In the Chapter 17 module, you will

Explore the three quarterly and annual financial statements that every publicly-traded company must produce: the balance sheet, the income statement, and the cash flow statement (a.k.a. statement of cash flows)
Investigate Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure) and how financial statements and other important data about companies are disseminated
Reexamine the price ratios and other common stock ratios first discussed in chapters 5 and 6
Be introduced to the profitability ratios, liquidity ratios, activity ratios, and leverage ratios

By the end of this module, you should be able to

Describe the uses of the three quarterly and annual financial statements
Research or calculate various financial ratios for publicly-traded companies
Analyze and compare and contrast the various financial ratios for publicly-traded companies with their competitors and the stock market as a whole

Ratio Analysis Rounds Out the Investigation of Our Potential Stock Investments

In the previous chapter, we learned some powerful techniques that give us a "yes/no" answer, even though we know that we should not place much credence in the result. In this chapter, we learn how to compute and analyze many financial ratios. Financial ratios do not give us a definitive "yes/no" answer about an individual stock. Rather, we treat financial ratios like a stew of information that gives us a more rounded analysis of our potential investment and allows us to compare our stock with its competitors and the market as a whole.

Presentation File and Study Guide

Presentation file - Study guide