Industry Financial Ratios
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About this Article
The purpose of this article is to point the business researcher to resources that contain industry ratios. This article will discuss both print and electronic resources for industry ratios.
Print Resources
One way to measure how well a company is performing is to compare its financial ratios with the average ratios of its industry peers. There are three print sources that do this quite well. All are listed below, and the most current editions are located at the reference desk on the second floor. The first two books are organized by SIC code and give some of the more commonly used financial ratios. The third book is organized by NAICS.
Almanac of business and industrial financial ratios
- Ref. HF5681.R25 A45 Ref Desk
Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios
- Ref. HF5681.R25 I533x Ref Desk
RMA annual statement studies
- Ref. HF5681.B2 R6 Ref Desk
Electronic Resources
Research Insight
Research Insight is a database that is available only on Alden Library computers. This database is very powerful, but it is also quite complex. A tutorial on using Research Insight is available at http://www.library.ohiou.edu/electres/databases/rsiguide.
Mergent Online
Mergent Online allows you to do an advanced search for companies with the same SIC code and then create a comparison report. There are a number of different ratios that can be used as comparison criteria when creating this user-defined report. The report that is created can be exported into a Microsoft Excel format.
Market Insight
Market Insight allows a user to look at comparisons of companies that are in the same peer group. To find this comparison, simply do a Company search for your company’s ticker symbol. When the company information is loaded, there should be a link on the left side of the screen for “Peer Group”. This will compare some basic finacial information of companies in the same industry. While the information won’t be as in-depth as data from the sources above, it may be a little easier to retrieve and comprehend.
Hoover's Online
Hoover's Online is also another good source for comparing financial ratios of companies in the same industry. The best way to find comparison data is to first search for a particular company, and then click on the link to access the company's financial data. There will usually be a link to "Comparison Data" that will contain a comparison of the company's finacial information with other companies and industry averages.
