Financial statement analysis is a tool for making comparisons and examining relationships among financial statement elements.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Aarkstore Enterprise Cigna Corporation (ci) - Financial And Strategic Analysis Review
CIGNA Corporation (CIGNA) is an investor-owned health service organization engaged in providing healthcare and related services. The company operates through five business segments namely HealthCare, Disability and Life, International, Other Operations, and Run-off Reinsurance. It provides health services and benefits that serve millions of people worldwide through its health, pharmacy, behavioral, dental, disability, life, accident and international products and services. In January 2009, CIGNA HealthCare extended its contract with Community Health Network.
CIGNA Corporation Key Recent Developments
Apr 26, 2010: CIGNA Names Joseph Sullivan To Board Of Directors
Apr 16, 2010: CIGNA Partners Humana To Provide Health Care Benefits
Feb 24, 2010: CIGNA Invests 0,000 In Tennessee Electronic Medical Records Initiative
Feb 04, 2010: CIGNA Announces Its Fourth Quarter And Full Year 2009 Results
Jan 04, 2010: Cigna Appoints New President, CEO
This comprehensive SWOT analysis of CIGNA Corporation provides you an in-depth strategic analysis of the companys businesses and operations. The profile has been compiled to bring to you a clear and an unbiased view of the companys key strengths and weaknesses and the potential opportunities and threats. The profile helps you formulate strategies that augment your business by enabling you to understand your partners, customers and competitors better.
The profile contains critical company information including,
- Business description A detailed description of the companys operations and business divisions.
- Corporate strategy Analysts summarization of the companys business strategy.
- SWOT Analysis A detailed analysis of the companys strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.
- Company history Progression of key events associated with the company.
- Major products and services A list of major products, services and brands of the company.
- Key competitors A list of key competitors to the company.
- Key employees A list of the key executives of the company.
- Executive biographies A brief summary of the executives employment history.
- Key operational heads A list of personnel heading key departments/functions.
- Important locations and subsidiaries A list and contact details of key locations and subsidiaries of the company.
- Key manufacturing facilities A list of key manufacturing facilities of the company.
- Detailed financial ratios for the past five years The latest financial ratios derived from the annual financial statements published by the company with 5 years history.
- Interim ratios for the last five interim periods The latest financial ratios derived from the quarterly/semi-annual financial statements published by the company for 5 interims history.
Note*: Some sections may be missing if data is unavailable for the company.
Key benefits of buying this profile include,
You get detailed information about the company and its operations to identify potential customers and suppliers.
-The profile analyzes the companys business structure, operations, major products and services, prospects, locations and subsidiaries, key executives and their biographies and key
competitors.
Understand and respond to your competitors business structure and strategies, and capitalize on their weaknesses. Stay up to date on the major developments affecting the company.
- The companys core strengths and weaknesses and areas of development or decline are analyzed and presented in the profile objectively. Recent developments in the company covered
in the profile help you track important events.
For more information please contact :
http://www.aarkstore.com/reports/CIGNA-Corporation-CI-Financial-and-Strategic-Analysis-Review-27268.html
http://blogs.aarkstore.com/
From:Aarkstore Enterprise
Contact: Neel
Email: press@aarkstore.com
URL: www.aarkstore.com
Sunday, July 17, 2011
THE OCCUPATION OF PROFESSIONAL "FINANCIAL ANALYSIS"
Introduction: A financial analysis is responsible for a wide range of functions, such as processing accounts payable and receivable transactions, properly noting the transfer of assets, and closing the books in a timely manner. Properly completing these functions is critical to a corporation, which relies on the accurate handling of transactions and accurate financial statements. These activities clearly form the basis for anyone's successful career as a financial analysis. However, the exceptional organizer must acquire skills in the area of financial analysis in order to be accurately successful.
This article is calculated to assist the financial analysis in obtaining a wide and in-depth view of the most important financial analysis topics. as well as the role of financial analysis and making management and investment decisions.
This includes notations regarding the several types of financial analysis
Mail function:
Traditionally - the primary purpose of the accounting department has been to process transactions: billings to customers, payments to suppliers, and the like. These are routine but vital activities that are unseen by the majority of company employees, but still necessary to an organization's smooth operations.
However, the role of the accounting staff has gradually changed as companies encounter greater competition from organizations throughout the world. Now, a company's management needs advice as well as a smooth transaction flow. Accordingly, the financial analyst is being called on not only to fulfill the traditional transaction processing role, but also to continually review company operations, evaluate investments, report problems and related recommendations to management, and fulfill requests by the management team for special investigations.
