Which of the following ratios shows how much sales are generated by each dollar of total assets?

Financial ratios are used to provide a quick assessment of potential financial difficulties and dangers. Ratios provide you with a unique perspective and insight into the business. If a financial ratio identifies a potential problem, further investigation is needed to determine if a problem exists and how to correct it. Although there are often specific benchmarks attached to ratios to indicate when there is cause for concern, ratios should also be thought of as a continuum from weak to strong with the stronger the ratio the better. Ratios can identify problems by the size of the ratio but also by the direction of the ratio over time.

Liquidity Ratios

Current Ratio - A firm’s total current assets are divided by its total current liabilities. It shows the ability of a firm to meets its current liabilities with current assets.

Quick Ratio - A firm’s cash or near cash current assets divided by its total current liabilities. It shows the ability of a firm to quickly meet its current liabilities.

Net Working Capital Ratio - A firm’s current assets less its current liabilities divided by its total assets. It shows the amount of additional funds available for financing operations in relationship to the size of the business.

Asset Management Ratios

Days Sales Outstanding - A firm’s accounts receivables divided by its average daily sales. It shows the average length of time a firm must wait after making a sale before it receives payment.

Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio - A firm’s total sales divided by its net fixed assets. It is a measure of how efficiently a firm uses its plant and equipment.

Inventory Turnover Ratio - A firm’s total sales divided by its inventories. It shows the number of times a firm’s inventories are sold-out and need to be restocked during the year.

Total Assets Turnover Ratio - A firm’s total sales divided by its total assets. It is a measure of how efficiently a firm uses its assets.

Debt Management Ratios

Debt to Asset Ratio - A firm’s total debt divided by its total assets. It is a measure of how much of the firm is debt financed.

Debt Coverage Ratio or Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) - A firm’s cash available for debt service divided by the cash needed for debt service. It is a measure of a firm’s ability to service its debt obligations.

Times Interest Earned Ratio (TIE) - A firm’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) divided by its interest charges. It shows a firm’s ability to meet its interest payments. It is also called the interest coverage ratio.

Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization (EBITDA) Coverage Ratio - A firm’s cash flow available to meet fixed financial charges divided by the firm’s fixed financial charges. It shows the ability of a firm to meet its fixed financial charges.

Profitability Ratios

Profit Margin on Sales - A firm’s net income divided by its sales. It shows the ability of sales to generate net income.

Basic Earning Power (BEP) - A firm’s earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) divided by its total assets. It shows the earning ability of a firm’s assets before the influence of taxes and interest (leverage).

Return on Total Assets (ROA) - A firm’s net income divided by its total assets (both debt and equity supported assets). It shows the ability of the firm’s assets to generate net income. Interest expense is added back to net income because interest is a form of return on debt-financed assets.

Return on Equity (ROE) - A firm’s net income divided by its equity. It shows the ability of the firm’s equity to generate profits.

Return on Investment (ROI) - A firm’s net income divided by the owner’s original investment in the firm.

Earnings per Share - A firm’s net income per share of stock.

Market Value Ratios

Price/Earnings Ratio (P/E) - The price per share of a firm is divided by its earnings per share. It shows the price investors are willing to pay per dollar of the firm’s earnings.

Price/Cash Flow Ratio - The price per share of a firm divided by its cash flow per share. It shows the price investors are willing to pay per dollar of net cash flow of the firm.

Market-to-book value (M/B) - The market value of a firm is divided by its book value.

Don Hofstrand, retired extension value added agriculture specialist,

The asset turnover ratio is an efficiency ratio that measures a company’s ability to generate sales from its assets by comparing net sales with average total assets. In other words, this ratio shows how efficiently a company can use its assets to generate sales.

The total asset turnover ratio calculates net sales as a percentage of assets to show how many sales are generated from each dollar of company assets. For instance, a ratio of .5 means that each dollar of assets generates 50 cents of sales.

Formula

The asset turnover ratio is calculated by dividing net sales by average total assets.

Net sales, found on the income statement, are used to calculate this ratio returns and refunds must be backed out of total sales to measure the truly measure the firm’s assets’ ability to generate sales.

Average total assets are usually calculated by adding the beginning and ending total asset balances together and dividing by two. This is just a simple average based on a two-year balance sheet. A more in-depth, weighted average calculation can be used, but it is not necessary.

Analysis

This ratio measures how efficiently a firm uses its assets to generate sales, so a higher ratio is always more favorable. Higher turnover ratios mean the company is using its assets more efficiently. Lower ratios mean that the company isn’t using its assets efficiently and most likely have management or production problems.

For instance, a ratio of 1 means that the net sales of a company equals the average total assets for the year. In other words, the company is generating 1 dollar of sales for every dollar invested in assets.

Like with most ratios, the asset turnover ratio is based on industry standards. Some industries use assets more efficiently than others. To get a true sense of how well a company’s assets are being used, it must be compared to other companies in its industry.

The total asset turnover ratio is a general efficiency ratio that measures how efficiently a company uses all of its assets. This gives investors and creditors an idea of how a company is managed and uses its assets to produce products and sales.

Sometimes investors also want to see how companies use more specific assets like fixed assets and current assets. The fixed asset turnover ratio and the working capital ratio are turnover ratios similar to the asset turnover ratio that are often used to calculate the efficiency of these asset classes.

Example

Sally’s Tech Company is a tech start up company that manufactures a new tablet computer. Sally is currently looking for new investors and has a meeting with an angel investor. The investor wants to know how well Sally uses her assets to produce sales, so he asks for her financial statements.

Here is what the financial statements reported:

• Beginning Assets: $50,000
• Ending Assets: $100,000
• Net Sales: $25,000

The total asset turnover ratio is calculated like this:

As you can see, Sally’s ratio is only .33. This means that for every dollar in assets, Sally only generates 33 cents. In other words, Sally’s start up in not very efficient with its use of assets.