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Fin201: Introduction To Finance: Group Assignment
Fin201: Introduction To Finance: Group Assignment
Company Overviews 5
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. 5
Steel Dynamics 6
Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. 7
Wheaton Precious Metal Corp. 8
Comparative Analysis 9
Profitability Ratio 9
1. Profit Margin Comparison 9
2. Return on assets (ROA) 10
3. Return on Equity (ROE) 12
Asset Utilization Ratio
These ratios provide us with metrics to judge a firm’s ability to utilize its assets.
14
1. Account Receivables Turnover 14
2. Inventory Turnover 15
3. Fixed Asset Turnover 16
4. Total Asset Turnover 17
5. Average Collection Period 18
Liquidity Ratio
This group of ratios is used to analyze a firm's ability to pay off current debt
obligations. 19
1. Current Ratio 20
2. Quick Ratio 21
Debt Utilization Ratios:
This final group of ratios allow us to measure the financial risk and/or
prudence of a firm’s debt management. 22
1. Debt to Total Assets: 22
2. Times Interest Earned 23
Conclusion 24
i.) Would we invest in these companies? 24
ii.) Would we supply raw materials on credit to these companies? 25
iii.) Would we provide a long-term loan as a banker? 26
References: 27
Abstract
This document is a comparative analysis of 4 basic-material companies which are:
i. Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.
ii. Steel Dynamics
iii. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc.
iv. Wheaton Precious Metal Corp.
We have presented a basic overview of each of these companies along with 12 of
their ratio analysis for both the fiscal year of 2019 and 2018. We have conducted a
secondary research and drawn all of our data from Yahoo Finance. The calculation
of each ratio analysis was carried out using our learnings from our Fin201 course.
The next section delineates the comparative analysis of 4 of these companies for
both the fiscal years of 2019 & 2018, using ratio analysis calculation. We have
attempted to identify the best company based on each ratio for each year and a
final overall best company for each year based on an all-embracing overview of
our ratio analysis.
In the final Section we have analysed and have arbitrated conclusions for the
following questions:
i.) Would we invest in these companies?
ii.) Would we supply raw materials on credit to these companies?
iii.) Would we provide a long-term loan as a banker?
Points to Noted:
● Wheaton Precious Metal Corp’s inventory value was not available in their
balance sheet hence an Inventory Turnover ratio was not calculated for this
specific company
● Credit Sales were not available for any of our assigned companies, hence
we have used total sales as credit sales to calculate Average Collection
Period and Account Receivables Turnover
● Lease Payments were not available for any of our assigned companies
hence Fixed Charge Coverage Figures was excluded from our report.
Company Overviews
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co.
Headquarters: Los Angeles, California, United States
Stock Symbol: NYSE:RS
Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co is the largest metals service center company in
North America. Through a network of more than 300 locations in 39 states and 12
countries outside of the United States, the Company provides value-added metals
processing services and distributes a full line of over 100,000 metal products.
These products include galvanized, hot-rolled and cold-finished steel, stainless
steel, aluminum, brass, copper, titanium and alloy steel sold to more than 125,000
customers in a broad range of industries. Some of these metals service centers
provide processing services for specialty metals only.
2019 2018
Steel Dynamics
Headquarters: Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States
Stock Symbol: NASDAQ: STLD
Steel Dynamics which is a diversified carbon-steel producer and is one of the
largest American steel companies. It was founded in 1993 and has an estimated
annual steelmaking and metals recycling capability, with annual revenues of $8.8
billion in 2014, over 7,700 employees, and manufacturing facilities primarily
located throughout the United States. The Company is engaged in the
manufacture and sale of steel products, processing and sale of recycled ferrous
and nonferrous metals, and fabrication and sale of steel joists and deck products.
Its segments include steel operations, metals recycling operations, steel
fabrication operations and Other Operations. It offers a range of steel products,
such as sheet products, long products and steel finishing.
