided by the share price.
28. Dividend payout
Formula: Dividends paid ÷ Net income
Objective: This ratio shows the actual pay out in percentage to the shareholders on their shares.
29. P/E
Formula: Market value per share ÷ Earnings per share
Objective: P/E ratio shows the relation between the price of a share to its earning per share.
Final words
Financial ratios are a set of numbers used to measure a company’s performance and financial health. We have explained what financial ratios are, how to calculate them, and how to use these for financial analysis. You can refer to the above-explained financial ratios to start your own business, evaluate a company for investment or just to evaluate financial aspects of a company.