Capital Adequacy Ratio – Meaning and its Importance
Banks in the modern world face an inherent risk of insolvency. Since the banks are so highly leveraged, there could be a run on the bank any moment if their reserves are considered to be inadequate by the market. Hence, banks must maintain adequate capital in their vaults if they want to survive. However, what […]
What Are Negative Interest Rates ?
The Bank of Japan has recently decided that it will cut its rate below the zero percent mark. Bank of Canada has also hinted that it may also join the Bank of Japan in this extreme step and drop its interest rates below zero as well. However, most average people in the world are dumbfounded […]
Centralized Cryptocurrency Exchanges
The popularity of cryptocurrency is causing investors to make a beeline for buying into the cryptocurrency boom. The trading activity in these markets has increased manifold in the past few years. However, novice investors can find it difficult to understand how cryptocurrency is bought and sold. This is particularly important since there is more than […]
The Concept of Financial Freedom
Every activity done by human beings is generally linked to a larger goal, a pursuit to achieve something important in life. Financial planning is also not very different in this regard. The month to month activity of financial planning is tied with a larger goal. For most people, financial freedom is an important milestone in […]
Ratio Analysis in Personal Finance
Ratio analysis is considered to be very important when it comes to making financial investments. There are many retail investors who know the value of retail investments. As a result, they also routinely perform a ratio analysis for companies that they invest in. However, surprisingly, a lot of these analysts do not perform a ratio […]
Ratio, as the name suggests, is nothing more than one number divided by the other. However, they become useful when they are put in some sort of context. This means that when an analysts looks at the number resulting out of a ratio calculation he/she must have a reasonable basis to compare it with. Only when the analyst looks at the number and compares it what the ideal state of affairs should be like, do the numbers become powerful tool of management and financial analysis.
Dividing numbers and obtaining ratios is therefore not the main skill. In fact this part can be automated and done by the computer. Companies wouldn’t want to pay analysts for doing simple division, would they?. The real skill lies in being able to interpret these numbers. Here are some common techniques used in the interpretation of these numbers.
Horizontal analysis is an industry jargon for comparison of the same ratio over time. Once a ratio is calculated, it is compared with what the value was in the previous quarter, the previous years, or many years in case the analyst is trying to make a trend. This provides more information of two grounds. They are:
Cross sectional ratio analysis is the industry jargon used to denote comparison of ratios with other companies. The other companies may or may not belong to the same industry. Cross sectional analysis helps an analyst understand how well a company is performing relative to its peers. In a way this removes the effect of business cycles. There are many variations of cross sectional analysis. They are as follows:
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