All of these new tasks can be considered financial analysis, for they require the application of financial review methods to a company's operational and investment activities. Financial analyst the most important for a companies or organizations smooth financial transaction & decision making
There are several types of financial analysis. One is the continuing review and reporting of a standard set of measures that give management a good view of the state of company operations. To conduct this type of analysis, a controller should review all key company operations, consult the literature for examples of adequate measures that will become telltale indicators of operational problems, develop a timetable and procedure for generating these measurements on a regular basis, and then devise a suitable format for issuing the results to management. For these operational reviews, there are several points to consider:
• Goal capacity: There is no need to create and continually recalculate a vast range of capacity that will track every feasible corporate activity. Instead, it is best to carefully review operations a particular view of where problems are most likely to arise,
• Improve capacity: No capacities will be applicable forever. This is because a company's operations will change over time, which calls for the occasional review of the current set of capacity
• Teach managing about the procedures used: Though most financial analysis capacities appear to be very straightforward and easily understood this is from the perspective of the accounting staff, which has been trained in the use of financial capacity.
• Include explanation to capacity: Even a well-trained management team may not intuitively understand the underlying problems that cause certain capacity results to arise. This is an excellent way to convert a numerical report into a written one, which many people find much easier to understand.
In short, the financial analysis that relates to the continuing evaluation of current operations involves a great deal of judgment regarding the applicability of certain actions, as well as a great deal of work in communicating the results to management for further action
Others function
Financial analysis that a controller will sometimes be called on to perform is the analysis of investments. Though this work should fall within the range of responsibility of the treasurer's staff in the finance department, is related to other important actions in a companies & organizations following that is presented is brusquely
1. The analysis of securities: When a company either has or is contemplating investing its excess funds in various investment vehicles, such as bonds or stocks, the financial analyst can evaluate the rate of return on each one and render an opinion regarding it. The tools for making this analysis were developed long ago and are simple to calculate.
2. The analysis of financing options: The Financial analyst is frequently called on to review the cost of various financing options when a company is considering acquiring assets. To do so, the financial analyst must not only be able to provide an accurate and well-documented answer that clearly reveals the least expensive alternative
3. The analysis of capital expenditures: When a company wishes to make a capital expenditure, the ultimate test of whether the right decision was made is if the acquisition eventually creates a cash flow that exceeds the cost of financing it. The financial analyst is called on to analyze predicted cash flows in advance, determine the cost of capital, calculate the net present value of cash flows, and pass judgment on the reasonableness of the acquisition, while factoring in the risk of cash flows being inaccurate.
One of the most common financial analysis tasks with which a controller is confronted is evaluating capital investments. In some industries, the amount of money poured into capital improvements is a very substantial proportion of sales, and so is worthy of a great deal of analysis to ensure that a company is investing its cash wisely in internal improvements. as well as the three most common approaches for evaluating capital investments. It concludes with reviews of the capital investment proposal form and the post completion project analysis, which brings to a close the complete cycle of evaluating a capital project over the entire course of its acquisition, installation, and operation.
In a larger corporation, the choice of how to fund the purchase of assets falls on the chief financial officer (CFO). However, there is generally no CFO in a smaller organization, so this task falls on the financial analyst. Also, the funding for smaller purchases, even in a larger company, will frequently be left up to the controller to decide. To assist the financial analyst in making the correct
Determination of which types of financing options to select under different circumstances, as well as all related cost, risk, and control issues. This article intended to give a financial analyst a sufficient amount of information to properly select the correct financing option that matches a company's specific circumstances.
Analyzing Process Cycles:
Although many analysts believe that all the major processes, cash flows, and key functions of their companies are fully documented and reviewed with periodic measurements, the majority of them are ignoring a gaping hole in the overall structure of their analysis. This is the process cycle, which has a major impact on the accuracy and speed of information flowing through a company. In the worst possible situation, a poor process cycle can even bring down a company. And yet, because a process cycle is such a low-profile item, few analysts think about it, and rarely try to calculate it. This article is expressed corrects the problem by describing the key process cycles and the ways in which errors can arise through their usage, as well as how one may measure their performance.
Product and Service Profitability Analysis:
Any product and service is initially priced to generate a profit. However, as time passes and both price points and costs change, companies tend to lose sight of the true profitability of their products. This article addresses how to evaluate profitability, both for products and services, as well as the circumstances under which unprofitable products should be cancelled.
In capital market role:
A critical challenge for any economy is the allocation of savings to investment opportunities.
Economies that do this well can exploit new business ideas to prompt innovation and Create jobs and wealth at a rapid pace. In dissimilarity, economies that manage this process poorly dissipate their wealth and fail to support business opportunities. Capital markets play an important role in channeling financial resources from savers to business enterprises that need capital.
In additionally:
A variety of questions can be addressed by financial analysis using financial statements,
as shown in the following examples:
• A security analyst may be interested in asking: "How well is the firm I am following performing? Did the firm meet my performance expectations? If not, why not? What is the value of the firm's stock given my assessment of the firm's current and future performance?"
• A loan officer may need to ask: "What is the credit risk involved in lending a certain amount of money to this firm? How well is the firm managing its liquidity and solvency? What is the firm's business risk? What is the additional risk created by the firm's financing and dividend policies?"
• A management consultant might ask: "What is the structure of the industry in which the firm is operating? What are the strategies pursued by various players in the industry? What is the relative performance of different firms in the industry?"
