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What is Profit and Loss (P&L) Statement?
A Profit and Loss Statement, also referred to as an “income statement,” is a corporate statement that summarizes the revenues, costs and expenses incurred by a company during a specific time period, such as a quarter or a fiscal year. The main difference between a P&L statement and a balance sheet is that the P&L is designed to show changes in line items over the period analyzed, versus a balance sheet which simply shows a comprehensive snapshot of a company’s asset and liabilities on a set date. Continue reading...
What is an Income Statement?
An income statement is a business’s financial statement that gives the income results from operations and non-operations activity. It is also called a profit and loss statement or a statement of operations. It is one of the major financial statements in the world of corporate accounting. The others are the balance sheet, the statement of cash flows, and the statement of shareholder’s equity. The income statement will included revenues and gains from investments and “secondary operations”, but it will not include cash flows in or out which may stem from other accounting periods. Continue reading...
How Do You Decipher the Profit and Loss Statement? A Comprehensive Guide
Unlock the secrets of a company's financial health! Dive deep into the Profit and Loss Statement, its components, and its pivotal role in business analysis. A must-read for every budding financial enthusiast. Continue reading...
What is a Loss?
A loss refers to reduction in the value of an investment, or in business terms, to having expenses outweigh revenues. In a company’s fiscal year, if their operating and total expenses outweigh their revenues, they are operating at a loss. If those companies are not supported by private capital and operate at a loss for too long, it can easily lead to bankruptcy or closure. Newer businesses often run at a net loss for the first few years, while they rush to build labor and capital infrastructure, with costs such as equipment, buildings, technology, employees, and rights. Continue reading...
What are the Tax Implications for Making a Profit (or Loss) On a Stock?
Gains on stock investments will be taxable in the current year unless they can be offset with losses. Stocks that appreciate in value do not incur any tax liability while they are held, unless they pay dividends. Dividends will generally be taxable as ordinary income. For this article we will focus on capital appreciation instead of dividends. Capital appreciation can be considered long-term gains or short-term gains by the IRS upon the sale of the shares. A stock held for less than a year will incur short-term capital gains taxes, which are taxed at ordinary income rates. Continue reading...
What is Stop-Loss Order?
A stop-loss order is appended to a securities position being held long or short, and stipulates that the security is to be sold or bought if the price moves beyond the stop price, at which point the investor seeks to "cut his losses," or limit his potential exposure to losses. A stop-loss order will name a price below the market price on a long position and above the market price on a short position, at which point a sell order will be triggered for the long position and a buy order will be triggered to cover the short position, with the goal being to limit the potential losses to which an investor is exposed. Continue reading...
How Much Will Medigap Cost?
There are many Medigap policies offered by many different insurers, so this is hard to answer. Plan F is the most robust coverage, currently, and it will be the most expensive, with premiums that can go up to $10,000 a year. There isn’t a concrete answer. Your costs will depend on how old you are, your health, and which of the 12 plans you choose. Medigap policies come in flavors such as Part F, Part K, and Part L. Continue reading...
What is a Bank Statement?
A Bank Statement is a report issued to an account holder on a regular basis, such as monthly, which contains the account balance as of the date of the report and usually a history of transactions for the period. A Bank Statement will usually be mailed, either by the postal service or electronically, to a banking customer every month. The statement will represent a summary of the bank’s records for the recent month on a particular account, and will probably show all transactions posted to the account, along with the ending balance of the account as of the date of the mailing. Continue reading...
What is a Cash Flow Statement?
A statement of cash flows is an accounting report which describes the changes in cash flows, which is distinct from net income. Cash Flow Statements are an important part of corporate accounting. While net income reports include non-cash items such as depreciation, as well as accounts receivable and accounts payable, cash flow statements will isolate the cash transactions in and out of the company. This helps get an idea of whether the company can pay its bills in a timely manner and so forth. Continue reading...
What is a Bank Reconciliation Statement?
