November 20, 2019

Reading Financial Statements

Reading financial statement guides many investors in their decisions to buy and sell stocks. Investors who focus on financial fundamentals look at recent financial statements in the context of other trends to estimate how much a company’s future profit might grow. High-dividend yield investors need to understand the company’s financial statements to evaluate the sustainability of current dividend payments into the future.

Before investing in the stock of individual companies, it is good to understand the basics of their financial statements. In this post, I’ll identify the important values in the income statement and balance sheet and discuss important ratios that investors use to evaluate financial performance. This post provides the basics of how stocks work. In future posts, I’ll illustrate how these values can be used to evaluate companies and their stock prices under different investment strategies.

McCormick

Every company’s financial statements will be slightly different because every business is different. For illustration, I will use excerpts from the financial statements in the McCormick 2018 Annual Report. McCormick sells spices under its own name, but also owns the French’s mustard, Club House crackers and Lawry’s seasonings brands, among others. To be clear, my selection of McCormick for illustration is not intended to be a recommendation.

In this post, I’ll explain the key line items in McCormick’s financial statements. If you are interested in other line items, you can either ask me in the comments or by e-mail or do some research on your own.

Income Statement

An income statement presents a summary of the financial aspects of a company’s operations and other financial transactions that occur during the financial reporting period. Publicly traded companies are required to provide their income statements to financial regulators (e.g., the Security & Exchange Commission in the US) quarterly and annually in reports known as the 10-Q and 10-K, respectively.

Here is a picture of the income statement from the McCormick 2018 Annual Report.[1] All of the numbers in the excerpts from McCormick’s financial statements are in millions.

Revenue is the money that a company receives for the goods and services it delivered during the year. As you can see in its income statement McCormick had $5.4 billion in total revenues (net sales) in 2018.

Expenses

Expenses represents all the money that a company spends in the year, with one exception.

Depreciation

When the company purchases something that is expected to last for a long time, it is called a capital asset. Companies don’t include the full cost of capital assets in expenses in the year in which they buy them. Rather, they spread the costs of capital assets over several years. The amount spread to each year is called depreciation. The depreciation of capital assets is included on the Income Statement, not the actual cash expense.

Operating Expenses or Cost of Goods Sold

Operating expenses, sometimes called Cost of Goods Sold for sellers of products, are those that are directly related to the manufacture of products or provision of services sold in the year. For McCormick, these expenses were $3.0 billion in 2018.

General and Administrative (G&A) Expenses

G&A expenses, sometimes called overhead expenses, represent the cost to run the company and are not directly related to specific products or services. Some companies include research and development (R&D) expenses with G&A expenses while others show them separately. For McCormick, these expenses were about $1.4 billion, an amount I had to find in its Notes to Financial Statements.

Other Income/Expenses

There are many types of income and expenses that don’t relate to products and services and aren’t G&A expenses. These items are usually small relative to the other line items on the income statement. For McCormick, there are three line items that fall in the Other Income/Expenses category

Transaction and integration expenses of $22 million
Special charges of $16 million
Other income, net of $13 million

These amounts combine to a net total of $25 million (=$22 million + $16 million – $13 million) in 2018. Compared to the other revenue and expense items, all of which are measured in billions of dollars, these amounts are small, as expected.

Interest Expenses

Interest expense represents interest that the company pays on its debt. McCormick’s had $175 million of interest expense in 2018.

Income Taxes

These expenses represent income taxes that the company pays to any federal, state or local governments. McCormick had a tax benefit of $157 million in 2018. By looking at the Notes to Financial Statements included in the Annual Report, I found that McCormick owed $183 million in taxes related to 2018 operations, but the reduction in the US Federal tax rate on corporations in early 2018 caused an adjustment to McCormick’s tax liabilities. The decrease in tax rate created a benefit of $340 million. The $157 million tax benefit on the income statement is equal to the $183 million for current operations offset by the $340 million reduction in future taxes. When looking at McCormick’s profits going forward, the $183 million of taxes for current operations is the more important number because the $340 million is a one-time adjustment.