2019 2018
Headquarters: Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
Stock Symbol: NYSE: MLM
The Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded
in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta
Corporation. The combined company became a leader in chemicals, aerospace,
and electronics. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed
Martin. Martin Marietta, a member of the S&P 500 Index, is an American‐based
company and a leading supplier of building materials, including aggregates,
cement, ready mixed concrete and asphalt. Through a network of operations
spanning 27 states, Canada and The Bahamas, dedicated Martin Marietta teams
supply the resources necessary for building the solid foundations on which our
communities thrive. Martin Marietta’s Magnesia Specialties business provides a
full range of magnesium oxide, magnesium hydroxide and dolomitic lime
products
2019 2018
Wheaton Precious Metal Corp.
Headquarters: Vancouver, Canada
Stock Symbol: NYSE: WPM
Wheaton is the world’s premier precious metals streaming company with the
highest-quality portfolio of long-life, low-cost assets. Its business model offers
investors leverage to commodity prices and exploration upside but with a much
lower risk profile than a traditional mining company. Wheaton delivers amongst
the highest cash operating margins in the mining industry, allowing it to pay a
competitive dividend and continue to grow through accretive acquisitions. As a
result, Wheaton has consistently outperformed gold and silver, as well as other
mining investments. Wheaton creates sustainable value through streaming.
2019 2018
Comparative Analysis
Profitability Ratio
Allows us to measure effectively the degree to which a firm can generate return on
sales, total assets and total equity
1. Profit Margin Comparison
Net profit margin is the most common indicator of a firm’s performance. Net
profit margin is a ratio that expresses a company’s profits as a percentage of the
total amount of money it earns from the sale of goods and services.
Wheaton is the winner in the year 2018, which means they have generated the
most amount of Return Per unit sales. They have a significantly higher profit
margin in the year 2018 compared to the other 3 firms. For 2019, Wheaton
Precious wins by yet again. We can notice a significant drop in the profit margin
for Wheaton from 2018 to 2019, this is an indicator of a colossal deterioration of
Wheaton’s cost control measures as a firm which will lead to severe concerns for
its stockholders. Steel Dynamics also realised a decline in its profit margin, albeit
small in comparison, which might raise concerns for their investors, whereas both
Reliance and Martin sees a growth from 2018 to 2019 indicating improved cost
control measures being taken by these two firms.
Company Name Profit Margin 2019 / % Profit Margin 2018 / %
The Return on Equity ratio essentially measures the rate of return that the owners
of common stock of a company receive on their shareholdings. Return on equity
signifies how good the company is in generating returns on the investment it
received from its shareholder. Also referred to as “return on net assets”, return on
equity (ROE) is a measurement of how effectively a business uses equity – or the
money contributed by its stockholders and cumulative retained profits – to
produce income. As this is a comparative measure a good ROE is judged based
on whatever the industry standard is.
In the year 2018, Steel Dynamics has been the most successful company in
generating the highest ROE; almost 3 times the ROE of its closest competitor
Reliance Steel & Aluminum. The industry average ROE for 2018 was 11.5%
according to csimarket.com, hence only Reliance Steel and Steel Dynamics were
able to perform better than the average, while Martin Marietta has been the least
successful in converting its equity capital to net profit with a meagre 2.39% ROE.
Steel Dynamics also has the highest ROE in the year 2019, however this is a sharp
decline in comparison to its 2018 figures. Using the Du pont system of analysis
this can be attributed to either a decrease in ROA (which is verified from the
previous table of ROA Data) and/or a decrease in Debt-to-Total Assets ratio ~
which counterintuitively can be seen in a positive light as it indicates a less
volatile ROE.
Wheaton also saw a rapid decline in its ROE in the year 2019, which is aligned with
our previous findings of its decreased ROA in 2019 as well. Reliance Steel saw a
negligible decline in ROE. Only Martin Marietta was able to see an improvement
in its ROE from 2018 to 2019 which can be attributed to its increased ROA using
the Du pont analysis. The industry average ROE for 2019 was roughly about 9%,
hence its safe to assume Martin Marietta and Wheaton had performed poorly in
comparison to all its competitors.
Company Name Return on Equity 2019 / Return on Equity 2018 /
% %
1. Account Receivables Turnover
This ratio gives the measure of how many times a firm collects its average
account receivables over a period of time. A high receivable turnover ratio
indicates a company’s efficiency in collecting its receivable payments.
We can notice from the Table that Wheaton Precious’ Receivables Turnover is
exponentially higher than its competitors and even the industry average, it will be
safe to consider Wheaton’s case an outlier, which is due to its meagre account
receivables stated in its balance sheet to be only around thousands of dollars and
also because this report considers total sales to equal credit sales.
