Activity Ratio: An Analysis Of Inventory Ratios And Operations Performance

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Activity Ratios are used to determine how efficiently a company uses its assets. They help provide an idea of the overall operational performance of a company. The activity ratios are “turnover” ratios that relate an income statement line item to a balance sheet line item. 1. Asset Turnover Ratio This measures the efficiency with which the company uses its total assets to generate revenues. 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 Total Asset Turnover 0.37 0.44 0.53 0.50 0.55 0.65 Industry - 0.55 0.61 0.63 0.67 0.71 Microsoft Corp.'s total asset turnover deteriorated from 2015 to 2016 and from 2016 to 2017. The company’s ratio is also consistently lower than the industry standard each year. It could be attributed to two things. A low asset turnover ratio means that either Microsoft has been relatively inefficient in its utilization of assets or that the company is operating in a capital-intensive environment. Consistently low asset turnover ratios also indicate towards a strategic choice by management to use a more capital intensive as opposed to labor intensive approach. 2. Inventory Turnover This shows how effectively inventory is managed by comparing the cost of goods sold with average inventory for the period. 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 Inventory Turnover 15.71 14.56 11.38 10.18 10.45 15.42 Industry - 15.76 15.74 15.64 16.61 …show more content…

For majority of the firms, gross profit margin will suffer as competition increases. If a company has a higher gross profit margin than is typical of its industry, it likely holds a competitive advantage in quality, perception or branding, enabling the firm to charge more for its products. We can see that Microsoft has relatively very high gross profit margins as compared to its major competitors. Microsoft holds a competitive advantage in product costs due to efficient production techniques, economies of scale and first mover

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