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Industry Ratios
(aka Industry Norms, Industry Financial or Operating Ratios ...)
What are industry ratios anyway?
Industry ratios are simply financial
ratios for data aggregated from the financial statements of several or many companies,
rather than a single company. Ratios are a means of assessing the performance
of an industry or a company. They allow you to track trends and anomalies in
trends, by comparing ratios either though time, or with other companies.
Below are several websites that have good introductions to ratios, how to calculate them
and how to interpret them. They focus on using ratios to evaluate individual companies
rather than industries, but the principles are the same.
Finding industry ratios:
Three standard, scholarly sources for
aggregated industry ratios.
- Almanac of Business and Industrial Financial Ratios by Leo Troy.
(Raynor REF HF 5681 .R25 A45)
- Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios, from Dun & Bradstreet.
(Raynor REF HF 5681 .R25 I53)
- RMA Annual Statement Studies from the Risk Management Association,
formerly Robert Morris Associates (Raynor REF HF 5681 .B2 R6). For explanations of the
ratios directly from the organization that started ratio analysis, click here.
More sources for industry ratios:
- Standard & Poor's Analysts' Handbook (Raynor REF HG 4905 .A66)
- Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys (Raynor REF HC 106.6 .S74)
Other Sources for Industry Comparison
Ratios:
Free websites: with these web sites, start with a
specific company in the industry of interest. Then you'll be able to get some data for
industry comparison.
- MSN Money - Stock
Research: after you enter a company stock, look in the left margin menu bar for
'Financial Results'. Then click on 'Key Ratios'.
- Yahoo! Finance: the first of two ways of getting industry ratios at Yahoo!
Finance. From this page, enter a company ticker, then look in the left margin menu bar for
the link 'Competitors'. This will give you ratios for both your company and its direct
competitors, but also aggregate ratios for the industry. Yahoo! Finance does not provide
as many ratios as MSN Money.
- Yahoo! Finance - Industry Summary:
this section of Yahoo! Finance gives you a list of the industries covered. Click on the
industry name to get a list of companies in it, ratios for each and for the industry.
Fee Databases: these are paid for by the Libraries.
- Compustat Research Insight:
This link works ONLY in the libraries. The database is also available in
David Straz Hall Computer Lab via the icon on the desktops.
This is a complex financial database from Standard & Poor's. If you are not familiar
with the database, please ask for help and the manuals at the Raynor Information Desk.
- Hoover's Online:
here also you begin with an individual company. Once you get the company's information, look in
the left margin menu bar for 'Financials'; then click on 'Comparison Data'.
- Thomson ONE
Banker: the easiest method is to begin with a single company. From the Company
Overview, click on the 'Peers' tab, and explore the various ways Thomson presents their
data.
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