7.10 Industry Data Benchmarks
The analyst will want to compare his data and ratios to other companies’. There are numerous sources for such industry data. Here are some useful ones.
Bloomberg
The Risk Management Association or RMA (once known as Robert Morris Associates). RMA has a database of financial ratios for over 150,000 companies. Data are organized by SIC (industry) codes. Go to www.rmahq.org.
Dun and Bradstreet or “D&B.” This consists of over 1 million firms.
ValueLine Investment Service They cover just about 1,700 firms, but also provide investment ratings for their listings.
The Department of Commerce
Standard and Poor’s or “S&P.”
Moody’s
Yahoo Finance
MSN
Money Central
Note:
We know that ratios do not provide answers. Similarly, no single ratio alone can provide an integrative view of the firm. Analysis requires a cross-sectional approach.
Cross-sectional analysis will require combining ratios often across different industry categories in order to get a clearer picture of the goings-on of the firm.
Analysis also requires a longitudinal examination. How does the company fare in comparison with past performance?