Business Ratios

Ratio Analysis is the evaluation of information contained in an entity's financial statements by converting account balances into meaningful and comparable relationships. The five major groups of financial ratios are liquidity, profitability, effective asset management, leverage, and per share computations. Comparison of such data is sometimes useful when made between current and past ratios of the same company, an entity and industry averages, two different companies of the same or different industries, or some other objective criteria in order to assess a company's operating performance and financial condition. (From Dow Jones-Irwin Dictionary of Financial Planning, by Robert William Richards, 1986.)

Handbooks

101 business ratios : a manager's handbook of definitions, equations, and computer algorithms, by Sheldon Gates. Birnbaum Ref. Desk HF5657.4 .G38 1993 
Provides an overview of how to interpret and calculate business ratios.

The analysis and use of financial statements, by Gerald I. White, Ashwinpaul C. Sondhi, and Dov Fried. Birnbaum Reserve HF5681.B2 W4678 1998
This textbook provides in-depth guidance in understanding financial ratios in Part 4, "Foundations of Ratio and Financial Analysis."

For further discussion on this topic, use the Library of Congress Subject Heading "Ratio Analysis"  to perform a subject search in the library's online catalog.

Company Ratios

Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys
Birnbaum Ref. Reserve HG4961 .S682
Provides detailed, individual surveys of over 70 major industry groups. Includes composite industry and comparative company analysis tables with ratios for major companies. Also available through NetAdvantage from the library's databases page.

Value Line Investment Survey: Ratings and Reports 
Birnbaum Ref. Reserve (Earlier years in Periodicals)
Provides detailed information and ratings of 1,700 stocks grouped by industry.

Value Line Investment Survey: Small and Mid-Cap Edition (Formerly Expanded Edition)
Birnbaum Reserve (Earlier years in Periodicals)
Includes small-cap stocks (below $1 billion market capitalization) and mid-cap stocks ($1 billion to $5 billion market capitalization).

Mergent Industry Review
Birnbaum Ref. HG 4961 .M68 
This semi-annual publication provides comparative key financial and operating data and ratios on over 3,500 corporations covering 137 industry groups.

Business Week's "Corporate Scoreboard." Annual, usually in late February or March.
Special issue kept on Reserve: Birnbaum Ref. Reserve HG 4028 .P7 B8
Lists financial data for top companies in 6 industry groups, including ratios for return on common equity and price/earnings.

Forbes' "America's Best Big Companies." Annual, usually in early January.
Latest copy kept at Reserve Desk: Birnbaum Ref. Reserve HG 4057 .A2769 
Gives financial statistics with some ratios for 400 companies in over 20 industry groups.

Industry Ratios

Dun & Bradstreet/ Gale Group Industry Reference Handbooks
Birnbaum Ref. Reserve HF5035.D86 2000
Volume 1: Entertainment and hospitality; Volume 2: Insurance and health and medical services; Volume 3: Construction and agriculture; Volume 4: Chemicals and pharmaceuticals. For each industry category, contains an industry overview, Statistics & performance indicators, Financial Norms and Ratios, business rankings and other information. The Introduction at the front of the volume explains how each of the ratios is computed.

Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios
Birnbaum Ref. Reserve HF5681.R25 D854
Provides 14 key business ratios for industries arranged by SIC code. Introduction explains calculation of ratios.

Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios
Birnbaum Ref. Reserve HF 5681.R25 A45 
Has selected financial ratios for a number of industries arranged by SIC codes. Includes a ten-year summary in the "Trends" section. **

RMA Annual Statement Studies
Birnbaum Ref. Reserve HF5681 .B2 R6
Contains tables which include ratios for specific industries, including comparative historical data going back five years.

Standard & Poor's Analysts' Handbook
Birnbaum Ref. Reserve HG 4519 .A5 
Selected income account and balance sheet items and related ratios as applied to the S&P industry group stock price indexes from 1967 to date. Annual, with monthly supplement.

Financial Studies of the Small Business, by Financial Research Associates
Birnbaum Ref. HD2346.U5 F55a
Covers small businesses with a total capitalization of under $1,000,000. Analyzes industries grouped by category and lists ratios within each of 4 sections: Asset size, Sales volume, 25% most profitable, and Five-year trend.

Databases 

For access to library databases, go to the Pace Library Website (http://library.pace.edu), then click on "Databases."

Hoover's Online
Search by company name, then select "Financials," then, from the left hand column, click on "Comparison Data." This lists Profitability, Valuation, Operating, and Financial Ratios.

NetAdvantage (by Standard & Poor's)
The online version of S&P includes the Industry Surveys described above. Search by industry. Each industry overview is followed by comparative company analysis, including ratios. To print tables, select PDF version from window at left.

Zack's Company Research
"Enter ticker" to select a company and use the drop-down menu to highlight "Full Company Report," then click Go. This service provides a wealth of financial data including tables on "Company Ratios: Current vs. History," "Company vs. Industry Ratios," and "Ratios and Turnover Rates."

Internet Sources

Quarterly Financial Report for Manufacturing, Mining and Trade Corporations
U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/qfr-mm.html
Gives quarterly financial and operating ratios for 34 manufacturing, mining, retail and wholesale trade industries.

Census of Service Industries: Service Annual Survey
U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/econ/www/servmenu.html#Service
For selected service industries look for and click on what's "New," then "Estimated coefficients of variation" to access ratios. If you do not find "New" information on your industry, click on "Archived Report" and look at previous the previous year's annual survey.

Monthly Retail Trade and Food Services: Monthly Retail Trade Survey
U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/mrts/www/mrts.html
Click on "Retail Inventories and Inventories/Sales Ratios."

Current Business Reports:
Monthly Retail Trade: Sales and Inventories
U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/br_month.html

Current Business Reports:
Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales and Inventories
U.S. Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/bw_month.html

** If you need the SIC code and classification for your type of business, you can search http://osha.gov/oshstats/sicser.html (Standard Industrial Classification Search) or refer to the Standard Industrial Classification Manual (Ref. Res. HF1042 .A55 1987).

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