Continuing our comparative analysis excluding the outlier, we can see that Steel
Dynamics has the highest Receivables Turnover for both the fiscal years this
quantitatively verifies its collection process to be better than its competitors. All 3
companies (excluding Wheaton) experienced a slight growth in their account
receivables ratio indicating improvement in these firms’ collection process of its
receivables.
Company Name Receivables Turnover Receivables Turnover
2019 / Times 2018 / Times
This ratio tells us how many times a company sells and replaces its inventory over
a given period. A high inventory can indicate either a high sales or insufficient
average inventory.
For both the Fiscal years, all 3 firms have relatively similar Inventory Turnover
Ratios, with Martin Marietta winning by a narrow margin in both the years.
Both Martin Marietta and Reliance Steel experienced a small growth which
represents an improvement in these firm’s sales, which is also verified by the
profitability ratios from 2018 to 2019.
Only Steel Dynamics realized a small decline in its Inventory Turnover, this can
potentially be attributed to declining inventory management, however this
shouldn’t raise any significant concerns among its investors.
Company Name Inventory Turnover 2019 / Inventory Turnover 2018 /
Times Times
This ratio gives us a measure of how effectively a firm generates profit by utilizing
its Fixed Assets. A higher ratio indicates efficient use of fixed assets. It is calculated
by dividing net sales by the net of its property, plant, and equipment, i.e Total
Fixed Assets.
Martin Marietta has the highest Fixed Asset Turnover for the fiscal Year of 2018,
which implies that this firm most efficiently used its fixed assets to generate sales.
Wheaton Precious had a very low Turnover indicating inefficient utilization of its
Fixed Assets at meager 0.12 times.
For the fiscal year of 2019, Steel Dynamics had the highest turnover, almost five
times of its closest competitor Martin Marietta, this is also a sharp rise from 2018
as Steel dynamics increased its turnover by almost 9 folds. This is a solid
indication of a colossal improvement that took place in the firm’s ability to utilize
its Fixed Assets to generate revenue.
Both Martin Marietta and Wheaton Precious also had a slight growth in its Fixed
Asset Turnover, whereas Reliance Steel realized a decline indicating diminished
utilization of its Fixed Assets.
Company Name Fixed Asset Turnover Fixed Asset Turnover
2019 / Times 2018 / Times
This ratio gives us a measure of how effectively a firm generates profit by utilizing
all of its Assets. It is the ratio of total sales or revenue to average assets. A high
Asset turnover can indicate efficient utilization of assets or potentially sales of
assets.
Martin Marietta had the highest Total Asset Turnover in both the fiscal years by a
respectable margin. They even saw a small growth in their Turnover ratio which
indicates a relatively strong and improving utilization of its Total Assets to
generate revenue.
Both Reliance Steel and Steel Dynamics realised a small dip in their Total Asset
Turnover ratio that could be attributed to decreased efficiency and/or potential
purchase of newer assets.
Wheaton Precious consistently performs poorly when it comes to utilizing its
Assets to generate sales for the company.
Company Name Total Asset Turnover 2019 Total Asset Turnover 2018
/ Times / Times
This metric tells us an average estimate of the number of days it takes a firm to
collect its accounts receivables. A lower number of days indicates a more efficient
collection process.
Wheaton Precious Corp can be considered an outlier and hence excluded from
our analysis due to reasons delineated in Accounts receivables section.
Martin Marietta has the lowest average collection period across both the fiscal
years, this indicates that the firm has the best collection process in comparison to
the other 2 firms. However the firm does notice a negligible increase in the
average collection period from 2018 to 2019.
Both Reliance Steel and Steel Dynamics see a dip in their average collection
period, which indicates that these firms have improved their upon their collection
process over the previous fiscal year.
Company Name Avg Collection Period Avg Collection Period
2019 / Days 2018 / Days
Reliance Steel & 36.25 39.27
Aluminium Co.
Liquidity Ratio
This group of ratios is used to analyze a firm's ability to pay off current debt
obligations.
1. Current Ratio
This ratio helps us determine a firm’s ability to pay its current liabilities which are
due within one year. A higher ratio of is a good indicator for potential creditors as
it indicates a firm’s strength to pay off short-term debts.
