'Financial Detective Essay\r'

'Health Products:\r\n bon ton A is Johnson & angstrom; Johnson, which is a diversify manufacturer of prescription pharmaceuticals, health and knockout aids, over-the-counter drugs, and medical devices. social club B is Pfizer Inc., which develops, manufactures, and markets patented pharmaceuticals such as Liptor and Celebrex. The to a greater extent or slight signifi sternt strategic divergences between the devil profligates lie in their harvest commingle and their customer focus. J& vitamin A;J sells most of its products directly to the consumer while Pfizer sells wholly to doctors and institutions.\r\nFirm B has intangibles worth to a greater extent than doubly as a great deal as rigid A, which whitethorn mull over firm’s B’s racy investment in R&D. Firm B may also have high intangibles due to their possession of patents and its investments in licensing arrangements.\r\nFirm B’s gross mete is to a greater extent than 12% high than corpo proportionalityn A’s, which meditates the high(prenominal) input costs for society A’s medical diagnostics and devices product segment.\r\n caller-up A has a off the beaten track(predicate) quicker neckcloth upset than conjunction B. social club B sells nearly only to institutions and pharmacies, which usually take longer to unload their supplies comp bed to point A, who markets its consumer products to retail merchants, which have a high(prenominal) turnover rate orientations.\r\nMany of beau monde A’s and B’s products are branded consumer products that command a charge agiotage. However, troupe B’s pension is high, inventing the benefits of patent protection on prescription pharmaceuticals, and the additional returns needed to support companionship B’s with child(p) R&D efforts.\r\nBeer:\r\n fellowship C is Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc., which is a producer and trafficker of a number of mass-market beers such as Budweiser, Michelob, and Busch. union D is the Boston Beer gild, which is the seller of the democratic Sam Adams line of beers. Boston beer’s products are part of a microbrew.\r\n order D’s proportion of exchange and cash equivalents, which is extremely high(prenominal)(prenominal) than federation C’s show their worldly-minded entree to its financial management.\r\n confederacy C shows a comparatively high train of PP&E, which is consistent with its status as a major brewery. confederacy D has much put d take in winnings resolute pluss since much of their operations are outsourced. club C also has higher(prenominal) fixed assets due to its new(prenominal) holdings such as write up parks.\r\n order D has higher gross kale, consistent with the premium determine of its specialty brews versus the mass-marketing approach that was taken by society C. However, club C’s meshing good margin is almost trio clock greater than f riendship D’s. This may reflect the economies of surpass that connection C can carry out through its jumbo size of it.\r\n social club D’s current assets to current liabilities ratio is three quantify greater than company C’s, whose current ratio is less than one. That is illustrating a careful financial approach.\r\nThe freight to financially conservative policies is shown with company D’s comparatively low level of debt.\r\n keep company C’s mass-market approach shows a significantly higher strain turnover than company D’s turnover.\r\nCompany D’s asset turnover is much higher due to the outsourcing. Company C’s pooh-pooh turnover is consistent with a firm that owns its manufacturing facilities as well as asset-intensive theme parks.\r\nComputers:\r\nCompany E is Dell Inc., a worldwide manufacturer and direct marketer of built-to-order computers and related equipment. Company F is apple Computer Inc., a manufacture r of a highly differentiated group of personalised computers, package, and consumer electronics. This is motivated by the differentiation where company E seeks to sell a relatively high deal of overturn-margin products, while company F attempts to sell an adequate raft of higher margin products.\r\nThe computer and software industry is extremely vapourisable, which company F has experienced. Company F has extremely overlarge holdings of cash and cash equivalents, which may act their efforts to insure the company against any coming(prenominal) difficulties.\r\nCompany E has a higher percentage of A/P, which may reflect a higher degree of provider financing.\r\nCompany F has a pass up COGS percentage, which reflects both its premium pricing and the swallow cost associated with software production. Company E’s COGS is higher due to its system of making money on intensity rather than from individual product margins.\r\nCompany F has higher gross profit than company E due to its premium pricing. However, Company E’s final profit margin is almost twice as large as company F’s, which reflects their low-cost focus.\r\nCompany E has low cost mail-order strategy, which leads to a lower SG&A percentage compared to company F’s who goes with a to a greater extent unique retail store concept.\r\nCompany F has a higher receivables turnover, which reflects the debauched payments made by consumers in the variation of faith card purchasers.\r\nCompany E’s asset turnover is more than twice as large as company F’s. This might reflect E’s strategy as an assembler of components that have been manufactured by its supplier.\r\nBooks and Music:\r\nCompany G is Amazon.com, the online retailer of books and music plus a kind of other consumer goods. Company H is Barnes & Noble, Inc., the largest bookseller in the United States. The main difference between the two is that one be an established, traditional retai ler and the other universe a relatively new online business.