What is Capital Structure? Capital structure refers to the amount of debt and/or equity employed by a firm to fund its operations and finance its assets. A firm’s capital structure is typically expressed as a debt-to-equity or debt-to-capital ratio. Debt and equity capital are used to fund a business’s operations, capital expenditures, acquisitions, and other…
What are Debt Covenants? Debt covenants are restrictions that lenders (creditors, debt holders, investors) put on lending agreements to limit the actions of the borrower (debtor). In other words, debt covenants are agreements between a company and its lenders that the company will operate within certain rules set by the lenders. They are also called…
What is ROIC? ROIC stands for Return on Invested Capital and is a profitability or performance ratio that aims to measure the percentage return that a company earns on invested capital. The ratio shows how efficiently a company is using the investors’ funds to generate income. Benchmarking companies use the ROIC ratio to compute the…
What are Activity Ratios? Activity ratios are financial metrics used to gauge how efficient a company’s operations are. The term can include several ratios that can apply to how efficiently a company is employing its capital or assets. Activity ratios are useful for comparing how a company’s performance is trending over time in a horizontal…
What is Vertical Analysis? Vertical analysis is an accounting tool that enables proportional analysis of documents, such as financial statements. While performing a vertical analysis, every line item on a financial statement is entered as a percentage of another item. For example, on an income statement, every line item is stated in terms of the…
What is Vertical Spread? Vertical spread is a trading strategy that involves trading two options at the same time. It is the most basic option spread. A combination of a long option and a short option at different strike prices, albeit with the same expiration or maturity dates, are executed, and the trade is collectively…
What is Backflush Costing? Backflush costing is an accounting method that records costs after a good is sold or a service is completed. Backflush costing is common among companies that use a Just-in-Time inventory management system. It avoids the costly and complicated reporting of all expenses as they occur, and instead “flushes” all expenses in…
What is the Back-End Ratio? The back-end ratio is a measure that signifies the portion of monthly income used to settle debts. Lenders, such as bondholders or issuers of mortgages, use the ratio to determine the borrower’s ability to manage and pay off monthly expenses. Therefore, the back-end ratio assesses the borrower’s risk. If the…
What is Backtesting? Backtesting involves applying a strategy or predictive model to historical data to determine its accuracy. It can be used to test and compare the viability of trading strategies so traders can employ and tweak successful strategies. How Backtesting Works Analysts use backtesting as a way to test and compare various trading techniques…
What is Net Investment? Net investment is the total amount of funds that are spent by a company to purchase capital assets, less the associated depreciation of the assets. The net investment figure provides an accurate depiction of how much is spent on tangible assets such as property, plant and equipment (PP&E) and other capital…