Accrual Basis vs. Cash Basis

One of the hardest things for most people to understand about income statements is the difference between the values on the income statement and the cash the company receives and pays. The income statement is said to be on an “accrual” basis. Accrual amounts relate to goods and services delivered during the year, regardless of when the cash is actually received or paid.

To clarify, revenues on the income statement represent the amount of cash the company has or will receive for goods or services delivered in the year. If the company hasn’t received some of its compensation for goods or services by the end of the year, it creates an asset on its balance sheet for accounts receivable. If it receives the cash before it delivers the goods or services, it creates a liability for goods or services due to customers.

Similarly, the expenses on the income statement relate to the products or services delivered in the year. If a company has to pay for components of its products, for example, before it delivers them, it will create an asset on its balance sheet for inventory. If it hasn’t paid all of the bills related to products delivered in the year, it creates a liability on the balance sheet for accounts payable.

As you can see, many balance sheet items (discussed further below) are really differences between amounts accrued on the income statement and actual cash received or paid.

Measures of Profit

Companies have several measures of profit. They can be measured as either dollar amounts or percentages or revenues. In this post, I’ll put “%” after the type of profit when I’m referring to the profit as a percentage of revenue.

Gross Margin

The gross margin is calculated as revenues minus operating expenses. This line is labeled as “Gross profit” in the McCormick income statement. In 2018, McCormick’s gross margin was $2.4 billion and corresponds to 44% of revenues. It represents the amount of profit the company would have had if its only expenses were those directly related to products and services.

Operating Income

Operating income is calculated as the gross margin minus G&A expenses and some components of other income and expenses. For 2018, McCormick’s operating income was $903 million or 17% of revenues. It represents the amount of profit the company would have had if it didn’t have any interest expense or taxes. It is sometimes called EBIT or earnings before interest and taxes.

Pre-tax Income

Pre-tax income is calculated as operating income minus interest expense and some components of other income and expenses. For 2018, McCormick had $741 million of pre-tax income (also known as EBIT or earnings before income taxes) or 14% of revenues.

Net Income

Net income is the bottom-line profit after taxes. It is calculated as pre-tax income minus income taxes. For 2018, McCormick had net income of $899 million. Recall, though, that McCormick had a one-time benefit from the change in tax rate of $340 million, so its net income would have been $559 million on a “normalized” basis or 10% of revenues. This adjusted net income is a better value for estimating future profits, as McCormick won’t get the benefit of a tax rate change every year.

Other Comprehensive Income

There are some values that impact the net worth of a company that don’t appear in the calculation of net income, but rather appears either at the bottom of the Income Statement or on a separate schedule in the financials. These items are referred to as Other Comprehensive Income. They can include the impact of changes in foreign exchange rates, certain transactions or changes in valuation related to investments and changes in the value of pension plans. As with other income, Other Comprehensive Income is usually small relative to other values on the income statement. If it isn’t, you’ll want to read the Notes to Financial Statements to understand the sources of Other Comprehensive Income and how it might affect profitability and growth in the future.

Balance Sheet

A balance sheet shows everything that a company owns or is owed (assets) and owes (liabilities) on a particular date. As I mentioned earlier that many balance sheet items represent the differences between what the company has accrued on its income statement and what it has actually paid or received in cash. The balance sheet also shows the difference between assets and liabilities, which corresponds to its net worth or shareholders’ equity.

Here is a picture of McCormick’s 11/30/18 balance sheet taken from its Annual Report.[2]

Assets

Assets represent the value of things the company owns and amounts it is owed. Current assets are assets that a company can sell and turn into cash within a year. They are usually reported separately on a balance sheet.

McCormick had $10 billion in total assets on November 30, 2018. As you can see, inventory was its largest current asset at $786 million. Inventory represents the amount already spent on products that are ready to be sold or are in the process of being manufactured.

McCormick’s largest assets overall are its $4.5 billion of goodwill and $2.9 billion of intangible assets. These assets appear on some companies’ financial statements but not others. As you look at the net worth of a company, you’ll want to understand these assets.

