Business Financial Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Business Financial Analysis - Research Paper Example There are currently 1,396 IHOP restaurants in competition with restaurants like Denny's offering children menus and discounts for senior citizens serving low to moderate prices. Dine Equity Mission and core value is to become the number one franchiser in the restaurant industry while providing and exceptional customer service by committing to reducing overheads and optimizing on Applebee's and IHOP business. According to their last annual report their 1st quarter stock showed the highest closing price for 2008 and the 4th quarter stock showed the lowest closing price of 2008 compared to 2007 fiscal year highest closing price shown in the 3rd quarter and lowest closing price for 2007 shown in the 1st quarter. Also according to their 2008 annual report there are 5,300 registered holders as of February 17, 2009. In analyzing this company's profitability we will look at the company's return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), Gross profit margin, price earning ratio (PE), divided yield and divided payout ratio. The gross profit margin has declined from a high of 0.403636 in 2006 to 0.26885 in 2008, this indicates that the profitability of the company is declining over the years, this shows that in the next period the gross profit margin may decline. From the above table it is evident that the return on assets has been declining over the years, the value is negative for the year 2007 and ... cost of sales 1179811 303891 208465 gross profit 433817 180668 141095 gross profit margin 0.268845731 0.37285 0.403636 The gross profit margin has declined from a high of 0.403636 in 2006 to 0.26885 in 2008, this indicates that the profitability of the company is declining over the years, this shows that in the next period the gross profit margin may decline. b. Return on assets: Return on assets indicates the amount of profit generated for each dollar of assets. It is calculated by dividing net income by total assets: Return on assets = net income / total assets The following table summarizes the results: return on assets 2008 2007 2006 total income -154459 -480 44553 assets 3361217 3831162 768870 return on assets -0.045953296 -0.00013 0.057946 From the above table it is evident that the return on assets has been declining over the years, the value is negative for the year 2007 and 2008 meaning that the firm's profitability has declined and therefore expected to decline in the future. c. Return on equity: The return on equity ratio indicates the rate of return on shareholders equity. It is calculated by dividing net income by the value of share holder's equity. Return on equity= net income / equity The table below summarizes the results: return on equity 2008 2007 2006 total income -154459 -480 44553 equity 42767 209373 289213 return on equity -3.611639816 -0.00229 0.154049 From the above table it is evident that the return on equity has been declining over the years, the value is negative for the year 2007 and 2008 meaning that the returns on shareholders equity has declined and is expected to decline in future. d. Price earning ratio: This is another ratio that indicates the profitability of a company, it is a ratio that indicates the price paid by

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Alternative Dispute Essay

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Alternative Dispute Resolution - Essay Example The same is known as alternative dispute resolution1. According to the available literature on alterative dispute resolution, there are four categories of ADR, which include arbitration, negotiation, mediation and collaborative law. There are experts who tend to cite conciliation as the fifth category. Other than negotiation, all other ADR categories include the person of a outside, unbiased and external person, which acts as the third party to facilitate the process and ensure that the parties reach a settlement. There are thousands of cases of divorces, commercial disputes, family disputes, professional liability cases, insurance issues, personal injury situations and others, where ADR has proven to be more effective than the traditional court processes and the first choice of parties to resolve their disputes2. Nevertheless, there are some pros and cons of ADR. This paper, therefore, is an attempt to explore the various advantages and disadvantages associated with alternative disp ute resolution. Discussion Advantages of ADR First, ADR offers the advantage of being cheap and quick. On the other hand, formal court processes may take years and cost people a fortune. In fact, in many developing countries with huge populations such as India, Pakistan and others, it takes more than 20-30 years for a person to get a date for his or her case hearing. During the 1990s, a woman who was raped filled a petition in the court for justice. However, when her date for hearing arrived, it has been more than 5 years since her death3. Furthermore, many poor and lower class people forget about their issues and claims in various countries considering the legal fees, bribes and other money which they would have to pay for getting justice. ADR, on the other hand, allows people to get quick and inexpensive justice. Many arbitration boards would take less than a few weeks before they could finalize their decisions45. Second, people prefer to keep their internal matters public; howeve r, when they refer to courts for justice, everything becomes public. The bigger the case, the information about both the parties would leak into the public. However, in case of ADR, the same does not happen. Both parties cannot only ensure confidentiality during the investigations and hearings but if they want then the decision and results may also be kept only to people inside the rooms6. Third, despite the fact that the judges and jury have great deal of knowledge about the happenings in the society, nevertheless, they are not the experts of certain fields. Therefore, whenever technical matters are brought up in front of the jury, huge investments in terms of time and money have to be done in order to educate the jury and even then, there is lesser chance that the jury would give a verdict after fully understanding the technical matters7. Fourth, courts have a limited number of options. They are books of law, processes, specific rules and outcomes, which one can predict. In short, there are certain paths and processes, which the jury cannot avoid while making a decision. However, in ADR, the jury has the power to be more creative and give decisions in light of domestic laws, international laws, foreign laws or even religious laws8. Fifth,