Profitability
To achieve a competitive advantage, it is important to understand a company’s profitability. Profitability is used to “assess a business’s ability to generate earnings as compared to its expenses and other relevant costs incurred during a specific period of time.” (Investopedia, 2014) To be sustainable, businesses must understand what their profitability is, and how it compares to their competition. When comparing a business’s profitability with another company, they must be within the same market and during the same time period to ensure an appropriate analysis. To better define a business’s profitability, different measurements are used to calculate the success of the company called profitability ratios. The business that has the higher profitability ratio for a specific time period would mean that business has a competitive advantage in that area of profitability. Some examples of a profitability ratio are Net Profit Margin, Return on Assets, and Return on Equity. To calculate these different ratios, several items from each business’s 2012 income statement would be used compute the equations. Both Wal-Mart and Target are competitors in the same market that reach out to the global marketplace for the sale of goods and services. Both businesses are also publically traded companies within the New York Stock Exchange, and operate under a similar management hierarchy.
Net Profit Margin
NPM = (Net Income/Sales)
Wal-Mart 3.54%
Target 4.28%
“The Net-Profit margin narrows the focus on profitability and highlights not just the company’s sales efforts, but also its ability to keep operating costs down, relative to sales”. (Carlberg, 2007) The Net Profit Margin shows how well these major retail businesses can control...
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...mpany’s earning performance. In 2012, Wal-Mart had a higher the Return on Equity percentage compared to Target. This which shows that Wal-Mart is more effective in utilizing their equity base, and it also indicates to investors that Wal-Mart is more efficient at applying their money. Wal-Mart has a 22.01% Return on Equity compared to Target’s Return on Equity at 18.51%. For Target this shows that they are receiving less on their return on their investment compared to Wal-Mart. As Target’s debt increases, their Return on Equity will increase as well as long as their Return on Assets are higher than the interest rate paid on the debt.
References
Investopedia. (2014). Profitability ratios. Retrieved from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/profitabilityratios.asp
Carlberg, C. (2007). Business analysis with microsoft excel. Indianapolis, IN: Pearson Education.
This requirement makes it important to look through a majority of the return ratios, which include return on sales, return on assets, and return on equity. Additionally, investors are also interested in the ratios related to the company’s earnings, such as earnings per share (EPS) and PE ratio. Looking at return on sales, we can see that Wendy’s has a 7.27% return on sales and Bob Evans has a 1.23%, which demonstrates Wendy’s has a higher profit margin. Moreover, Wendys’ return on assets is 2.85% and Bob Evans is 1.58%. Also, Wendy’s and Bob Evan 's have return on equity ratios of 6.66% and 4.30%, respectively. All of these return ratios show that Wendy’s has a better handle on turning working capital into revenue. On the other hand, although Wendy’s return ratios are higher than Bob Evans, Bob Evans has a better performance on earnings per share and PE ratio. This is due to Bob Evans having less common stock share outstanding, which makes their earnings per share and PE ratio higher than Wendy’s. Due to the EPS being higher for Bob Evans, we would recommend that investors look towards Bob
As I have outlined in the charts below, there are various similarities and differences between Wal-Mart and Target. Wal-Mart is Target’s primary competitor, and vice versa. Wal-Mart has a strong market presence in its global markets and has a diverse range of products and services that are affordable and available in stock. Target, on the other hand, does not have a strong market presence or efficient product supply; however, Target’s physical environment and innovative products further the brand’s image and value. Unfortunately, Target and Wal-Mart are both e-commerce laggards with major competitors such as Amazon. Target faces complications with their pricing strategies and their product availability, which hinders their strength when competing
When comparing the debt-to-assets ratio of McDonalds and Wendys, you have to divide the firms total liabilities by their total assets. Essentially, the debt-to-assets ratio is the primary indicator of the firms debt management. As the ratio increases or decreases, it indicates the firms changing reliance on borrowed resources. The lower the ratio the more efficient the firm will be able to liquidate its assets if operations were discontinued, and debts needed to be collected. In 2005 Wendy's had $2,076,043 worth in total assets and $846,264 in total liabilities. When divided, Wendys has the lower ratio of the two competitors at 40%. This means that they would take losses of 40% if operations were shut down, and the cash received from valuable assets would still be sufficient to pay off the entire debt. It also means that 40% of Wendys assets are made through debt. McDonalds in 2005 had $12,545.3 (in millions) of total liabilities and $22,534.5 (in millions) of total assets. After doing the math, McDonalds ends up with a ratio of 56% which is higher than Wendys by sixteen percent. This means that there is more default on McDonalds liabilities, which can be a costly event from lenders perspective. McDonalds makes 56% of all its assets through debt. In reality, its not good to have a debt-to-assets ratio over 50%. Its also not good to have a debt-to-assets ratio that is too low because...
Analyzing Wal-Mart's annual report provides a positive outlook on Wal-Mart's financial health. Given the specific ratios and its comparison to other companies in the same industry, Wal-Mart is leading and more than likely continue its dominance. Though Wal-Mart did not lead in all numbers, its leadership and strong presence of the market cements the ongoing success. The review of the current ratio, quick ratio, inventory turnover ratio, debt ratio, net profit margin ratio, ROI, ROE, and P/E ratio all indicate an upbeat future for the company. The current ratio, which is defined as current assets divided by current liabilities, is a measure of how much liabilities a company has compared to its assets. Wal-Mart in the year of 2007 had a current ratio of .90, and as of January 2008 it had a current ratio of .81. The quick ratio, which is defined as current assets minus inventory divided by current liabilities, is a measure of a company's ability pay short term obligations. Wal-Mart in the year of 2007 had a quick ratio of .25, and as of January 2008 it had a ratio of .21. Both the current ratio and quick ratio are a measure of liquidity. Wal-Mart is not as liquid as its competitors such as Costco or Family Dollar Stores Inc. I believe the reason why Wal-Mart is not too liquid is because they are heavily investing their profits for expansion and growth. Management claims in their financial report that holding their liquid reserves in other currencies have helped Wal-Mart hedge against inflationary pressures of the US dollar. The next ratio to look at is the inventory ratio which is defined as the cost of sales divided by average inventory. In the year of 2007, Wal-Mart’s inventory ratio was 7.68, and as of January 2008 it was 7.96. Wal-Mart has a lot of sales therefore it doesn’t have too much a problem of holding too much inventory. Its competitors have similar ratios though they don’t have as much sales as Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s ability to sell at lower prices for same quality, gives them the edge against its competition. As of the year 2007, Wal-Mart had a debt ratio of .58, and as of January 2008, it had a debt ratio of .59. The debt ratio is calculated by dividing the total debt by its total assets. Wal-Mart has a lot more assets than it does debt so Wal-Mart is not overleveraged.
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My objective is to analyze the two retail giants’ methodology to satisfy and maintain customer although that I anticipate Wal-Mart’s to be a better buy than Costco because of the gargantuan scale of Wal-Mart has constructed its commerce on saving the customer Our decision is to invest in Wal-Mart. The choice for Wal-Mart is on the basis that their functional-level strategy is really robust, nevertheless of the fact that they do not treat their employees well. The fact remains that they are financially stronger, have a better business-level strategy, and have a corporate-level strategy than Costco. Costco v. Wal-Mart: What must we learn about them?
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