\r\nCompany G has more than half of its assets in cash and cash equivalents, which could be explained by its carefulness in a volatile online retail business.\r\nCompany H has significantly higher proportion of inventory than company G because they have to maintain stocks of books, CDs, and videos at all of its stores, whereas company G can glide by limited inventory at its distribution centers.\r\nCompany G obviously has a significantly lower net fixed asset due to macrocosm an online retailer compared to having multiple stores to sell its production.\r\n much than half of company G’s percentage of total liabilities and equity is costd of long-run debt. This is most likely due to its issues of macrocosm able to raise capital afterwards the dot-com bust environment.\r\nCompany G’s beta is more than three times higher than company H’s, which shows a relatively higher gamble of company G. Compan y G respectable recently started to show po setive net income.\r\nCompany G is able to keep a higher inventory turnover since they don’t have to sit with a lot of inventory on hand at all times compared to company H who has to store its inventory in their store, which lowers their turnover.\r\nCompany H has a regular discount strategy, which could explain their lower net profit margin.\r\nPaper Products:\r\nCompany I is the International Paper Company, a large, vertically integrated paper products manufacturer. Company J is the Wausau paper Paper Corporation, a small, specialty-papers operation. The distinctions between the firms arise primarily from their weighing machine and scope.\r\nCompany J carries more than twice the rate of company I, which may be the case due to its smaller size it requires the firm to carry a higher proportion of inventory in order to satisfy its demanding customers.\r\nCompany I has a material lower percentage of COGS than company J, even though the raw materials are essentially the same. This illustrates the benefits of Company I having its own forests and lumber operations and their ability to do lower volume- tolls.\r\nCompany I’s SG&A expenses are higher than J’s, which probably reflect the higher costs associated with being a large company.\r\nHardware and Tools:\r\nCompany K is blackamoor and Decker Corporation, which manufactures and markets a broad range of business office tools. Company L is Snap-on Inc., also a manufacturer of tools and other hardware, but the company is known for its high quality switch and for its direct sales to professional mechanism and commercial technicians.\r\nCompany L has a higher percentage of receivables compared to K’s. This endpoint occurs because K markets directly to professional end-users and provides financing, which may cause delays in repayment. On the other hand, company L primarily sells its merchandise to large retailers, which may have more reg ular payment schedules.\r\nCompany K sells lower-priced products intended for the consumer market, whereas company L markets higher margin precision tools for the commercial customer. Therefore, Company L’s gross profit percentage is measurable higher than K’s.\r\nCompany L has a higher SG&A expenses, which corresponds to the costs associated with maintaining its large direct sales force.\r\nCompany L’s payout ratio is more than four-and-a-half times greater than K’s, which may purport its need to maintain a high rate of reinvestment to remain competitive.\r\nRetailing:\r\nCompany M is Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is well known for the pretension of its merchandise and its low price strategy. Company N is Target Corporation, which also is a discount retailer, however target appeals to its customers’ more upscale tastes.\r\nCompany N has much higher receivables than M, reflecting N’s satisfying credit activities.\r\nCompany M has higher inventory levels relative to N, which may reflect the company’s commitment to providing a vast selection of goods.\r\nCompany N has relatively lower COGS percentage, reflecting its fuller price for designer-made products. M offers low prices, which would result in a higher COGS percentage.\r\nCompany M has a higher receivable turnover due to its lower use of credit sales.\r\nNewspapers:\r\nCompany O is Lee Enterprises, the owner of a number of small newspapers in the Midwest. Company P is New York quantify Company, and their strategic difference between the two entities is along the centralization/decentralization dimension. Company P has a centralized strategic approach while company O has a decentralized approach.\r\nCompany P, who has a centralized approach, has a significantly higher level of net fixed assets than O.\r\nK bears some of the features of a decentralized operation, since its intangibles comprise almost 77% of total assets, which suggests the world of subs tantial goodwill.\r\nCompany P’s level of COGS is lower than O’s, which suggests that as a bigger centralized company, P may be in a better position to negotiate for volume discounts than O.\r\nAlthough O is decentralized, the case shows that they have meagrely lower SG&A expenses than P. champion example to this could be that high prices may be masking a relatively high SG&A expense.\r\nCompany O’s P/E ratio is higher than P’s, which may indicate the expectations of growth for O. As the dominant player on a larger scale, P may be futile to grow through strategic acquisition.\r\nO’s net profit margin is higher, which may reflect the local monopolies, or at least less trigger-happy competition outside of the major metropolitan newspaper markets.\r\n'