After that point, Ford's stock has risen significantly and to the point where the company is substantially outperforming the S&P 500 over the past three years. Ford's beta is 2.52, which confirms this trend towards high volatility. The comparable companies, Toyota and Honda, are significantly less volatile. One year ago, each were outperforming Ford but today Ford's performance has surpassed both. Ford has a better net margin than its industry peers, but a weaker gross margin. Ford turned a profit last year, so its returns are higher than most of its industry peers, who tended to lose money. Ford has a strong current ratio of 1.82, significantly higher than the industry average. Citigroup has underperformed both the market and its competitors. Over the past three years, Citigroup stock has lost over 90% of its value. The S&P 500 has lost around 20% of its value in the same time. Among competitors, Bank of America has performed very poorly, but down 75% it is still outperforming Citigroup. Citigroup is losing money -- lots of it -- so its margins are significantly lower...

Citigroup's debt/equity ratio is much higher than the industry average and the company's returns are significantly lower than the industry average.
Microsoft competes in a number of industries, against firms like Apple, Sony and Google. Microsoft stock has generally tracked that of the index and the company's close competitors, the exception being Apple, which has seen superior stock performance to Microsoft in recent years. Microsoft's beta is 0.97, so its close tracking of the S&P 500 is expected, whereas Apple has a beta of 1.54 so its higher degree of volatility is also expected. Microsoft has higher margins than its industry peers in all categories. Its liquidity ratios are in line with the industry, and its debt-to-equity ratio is lower than the industry average. Microsoft is very profitable, its returns of assets, equity and capital being significantly higher than the industry average.

Works Cited:

Data and charts from MSN Moneycentral. Retrieved April 11, 2010 from http://moneycentral.msn.com