Goodwill is created when one company buys another for a price that is higher than the net worth of the acquired company. That difference between the price and the net worth is intended to represent the present value of future profits on the acquired business. Goodwill is generally reduced as the profits emerge. In 2017, McCormick’s bought RB Foods which includes the French’s mustard, Frank’s RedHot and Cattlemen’s brands. More than three-quarters of McCormick’s goodwill was created when it bought RB Foods.

In McCormick’s case, the intangible assets represent the value of its brand names and trademarks. Although not exactly correct, the amount can be thought of as the present value of the future profits McCormick thinks it will get as the result of owning the brand names and trademarks.

Liabilities

Liabilities represent money or the value of products or services a company owes to others. McCormick had $7.1 billion in liabilities on November 30, 2018. The largest of these liabilities was Long Term Debt of $4.1 billion. McCormick issued roughly $3.4 billion in debt to finance its acquisition of RB Foods in 2017.

Equity

Shareholders’ equity represents the difference between assets and liabilities. It represents what is known as the “book value” of the company. On November 30, 2018, Boeing’s shareholders’ equity was $3.2 billion.

Key Financial Ratios

When deciding whether to buy or sell stock in a company, there are a number of ratios that many investors consider. I’ve highlighted a few important ones in this section, using the McCormick financial statement excerpts from above for illustration. I note that I have used simplified versions of the financial statements and the calculations, so you will likely see published values for McCormick that differ a bit from those calculated here.

ROE or Return on Equity

Return on equity (ROE) can be approximated as Net Income for the year divided by Shareholders’ Equity at the beginning of the year. For McCormick, it is approximated for 2018 as the $899 million of net income divided by the $2,571 million of shareholders’ equity at the end of its 2017 fiscal year or 35%. That ROE is very high. Recall, though, that McCormick had a one-time tax benefit of $340 million in 2018. If we exclude that benefit as it won’t be repeated in the future, we get an adjusted ROE of 22%.

According to CSI Market[3], the average ROE for the total market for 2018 was around 13%. ValueLine, a source for lots of qualitative and quantitative information about companies, reports that the average ROE for companies in the food processing industry (in which McCormick falls) is about 15%.[4] As such, even McCormick’s adjusted ROE is higher than these averages.

P/E Ratio or Price/Earnings Ratio

The Price/Earnings or P/E ratio is the stock price divided by the earnings per share. McCormick had roughly 130 million shares of stock outstanding in 2018. As such, its earnings per share was about $7 (=$899 million/130 million shares). McCormick’s stock price on November 30, 2018 (the date of the financial statements) was $150, which corresponds to a P/E ratio of about 22.

According to ValueLine, the average P/E of companies in the food processing industry on October 31, 2019 was 23. By comparison, the average P/E for the market has been between 16 and 18 for the past year or so. As such, McCormick’s P/E is in line with its peers. If we adjust McCormick’s earnings to exclude the one-time tax benefit, its earnings per share would have been about $4.25 per share. When we divided the $150 stock price by this smaller number, the adjusted P/E is about 35 or much higher than its peers.

P/B Ratio or Price/Book Ratio

The Price/Book or P/B ratio is the stock price divided by shareholders’ equity (book value) per share. McCormick’s equity as of November 30, 2018 was $3,182 million. When divided by the number of outstanding shares, the book value per share was $24. The stock price divided by the book value is about 0.90. ValueLine indicates that the average P/B ratio on October 31, 2019 for the food processing industry was about 3.3 or much higher than McCormicks’ P/B ratio.

P/B Ratio > 1

When the P/B ratio is greater than 1, the difference between the stock price and the book value per share is the present value of future earnings estimated by investors. The higher the P/B ratio, the higher the value investors place on future earnings.

P/B < 1

When the P/B ratio is less than 1, it means that investors either think that the future earnings are going to negative (which doesn’t appear to be the case for McCormick) or they don’t think shareholders’ equity is fairly valued. In the case of McCormick, it could be that investors think that the goodwill and intangible assets might be overvalued or they might be concerned that the future reductions to income as the goodwill and intangible assets are reduced will have a significant adverse impact on earnings. If either of those is the case, investors may be adjusting the company’s book value (equity) in their analyses for their perceived overstatement of goodwill and intangible assets.

