Liquidity Ratios

Liquidity Ratios Quick Ratio / Acid Test Ratio Current Ratio Working Capital Ratio Times Interest Earned Quick Ratio Explanation -The quick ratio or acid test ratio is a liquidity ratio that measures the ability of a company to pay its current liabilities when they come due with only quick assets. Quick assets are current assets that can be converted to cash within 90 days or in the short-term. Cash, cash equivalents, shortterm investments or marketable securities, and current accounts receivable are considered quick assets. -The quick ratio is often called the acid test ratio in reference to the historical use of acid to test metals for gold by the early miners. If the metal passed the acid test, it was pure gold. If metal failed the acid test by corroding from the acid, it was a base metal and of no value. The acid test of finance shows how well a company can quickly convert its assets into cash in order to pay off its current liabilities. It also shows the level of quick assets to current liabilities. Formula Analysis -The acid test ratio measures the liquidity of a company by showing its ability to pay off its current liabilities with quick assets. If a firm has enough quick assets to cover its total current liabilities, the firm will be able to pay off its obligations without having to sell off any long-term or capital assets. Since most businesses use their long-term assets to generate revenues, selling off these capital assets will not only hurt the company it will also show investors that current operations aren’t making enough profits to pay off current liabilities. -Higher quick ratios are more favorable for companies because it shows there are more quick assets than current liabilities. A company with a quick ratio of 1 indicates that quick assets equal current assets. This also shows that the company could pay off its current liabilities without selling any long-term assets. An acid ratio of 2 shows that the company has twice as many quick assets than current liabilities. Current Ratio Explanation -The current ratio is a liquidity and efficiency ratio that measures a firm’s ability to pay off its short-term liabilities with its current assets. The current ratio is an important measure of liquidity because shortterm liabilities are due within the next year. be converted into cash in the short term. This means that companies with larger amounts of current assets will more easily be able to pay off current liabilities when they become due without having to sell off long-term, revenue generating assets. This means that a company has a limited amount of time in order to raise the funds to pay for these liabilities. Current assets like cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities can easily Formula Analysis -The current ratio helps investors and creditors understand the liquidity of a company and how easily that company will be able to pay off its current liabilities. This ratio expresses a firm’s current debt in terms of current assets. So a current ratio of 4 would mean that the company has 4 times more current assets than current liabilities. A higher current ratio is always more favorable than a lower current ratio because it shows the company can more easily make current debt payments. -If a company has to sell of fixed assets to pay for its current liabilities, this usually means the company isn’t making enough from operations to support activities. In other words, the company is losing money. Sometimes this is the result of poor collections of accounts receivable. The current ratio also sheds light on the overall debt burden of the company. If a company is weighted down with a current debt, its cash flow will suffer. Working Capital Ratio Explanation -The working capital ratio, also called the current ratio, is a liquidity ratio that measures a firm’s ability to pay off its current liabilities with current assets. The working capital ratio is important to creditors because it shows the liquidity of the company. Current liabilities are best paid with current assets like cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities because these assets can be converted into cash much quicker than fixed assets. The faster the assets can be converted into cash, the more likely the company will have the cash in time to pay its debts. The reason this ratio is called the working capital ratio comes from the working capital calculation. When current assets exceed current liabilities, the firm has enough capital to run its day-to-day operations. In other words, it has even capital to work. The working capital ratio transforms the working capital calculation into a comparison between current assets and current liabilities. Formula Analysis -Since the working capital ratio measures current assets as a percentage of current liabilities, it would only make sense that a higher ratio is more favorable. A WCR of 1 indicates the current assets equal current liabilities. A ratio of 1 is usually considered the middle ground. It’s not risky, but it is also not very safe. This means that the firm would have to sell all of its current assets in order to pay off its current liabilities. A ratio less than 1 is considered risky by creditors and investors because it shows the company isn’t running efficiently and can’t cover its current debt properly. A ratio less than 1 is always a bad thing and is often referred to as negative working capital. On the other hand, a ratio above 1 shows outsiders that the company can pay all of its current liabilities and still have current assets left over or positive working capital. Times Interest Earned Ratio Explanation -The times interest earned ratio, sometimes called the interest coverage ratio, is a coverage ratio that measures the proportionate amount of income that can be used to cover interest expenses in the future. In some respects the times interest ratio is considered a solvency ratio because it measures a firm’s ability to make interest and debt service payments. Since these interest payments are usually made on a long-term basis, they are often treated as an ongoing, fixed expense. As with most fixed expenses, if the company can’t make the payments, it could go bankrupt and cease to exist. Thus, this ratio could be considered a solvency ratio. Formula Analysis -The times interest ratio is stated in numbers as opposed to a percentage. The ratio indicates how many times a company could pay the interest with its before tax income, so obviously the larger ratios are considered more favorable than smaller ratios. In other words, a ratio of 4 means that a company makes enough income to pay for its total interest expense 4 times over. Said another way, this company’s income is 4 times higher than its interest expense for the year. As you can see, creditors would favor a company with a much higher times interest ratio because it shows the company can afford to pay its interest payments when they come due. Higher ratios are less risky while lower ratios indicate credit risk.