How to Find Industry Financial Ratios
Organizations use financial ratios to analyze and compare relations between their current and previous data or competitors' data. Industry financial ratios are particularly important as they allow business owners to compare their performance to an industry average or other companies. This provides valuable insights into your company's performance, financial situation, stock price, profitability and other aspects.
Whether you run a small business or a large organization, you can check financial ratios to assess your performance. Furthermore, you can use this data to improve the critical aspects of your business and increase its revenue. Several business databases and websites provide financial ratios across various markets and industries. Some are free, while others require a monthly or annual subscription.
Factiva is a global database of global news and licensed content from nearly 33,000 sources. Users have access to the latest business trends, presentation-ready charts and industry insights.
After you sign up for an account on Factiva, you can easily access industry financial ratios. Access the Companies & Markets tab to research a competitor or another company, select Reports and then click Ratio Comparison Report. Another option is to check the industry snapshots and select Industry Averages and Ratios.
Standard and Poor's NetAdvantage is one of the largest business databases in the world. It provides access to industry resources by Standard & Poors, including stock reports, financial information, survey and bond reports. This service is available to those who are subscribed to third-party databases, such as the University of Connecticut and Proctor Library.
Access NetAdvantage on the desired platform and then search for a company or choose an industry from the Markets menu. Click Financial Operating Metrics or Key Stats & Ratios to retrieve the information you need. If you're researching a specific company, enter its name and choose Key Stats or Ratios from the menu.
Mergent, Inc. is a leading provider of business and financial data. The company has been around for over a century. Business owners can use this service to access research data, corporate actions, analytics, key financial ratios and more.
To find industry financial ratios, sign up for Mergent Online or Mergent Intellect. Mergent Online provides this information under the Company Financials tab. If you're using Mergent Intellect, select Company Benchmark trends from the Financial Information tab. Next, access the Financial Ratios section and then click First Research industry reports.
The Risk Management Association (RMA) provides comparative industry data that comes directly from the financial reports of business clients of its member institutions. You can either use the company's website or purchase its annual report to find industry financial ratios.
The 2017-18 Annual Statement Studies: Financial Ratio Benchmarks, for instance, offers data from over 260,000 financial reports and covers 780 industries. Banks and private lenders use this data to evaluate credit applications and assess customers' creditworthiness.
Multinational corporations and other large enterprises rely on Dun & Bradstreet for quality data. The company has been in business for over 175 years. Its database includes more than 285 million companies worldwide. Users can access Key Business Ratios on the Web, a service that provides 14 essential business ratios for over 800 types of companies across all industries.
As one of the world's largest business databases, Reuters features key market data as well as company data, pricing data and company data. If you're interested in finding industry financial ratios, access the Financial section on the company’s website. From here, you can either create a user account to get the information you need or click Request Details to contact an agent.
Bizstats is one of the few business databases that display accurate financial ratios for free. You can access the company's website, click Search for industry financial benchmark reports, choose Sole Proprietorships or Corporations and then select the industry you're interested in.
Another way to find financial ratios is to contact the local Chamber of Commerce or your industry's trade association. However, if you're researching industry data and trends outside your city or state, it's worth using a premium service.
Business owners can also use Bloomberg, Bizminer, OneSource, the Yahoo Industry Center and other financial ratio databases. Choosing one depends on your company's needs and goals.