By Richard Loth (Contact | Biography)
This section of the tutorial discusses the different measures of corporate
profitability and financial performance. These ratios, much like the operational performance ratios, give users a good understanding of how well the company utilized its resources in generating profit and shareholder value.
The long-term profitability of a company is vital for both the survivability of the company as well as the benefit received by shareholders. It is these ratios that can give insight into the all important "
profit".
In this section, we will look at four important profit margins, which display the amount of profit a company generates on its sales at the different stages of an
income statement. We'll also show you how to calculate the effective tax rate of a company. The last three ratios covered in this section -
Return on Assets,
Return on Equity and
Return on Capital Employed - detail how effective a company is at generating income from its resources.
To find the data used in the examples in this section, please see the Securities and Exchange Commission's website to view the
2005 Annual Statement of Zimmer Holdings.
