What Is the Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio?
The ratio is typically calculated on an annual basis, though any time period can be selected. FAT measures a company’s ability to generate net sales from its fixed-asset investments, namely property, plant, and equipment (PP&E). A higher fixed asset turnover ratio indicates that a company has effectively used investments in fixed assets to generate sales. This ratio compares net sales displayed on the income statement to fixed assets on the balance sheet.
He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Shaun Conrad is a Certified Public Accountant and CPA exam expert with a passion for teaching. After almost a decade of experience in public accounting, he created MyAccountingCourse.com to help people learn accounting & finance, pass the CPA exam, and start their career. Keep in mind that a high or low ratio doesn’t always have a direct correlation with performance.
What is the difference between the fixed asset turnover and asset turnover ratio?
For example, a cyclical company can have a low fixed asset turnover during its quiet season but a high one in its peak season. Hence, the best way to assess this metric is to compare it to the industry mean. A higher turnover ratio indicates greater efficiency in managing fixed-asset investments.
How Can a Company Improve Its Asset Turnover Ratio?
However, the company then has fewer resources to generate sales in the future. The asset turnover ratio calculation can be modified to omit these uncommon revenue occurrences. Also, a high fixed asset turnover does not necessarily mean that a company is profitable.
What is Fixed Asset Turnover Used For?
Total sales or revenue is found on the company’s income statement and is the numerator. The asset turnover ratio is calculated by dividing the net sales of a company by the average balance of the total assets belonging to the company. The asset turnover ratio measures the value of a company’s sales or revenues relative to the value of its assets. The asset turnover ratio indicates the efficiency with which a company is using its assets to generate revenue. The asset turnover ratio can also be analyzed by tracking the ratio for a single company over time.
For some, it’s heavy on fixed assets like PP&E, while others depend mostly on current assets like cash, receivables, or inventory. Asset turnover ratios vary across different industry sectors, so only the ratios of companies that are in the same sector should be compared. For example, retail or service sector companies have relatively small asset bases combined with high sales volume. Meanwhile, firms in sectors like utilities or manufacturing tend to have large asset bases, which translates to lower asset turnover. The fixed asset turnover ratio is useful fixed assets turnover ratio formula in determining whether a company uses its fixed assets to drive net sales efficiently.
- FAT only looks at net sales and fixed assets; company-wide expenses are not factored into the equation.
- An asset turnover ratio equal to one means the net sales of a company for a specific period are equal to the average assets for that period.
- One critical consideration when evaluating the ratio is how capital-intensive the industry that the company operates in is (i.e., asset-heavy or asset-lite).
- Hence, we use the average total assets across the measured net sales period in order to align the timing between both metrics.
- While it indicates efficient use of fixed assets to generate sales, it says nothing about the company’s ability to generate solid profits or maintain healthy cash flows.
Does high fixed asset turnover means the company is profitable?
A low fixed asset turnover ratio shows that a company isn’t very efficient at using its assets to generate revenue. Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio is a great way to benchmark one company against another or against an industry average. In fact, what’s considered a “good” or “bad” ratio is very dependent on the industry.
The asset turnover ratio is used to evaluate how efficiently a company is using its assets to drive sales. It can be used to compare how a company is performing compared to its competitors, the rest of the industry, or its past performance. The fixed asset turnover ratio is intended to isolate the efficiency at which a company uses its fixed asset base to generate sales (i.e. capital expenditure). Companies with higher fixed asset turnover ratios earn more money for every dollar they’ve invested in fixed assets.
As a quick example, the company’s A/R balance will grow from $20m in Year 0 to $30m by the end of Year 5. Moreover, the company has three types of current assets—cash and cash equivalents, accounts receivable, and inventory—with the following carrying values recorded on the balance sheet. The Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio (FAT) is found by dividing net sales by the average balance of fixed assets. When it comes to improving or predicting a company’s performance, the leadership team has a lot of unique insight. They have access to all sorts of financial reports and data not shared with the outside world.
This exclusion is intentional to focus on fixed assets, but it means that the ratio does not provide a complete picture of all the resources a company uses to generate revenue. By outsourcing, a company might reduce its reliance on fixed assets, thereby improving its FAT ratio. However, this does not necessarily mean the company is performing well overall. Outsourcing could mask underlying issues such as unstable cash flows or weak business fundamentals. Fixed Asset Turnover is a crucial metric for understanding how well a company uses its fixed assets to drive revenue. It provides valuable insights for investors, analysts, and management, helping to gauge operational efficiency and inform strategic decisions.
