http://seekingalpha.com/article/37536-a-comparative-analysis-of-two-steel-producers-gerdau-sa-and-nucor
Summary:
This article compares the financial positions of two steel producing companies called Gerdau SA and Nucor. Since they are from different countries with different currencies, it would be difficult to compare their progress just by looking at their dollar values, therefore William Trent (the author of the article) had to assess both companies by calculating and looking at their ratio values. The financial statements showed in this article revealed that Nucor is much more efficient at handling inventory and that their inventory on hand averaged 33.7 days, while Gerdau SA's was 84.1. As the article goes on, it starts to bring in more ratios to compare the two companies, like the accounts receivable turnover, days sales outstanding, asset turnover ratio, current/equity ratios, solvency ratio, and lastly, profitability ratios. It was determined that Nucor was far more superior to Gerdau in operating their company.
Connection:
There were a topics in this article that relates with chapter 15 in the accounting textbook. Since the two companies were using different currencies, a lot of new ratios were brought in and introduced to us. There were also a few ratios that were used and that we remember like the current ratio, equity ratio, and the inventory turnover ratio. Although the textbook says that not all lines of business have the same rate of turnover, it doesn't apply in this case because both Nucor and Gerdau SA produce steel. Some reasons for this significant difference in financial position could do with the demand in their countries. It was also brought to our attention that there are a lot more ratios out in the real business world that haven't been discussed in the textbook.
Reflections:
I think that this article brought up many interesting points. It showed us that there are many processes to go through when regarding a companies progress. Many ratios are needed to make a correct judgment, along with a company's financial records from at least 5 years ago. I think that Nucor was able to create more profit because there's a higher demand for steel in the U.S., where Nucor is situated, while the demand for steel is much lower in Brazil, which is where Gerdau SA is situated. Nucor had nearly dominated Gerdau SA in every financial aspect, resulting in a huge difference in profitability.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
CH 16: Reviewing timecards for double-dipping police
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3720/is_200011/ai_n8927978
Summary
This article is about Orange County's sheriffs filing timecards that if traced, shows that they were working at two jobs at the same time. A man called Christopher Mele went through piles of paperwork and discovered that a total of nine officers had committed this offense. The term used in this article for describing the act of filing time cards showing you doing two different things at the same time is "double-dipping". Christopher Mele had to go through the history of 32 deputies including the times that they took vacations and had sick days. The results showed that a total of nine officers committed 125 hours of "double-dipping". The consequences were suspension, getting fired, and worst of all, getting a criminal record.
Connection
The connection between this article and chapter 16 of the accounting textbook was timecards. These nine officers tried to find loopholes around the timecard policy to make their lives easier. They cheated their employers and when they were found out, they suffered severe consequences. This article shows that, although this plan might work out well in the beginning, if someone suspects something fishy about your work history, then you can expect you'll be getting some major difficulties in the future. Although the article doesn't mention it, some extra consequences for these types of crime offenders might be a fine totaling up to more than the amount cheated off your employer.
Reflection
I found that this article was quite interesting. I've read and heard about many ordinary citizens committing this crime, but never thought that policemen would do the same. We all think that policemen would know better after all those long years of studying law. Unfortunately, in this situation, I think that the crime offenders had it coming and that they should have been more consientious about their actions. Honestly, I think they also didn't have to commit this crime because their present wages aren't too shabby. This incident doesn't occur very often, but if it does and word gets out to the public, it could ruin the reputation of the police force greatly.
Summary
This article is about Orange County's sheriffs filing timecards that if traced, shows that they were working at two jobs at the same time. A man called Christopher Mele went through piles of paperwork and discovered that a total of nine officers had committed this offense. The term used in this article for describing the act of filing time cards showing you doing two different things at the same time is "double-dipping". Christopher Mele had to go through the history of 32 deputies including the times that they took vacations and had sick days. The results showed that a total of nine officers committed 125 hours of "double-dipping". The consequences were suspension, getting fired, and worst of all, getting a criminal record.