Reliance Steel has the highest current Ratio with Steel Dynamics coming in at
second in both the fiscal years of 2018 and 2019. This indicates Reliance Steel has
the strongest ability to its pay of its current debt and other payables. We notice a
slight decrease in Reliances’ current ratio which may indicate an decrease in the
firm’s current assets and/or an increase in the firm's short-term debts.
Martin Marietta has had a significantly lower current ratio among the 4 firms,
indicating a relatively higher risk of defaulting on its short-term obligations.
Steel Dynamics notices a significant growth from 2018 to 2019, this may indicate
an increase in firm’s current assets and/or a decrease in the firm’s short-term
debts.
Company Name Current Ratio 2019/ Current Ratio 2018/
Times Times
Similar to the current ratio, this gives us the measure of the firm’s ability to meet
its short-term debts with its most liquid assets. A quick ratio represents better
liquidity of a firm.
Wheaton Precious has the highest Quick Ratio in 2018, indicating that its
relatively higher liquidity to pay off its short-term debts.
Steel Dynamics narrowly beats out Wheaton Precious in the fiscal year of 2019.
Steel Dynamics saw a respectable growth indicating that the firm has taken
measures to improve its liquidity from 2018.
Martin Marietta has had a significantly lower quick ratio among the 4 firms,
indicating a relatively higher risk of defaulting on its short-term obligations.
Company Name Quick Ratio 2019/ Times Quick Ratio 2018/ Times
This ratio indicates the fraction of the assets a firm holds that is financed by its
debt-obligations. A higher ratio poses a greater financial risk.
Wheaton Precious has the lowest Debt to Total Asset Ratio in both the fiscal years
which represents this firm to have the relatively superior prudent debt
management policies, as very few of its Assets is financed by debt.
Martin Marietta sees a sharp rise in its ratio from 2018 to 2019, as this is way higher
than 1, this implies a significant fraction of the company’s assets is being financed
by debt which is risky for the firm, and should raise consequential concerns for its
stockholders.
Company Name Debt to Total Asset Ratio Debt to Total Asset Ratio
2019 / Times 2018 / Times
This ratio gives us the number of times a firm can pay its interest expenses with
its current earning before interest & taxes. A higher ratio assures creditors in the
ability of the firm to pay its interests.
Steel Dynamics has the highest Times Interest Earned value, narrowly beating out
Wheat Precious in the fiscal year of 2018. Steel Dynamics saw a sharp decline in its
value in 2019, this will lower the confidence of creditors in providing
interest-based debt to the firm, whereas the converse is true for Martin Marietta
as they saw a sharp rise in 2019 leading them to be the winner for the fiscal year of
2019.
Company Name Times Interest Earned Times Interest Earned
2019 / Times 2018 / Times
Conclusion
i.) Would we invest in these companies?
When investors decide to invest, they primarily focus their analysis at the
profitability ratio to see whether they get enough return on their investment.
We see that Steel Dynamics has performed significantly better in the fiscal year of
2018 compared to the other companies in 3 in regards to the P rofitability ratios,
and on average has a consistent ROA, ROE and Profit margin in 2019 compared to
the other 3 firms with Reliance Steel coming at a close second (only for the year
2019) which suggests that as an investor I am more likely to get return on income,
assets and invested capital with Steel Dynamics Inc.
I would supply raw materials to Reliance steel since it has a consistently a higher
current ratio compared to the other 3 firms in both the fiscal years.
We also need to look at the inventory turnover ratio
interest & taxes to cover its interest expenses. Martin Marrieta has had a
consistent Times interest earned, and in 2019 their Times interest earned has
increased as well.
Considering both these ratios, to conclude a final winner we would choose Steel
Dynamics as it has both a relatively low debt-to-total asset ratio and a high Times
interest earned value for both the fiscal years. This would provide a lendor
sufficient confidence to provide to Debt to Steel Dynamics.
References:
1. https://csimarket.com/Industry/industry_ManagementEffectiveness
.php?s=100
2. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/WPM/financials?p=WPM
3. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/RS/financials?p=RS
4. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/STLD/financials?p=STLD
5. https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/MLM/financials?p=MLM