Vertical analysis of company operational strengths and weaknesses

Competition Bikes, Inc. is a company that manufactures and sells high-end 2-wheel bicycles for sporting enthusiasts, racers, and professional bikers. This is a highly competitive industry and is likely price elastic because it is more of a luxury good -- not a necessity with a limited but global market. Key data for our analysis is based on the Income Statements and Balance Sheets for Years 6, 7, and 8. Our data may be viewed thus:

The clear issue for the company is that the growth experienced in Year 7 did not match sales in Year 8. Further data analysis shows that the company is relatively healthy, but does show some weaknesses when compared with industry standards:

CBikes

(Ave 7/8)

Industry

Analysis

Current Ratio

CBI has assets that exceed its liabilities by almost 6 times, higher than industry average.

Collection Period

Lower than industry by almost 14 days, or close to three business weeks. This impacts cash flow.

Debt Ratio

Higher debt ratio, approaching 50%

Net Profit

2%

5.14%

Recent year had tremendous negative impact.

Vertical Analysis -- CBI has experienced a large decrease in net sales between years 7 and 8 as opposed to years 6 and 7. While sales have increase, COG as a percentage of sales have remained fairly constant at about 74%, indicating that material and labor costs are under control. Lower sales did result in advertising cuts. Using Income statements, we see that while net sales are down, gross profits are fairly level as a percentage of sales (about 27%) and sales expenses are reasonably steady for sales. General and administrative expenses have increased 3%, indicating that cost-cutting and/or procedural changes are necessary. The increase in these expenses forced operating income to fall to 1.9% and net earnings fell to .7% of net sales -- a red flag for lending and debt management. One of the more serious issues is the operating income fall far greater than the decrease in sales.

There are good signs of liquidity, however, in the CBI shows current assets of 37.2% up from the previous year of 31.9%. They may have focused too much capital on slower moving inventory, in particular because they have a slower than industry average of collections, which means less liquid capital. When the slowness of liquid capital is combined with higher expenses, we see the need for austerity measures.