Within the group of investors who look at financial fundamentals for decision-making, there is a subset called “value investors.” Value investors look for companies whose stock price doesn’t full reflect the value of the company which is often determined by P/B ratios of less than 1.00. A value investor who was confident that McCormick could maintain its current profitability and that the company had fairly estimated its goodwill and intangible assets might find McCormick to be an attractive stock.

Debt-to-Equity Ratio

Both debt and equity are ways in which a company can get money to finance their operations – either when it issues bonds or new shares of stock. The sum of the two is sometimes called total capital.

The Debt-to-Equity ratio is the amount of long-term debt divided by shareholders’ equity and is a measure of the mix the company has chosen to use for financing its operations, growth or acquisitions. McCormick has a total of $4.1 billion of debt ($4.05 billion recorded as long-term debt plus $84 million reported as the portion of long-term debt on its balance sheet). The debt-to-equity ratio is 1.30 (=4.1/3.2).

The higher the debt-to-equity ratio, the more leveraged a company is said to be. To clarify, when there is a lot of leverage, its ROE will be much higher than if some or all of the debt were equity instead. For example, McCormick’s ROE for 2018 was 35%. If all of its debt had been equity instead, its ROE would have been 13% (=$899 million/[$3.2 billion + $4.1 billion]). The opposite it true when a company has a negative ROE. If McCormick’s ROE in 2018 had been -10% based on its current leverage, it would have been only -4% if it had only equity capital instead of its current mix of debt and equity.

Tangible Equity/Total Equity

I wasn’t planning to talk about tangible equity in this post, but my choice of McCormick almost forces me to. If you recall, I pointed out earlier in this post that McCormick’s two biggest assets are Goodwill and Intangible Assets. If a company encounters financial difficulties, it sometimes has to reduce or write-off the value of any goodwill or intangible assets. When these assets are reduced, its total equity will be reduced by the same amount, after adjustment for income taxes. In addition, goodwill and intangible assets are reduced as the future profits are expected to be earned. As such, goodwill and other intangible assets cause future net income to be lower than it would otherwise be, even if there are no write-offs.

Tangible equity is equal to total equity minus goodwill minus intangible assets. Because these assets can’t be quickly turned into cash and can have their value reduced, many investors look at ratio of tangible equity to total equity. The total of McCormick’s goodwill and intangible assets was $7.4 billion. This amount is more than twice its shareholders’ equity. What this means is that McCormick’s book value would become negative if it were required to write-down more than half of its goodwill and intangible assets. As long as everything goes as expected, though, McCormick will be just fine. As such, this ratio is a measure of the riskiness of the stock price.

Earnings Growth Rate

Another important metric that investors consider is the earnings growth rate. When considering when to buy a stock, investors try to estimate future earnings growth rates. In the estimation process, they often consider historical growth rates. The historical earnings growth rate is the ratio of this year’s net income to last year’s net income minus 1.00.

For McCormick, after adjustment for the one-time tax benefit, the earnings growth rate from 2017 to 2018 was 25% (=$559 million / $444 million – 1). From 2016 to 2017, it was a much more modest 2%.

Stock prices tend to reflect estimated future earnings as well as estimated future earnings growth rates. There are many investment analysts who estimate the future earnings growth rates for publicly-traded companies. Yahoo Finance and most large brokerage firms’ web sites include information about analysts’ estimates of future earnings growth rates. Also, some investors look at recent growth rates and trends in the markets in which companies operate to estimate the future earnings growth rates.

Investing Decisions

These ratios, along with others, are often used by investors to evaluate the financial condition of the company and the reasonableness of its stock price. For example, one rule of thumb is that stocks are fairly priced when the P/E ratio is less than the expected future earnings growth rate. I’ll take about this rule of thumb and other decision criteria in future posts in my series on investing in stocks.