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Industry Information: Industry Financials & Ratios

What are industry ratios?

Industry ratios are mean or median financial ratios for a particular industry. The computed ratios for a company being analyzed should be compared to the industry average to form a basis of comparison. To what extent is the company better or worse than typical? Industry ratios are published by financial information services such as Dun & Bradstreet.
When looking for Industry Ratios it is important to know about and use the SIC/NAICS codes sincem most ratio sources are industry based and organized by industry codes.

Financial Ratios/Comparison Reports

Ratio analysis can be used to assess risk, estimate value, document trends, and to conduct an evaluation of a company against similar companies in the same industry.

Ratio analysis involves using numerical information from company financial statements to determine key relationships. Ratios for specific time periods may be evaluated against ratios from other time periods for both internal and external comparative purposes. Using ratios, you can analyze a company's performance or benchmark it against its competitors, you can compare a company's financial performance to the industry average and reveal relationships between items appearing on balance sheets & income statements. For example, current assets to current liabilities, or net income to net sales.

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