Connection
The connection between this article and chapter 16 of the accounting textbook was timecards. These nine officers tried to find loopholes around the timecard policy to make their lives easier. They cheated their employers and when they were found out, they suffered severe consequences. This article shows that, although this plan might work out well in the beginning, if someone suspects something fishy about your work history, then you can expect you'll be getting some major difficulties in the future. Although the article doesn't mention it, some extra consequences for these types of crime offenders might be a fine totaling up to more than the amount cheated off your employer.
Reflection
I found that this article was quite interesting. I've read and heard about many ordinary citizens committing this crime, but never thought that policemen would do the same. We all think that policemen would know better after all those long years of studying law. Unfortunately, in this situation, I think that the crime offenders had it coming and that they should have been more consientious about their actions. Honestly, I think they also didn't have to commit this crime because their present wages aren't too shabby. This incident doesn't occur very often, but if it does and word gets out to the public, it could ruin the reputation of the police force greatly.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
CH 15 Blog
http://seekingalpha.com/article/67819-delta-northwest-evaluating-company-performance-in-a-dysfunctional-industry
Summary: This blog is about the present financial state of a few American airlines. Over the past years the Air Transportation Association of America had lost an estimated value of 22 billion dollars, but although they suffered this huge loss, they still managed to gather $1,866 billion revenue, so they are not completely going downhill. Some of these reasons include the fact that the airlines have planes worth up to $100 million each, but are not easily liquidated. The second reason is that they depend heavily on skilled labor. Another reason would be that the airlines industries can't lure customers to pay for their tickets because they can't advertise well enough. Most people know that there is a slight chance of death when boarding a plane. It goes on talking about how some airlines want to merge their companies with others, which isn't a good idea according to this article.
Connection: This article relates to chapter 15 because it is talking about how a business is doing and it even shows this by presenting a table which reports the transaction costs and market cap(cost of the stocks of a company). By looking at this, we can evaluate how well the company is doing financially. They also changed the values into percentages which makes evaluating more simple and obvious. The table is comparing the transaction costs and market caps of 6 companies. In this case, Delta took the lead with a total M&A transaction costs of $10.5 billion.
Reflection: This article states that the merging of airlines companies is bad and I also agree. If the companies merged then the number of shareholders would double, therefore the share prices would not rise either. In this case DAL+NWA merged, but they turned out to be the lowest ranked of the 5 airlines. We know this because it was all due to the information and knowledge that was given to us by the table that accurately analyzed the transaction costs and market caps of the companies. Information on an analysis sheet with numbers is more believable than a sheet with only words on it.
Summary: This blog is about the present financial state of a few American airlines. Over the past years the Air Transportation Association of America had lost an estimated value of 22 billion dollars, but although they suffered this huge loss, they still managed to gather $1,866 billion revenue, so they are not completely going downhill. Some of these reasons include the fact that the airlines have planes worth up to $100 million each, but are not easily liquidated. The second reason is that they depend heavily on skilled labor. Another reason would be that the airlines industries can't lure customers to pay for their tickets because they can't advertise well enough. Most people know that there is a slight chance of death when boarding a plane. It goes on talking about how some airlines want to merge their companies with others, which isn't a good idea according to this article.
Connection: This article relates to chapter 15 because it is talking about how a business is doing and it even shows this by presenting a table which reports the transaction costs and market cap(cost of the stocks of a company). By looking at this, we can evaluate how well the company is doing financially. They also changed the values into percentages which makes evaluating more simple and obvious. The table is comparing the transaction costs and market caps of 6 companies. In this case, Delta took the lead with a total M&A transaction costs of $10.5 billion.
Reflection: This article states that the merging of airlines companies is bad and I also agree. If the companies merged then the number of shareholders would double, therefore the share prices would not rise either. In this case DAL+NWA merged, but they turned out to be the lowest ranked of the 5 airlines. We know this because it was all due to the information and knowledge that was given to us by the table that accurately analyzed the transaction costs and market caps of the companies. Information on an analysis sheet with numbers is more believable than a sheet with only words on it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)