Balance sheet shows the financial position of a firm at a particular point of time. Knowing how to read balance sheet can help you in stock investing. Balance sheet shows the firms asset, which are resources used in its operation like cash, office equipment, and building. The balance sheet also shows liabilities (claims of creditor to assets) and stockholders’ equity (claims of owner to assets). The company gets their resources (assets) from borrowing (liabilities) and from their investor (equity). Thus assets = liability + equity.

So how do you know a company is good or not from its balance sheet? A good company will always grow their assets, means that they are expanding. Increasing liability could be good or bad. Too much debt / liability is not good for the company, because it will have more risk. The company might not able to pay all their debt. When reading balance sheet, always check the change of asset, and liability from the same period last year. For example, compare the first three months asset this year with the first three months asset last year. Also, check balance sheet with other company’s balance sheet in the similar industry, preferably the same size. Younger company will grow more then mature company. If company A’s asset grows 10 percent, and company B’s asset grows 20 percent, then it means that company B is better.

Tags: Balance sheet, equity, liabilities, stock investing

The ROE is useful for comparing the profitability of a company to that of other firms in the same industry. ROE measures a company’s profitability by comparing its net income to shareholders equity (book value). ROE is a speed limit on selffunded growth (company’s profit). That is, a company cant grow earnings faster
than its ROE without raising cash by borrowing or selling more shares. For instance, a 15% ROE means that the company cant grow earnings faster than 15% annually by relying only on profit to fuel growth.

Higher ROE is usually better. ROE, then, becomes a measure not only shows return of the company is generating, but also of how successfully management has been in running the corporation. Good ROE ratio depends on the company’s industry. When looking for stocks, we want to find companies that show an
increasing ROE over time. It’s a sign to us that management is getting better and better at deciding what to do with its money. The higher the number, the better management has allocated capital.

It turns out that a company cannot grow earnings faster than its ROE without raising additional cash. That is, a firm with a 15 percent ROE cannot grow earnings faster than 15 percent annually without borrowing funds or selling more shares. So ROE is a speed limit on a firm’s growth rate. Many specify 15 percent
as their minimum acceptable ROE when evaluating investment candidates.

You also must pay attention on the company’s debt when calculating ROE. Recall that shareholder’s equity is assets less liabilities. High liabilities means low equity. The higher-debt firm will then show the higher return on equity. Consequently, you should take debt levels into account when comparing different firm’s return on equities.

Tags: assets, liabilities, ROE