• An independent auditor would want to ask: "Are the accounting policies and accrual estimates in this company's financial statements consistent with my understanding of this business and its recent performance? Do these financial reports communicate the current status and significant risks of the business?"
Conclusion: The purpose of this article discussed is to outline a comprehensive framework for financial statement analysis. Because financial statements provide the most widely available data on public corporations' economic activities, investors and other stakeholders rely on financial reports to assess the plans and performance of firms and corporate managers.
Financial statement analysis is a valuable activity when managers have complete information on a firm's strategies and a variety of institutional factors makes it unlikely that they fully disclose this information. In this setting, outside analysts attempt to create "inside information" from analyzing financial statement data, thereby gaining valuable insights about the firm's current performance and future prospects. To understand the contribution that financial statement analysis can make, it is important to understand the role of financial reporting in the functioning of capital markets
Monday, July 11, 2011
Aarkstore Enterprise---airgas, Inc. (arg) - Financial And Strategic Analysis Review
Airgas, Inc. (Airgas) is a US based company. The company, through its subsidiaries, engages in the distribution of industrial, medical, and specialty gases and related equipment. It also engages in safety supplies and MRO products and services to industrial and commercial markets. The company has its operations in the US, Canada, Mexico, Russia and Dubai. It distributes its products and services through eBusiness, catalog and telesales channels. Airgas is headquartered at Radnor, the US
Airgas, Inc. Key Recent Developments
May 06, 2010 Airgas Reports Net Earnings Of 6.3 Million In Fiscal 2010
Apr 12, 2010 Cold Jet And Airgas' Subsidiary Announce New Strategic Alliance For Cleaning Solutions
Mar 02, 2010 Airgas, Utilities Service Alliance Sign Five-Year Supply Agreement
Mar 02, 2010 Airgas Signs Five-Year Supply Agreement With USA
Feb 08, 2010 Airgas To Add SCR Technology To Its Fleet To Reduce Pollution
This comprehensive SWOT profile of Airgas, Inc. provides you an in-depth strategic analysis of the company's businesses and operations. The profile has been compiled to bring to you a clear and an unbiased view of the company's key strengths and weaknesses and the potential opportunities and threats. The profile helps you formulate strategies that augment your business by enabling you to understand your partners, customers and competitors better.
The profile contains critical company information including,
- Business description A detailed description of the company's operations and business divisions.
- Corporate strategy Analyst's summarization of the company's business strategy.
- SWOT Analysis A detailed analysis of the company's strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.
- Company history Progression of key events associated with the company.
- Major products and services A list of major products, services and brands of the company.
- Key competitors A list of key competitors to the company.
- Key employees A list of the key executives of the company.
- Executive biographies A brief summary of the executives' employment history.
- Key operational heads A list of personnel heading key departments/functions.
- Important locations and subsidiaries A list and contact details of key locations and subsidiaries of the company.
- Detailed financial ratios for the past five years The latest financial ratios derived from the annual financial statements published by the company with 5 years history.
- Interim ratios for the last five interim periods The latest financial ratios derived from the quarterly/semi-annual financial statements published by the company for 5 interims history.
For more information please contact :
http://www.aarkstore.com/reports/Airgas-Inc-ARG-Financial-and-Strategic-Analysis-Review-50947.html
http://blogs.aarkstore.com/
From:Aarkstore Enterprise
Contact: Neel
Email: press@aarkstore.com
URL: www.aarkstore.com
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Audited Financial Statements
How can you be sure that financial statements within a company are accurate? Audited financial statements, which have been prepared by an independent Certified Public Accountant (CPA) on behalf of a business or non-profit organization, are used to provide financial accountability and accuracy to a company's stakeholders. The documents used by an accountant to prepare audited financial statements are provided by the company, and include various financial documents such as accounts receivable/payable documents, budgets, expense reports. The CPA examines documents which support figures within the financial reports, assesses the overall accounting principles used, and evaluates the overall financial document presentation. From this information the CPA creates an audited financial statement.
Within the audited financial statement, the certified public accountant provides an opinion, either qualified or unqualified, about the nature of the financial documents.
An unqualified opinion in an audited financial statement indicates that the CPA is in agreement with the methods used by the company to prepare their financial documents. The audit is found to be accurate, complete and fairly presented to meet the requirements of the US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). The audit provides the CPA a reasonable basis for their opinion that the financial statements are free of material misstatements or false/missing information.A qualified opinion indicates that the CPA is not in agreement with aspects of the financial statements and/or methods used to prepare their financial documents. A qualified opinion indicates that the CPA is not confident that the financial statements are correct or accurate.
Occasionally an opinion will not be given within an audited financial statement.
This could be due to the fact that there were insignificant documents available to properly prepare the audit, or there were issues that need to be addressed before evaluating the accuracy of the financial documents. A lack of opinion usually indicates that a company needs to improve their accounting practices so they can meet the requirements of the US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).