turnover and stronger operational capabilities.While Wal-Mart implemented quick assets turnover by puerile strategy, as well as improving efficiency of assets.
Overall, it can clearly see that Wal-Mart receivable turnover rate in the past three years has fluctuated slightly, but overall has remained at a high level; the proportion of turnover is about 70%. Inventory turnover in those three years presented a stable trend, and maintained at about 8, which means that Wal-Mart stock is relatively stable. As a retailer company, it can maintain this level for a long time which reflects the strong competitiveness of Wal-Mart.
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Long-term solvency
Long-term solvency plays an important role in the rapid development of company. Sufficient ability to pay long-term debts can help the company to raise capital from outsiders, in particular the banks. The analysis of long-term liquidity for Wal-Mart will contains three major indicators, asset liability ratio, equity ratio, interest coverage. In order to make Wal-Mart outstanding, the following part will compare these indicators between Wal-Mart and Carrefour to determine the performance of paying debts. According to the financial statements published in Yahoo Finance, the ratios calculated are displayed in the two tables.
a) Asset liability ration refers to the relationship between total asset and total liability. From the table, asset-liability ratio of Wal-Mart fluctuates around 62% and can be considered as an appropriate level internationally; however the Carrefour shows a slight increase in this ratio. It is obviously less than Carrefour, which demonstrates that Wal-Mart is more capable to pay their long-term liability from the perspective of creditor.
b) Equity ratio indicates the stability of financial structure and the bearing capacity of self-capital to outside debt risks. Although the ideal equity ratio should be 1, but operation with liability might obtain additional income for different industries. The equity ratio of Carrefour is approximately three times than Wal-Mart’s so Wal-Mart has much stronger ability for paying long-term liability. Wal-Mart also expresses a stable finance structure according to the almost equal equity ratio among three years.
c) Interest cover is the pre-condition of gearing and it suggests whether the profitability can cover debt interest. The higher interest coverage indicates that the
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company has more ability to pay their debt interest. As the data displayed, the interest coverage of Wal-Mart is more than 11 but the Carrefour does not reach 5 with the decrease tendency. The high and ongoing increase interest coverage can prove the company absolutely is able to pay interests by profit. To make a conclusion, Wal-Mart shows a strong power to long-term solvency and there is less risks for them.
Wal-Mart Long-term solvency Indicators 2014 2013 0.6215652 1.65362902 12.1089373 2012 0.62917903 1.70633107 11.1823276 Asset liability ratio 0.62029001 Equity ratio Interest coverage 1.66553013 11.33276223 (Data from yahoo finance)
Carrefour Long-term solvency Indicators 2013 2012 0.82508803 5.28603259 4.08082707 2011 0.84089629 6.9005742 3.52815534 Asset liability ratio 0.8026352 Equity ratio Interest coverage 4.45767466 4.9789916 (Data from yahoo finance)
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Short-term solvency
Now in terms of short-term debt-paying ability, we analyze Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. We will focus on two important ratios - current ratio and acid ratio. Current
Relevant formula:Current assets/current liabilities
Years 2012 2013 2014
Acid test
Relevant formula: Current assets (except inventory, prepayment)/current liabilities
Years 2012 2013 2014
From 2012 to 2014, the company current ratio is in the range from 0.88 to 0.82. In others words, the company has $0.88~$0.82 in liquid assets available to meet every $1 of liabilities due with the next 12 months.
Generally speaking, a business may have a high current ratio, indicating an ability to pay debts in the next year, but it may be high because it is has too many debtors (and cannot get them to pay on time) and is also holding a lot of out-of-date stock. We
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Current ratios 0.88242376: 1 0.83460971:1 0.88242376:1 Acid ratios 0.23544596 0.22469297 0.228990851 would be alerted to this by the inventory turnover and settlement period for debtor’s ratios being too high. The optimum current ratio will vary from business to business (usually between 1:1 and 2:1)
However, Wal-Mart belongs to the large retailing industry. Due to industrial characteristic, it is normal that the ratio is less 1.
Year 2013 2014 2014
The company gets middling global ranking among the industry.
In terms of acid ratio, from 2012 to 2013, the business has 22~23 cents in lowly liquid assets available to meet every $1of liabilities due with the next 12 months.
The acid test measures the ability to pay current liabilities in the very short term (prepayments and inventory are excluded because it is different to convert them to cash quickly). When an acid test ratio greater than 1:1 is preferable, many businesses survive with a figure below this figure.
Similarly, due to industrial characteristic, the relevant data is very low.
Year 2010 2011 2012
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Company Carrefour Costco Target Current Ratios 0.77 1.22 1.02 Company Carrefour Carrefour Carrefour Acid Ratios 0.4640 0.4752 0.6438