It is a useful practice to compare the balance reported by the bank and your internal accounting, in the form of a Bank Reconciliation Statement. Bank Reconciliation is the useful practice of comparing the records of the bank and a business's internal accounting for a specific accounting period. Many businesses produce Bank Reconciliation Statements (BRS) on a monthly basis. There may be pending transactions that have not settled yet, such as outstanding checks to vendors, which have shown up on the business’s books but are not represented in the bank account balance. It can be important to identify which transactions have shown up on the bank’s ledger and which ones have not. Continue reading...
What Does Capital Loss Mean?
Capital Loss refers to a loss realized when a security is sold for less than it was purchased for. In stock trading, if an investor purchases stock ABC for $30 / share, and then sells the stock a few months later for $22 / share, they have realized an $8 / share capital loss. At the end of every year, as per U.S. tax policy, capital losses can be used to offset capital gains, so as to help an investor reduce their tax burden. A common year-end strategic approach is to “harvest” capital losses in an effort to offset any capital gains made from trading that year. Continue reading...
What is a Profit?
In its simplest form, a profit is the revenue or income gained from an entity after all expenses/overhead is accounted for. In business, a company deals with a number of expenses - operating expenses (the cost of doing business), fixed costs (overhead), salaries and benefits, legal fees, and so on. If a company’s revenues exceed all of these costs combined, the company is considered profitable. A profit is also known as a company’s bottom line, net earnings, or net profit. Continue reading...
What is 'Pro Forma'?
Pro Forma is a term used frequently in the context of a company’s financial statement, and refers to the manner in which figures are presented. In Latin the term “Pro Forma” means “as a matter of form,” and in the case of a financial statement refers to how figures are presented either in present form or as projections. For publicly traded corporations, statements prepared with the pro forma method are generally made ready ahead of a planned transaction such as an acquisition, merger, or some change in corporate structure based on new investment or capital changes. Continue reading...
What is an Operating Expense?
Operating expenses are the costs a company incurs as a part of everyday business operations. The goal of most every management team is to figure out how a company can minimize operating expenses while maximizing production and profitability. Operating expenses can involve buying inventory, the cost of running machines, rent, payroll, and so on. What it costs a company to undergo normal business operations and output. It is sometimes referred to as OPEX. Continue reading...
What is the Price to Earnings Ratio (P/E Ratio)?
The Price to Earnings ratio is a company’s stock price relative to its net income per share. A low P/E indicates that a stock is trading at a low premium to earnings, which may indicate that the market thinks low relative growth rates are ahead for the company. A company with a high P/E means investors are willing to pay a premium for growth, perhaps anticipating high future growth rates for the company. The P/E ratio is calculated by dividing the market value per share of a company by its earnings per share. Continue reading...
What are Profitability Ratios?
Profitability ratios are useful analytical tools to evaluate a company’s ability to generate profits relative to all costs and expenses. A company that has high profitability ratios relative to competitors/peers, or a company that has demonstrated to improve their profitability ratios over time, is generally viewed as a healthy and attractive company from an ownership perspective. Some examples of profitability ratios are profit margin, return on assets, and return on equity. Continue reading...
What are Accounting Earnings?
Earnings that are reported in a given year may differ for the same company if different accounting methods were used. Earnings are the revenues of the company minus the cost of good sold, expenses, and investment losses. If that seems like something that’s pretty cut-and-dried, and will look the same no matter who is doing the accounting… well, that’s not entirely correct. Earnings can be made to look different if different non-GAAP or pro-forma methods are used. If non-recurring expenses are ignored or amortized in a pro-forma accounting method, then earnings will not match up to the GAAP-based books. Continue reading...
What is Cash Flow from Investing Activities?
In the Cash Flow Statement, the cash flow in and out of investments, whether in shares of other companies or in capital assets, is recorded. The gains or losses from investment activities, including but not limited to shares of other companies (non-controlling interest) and the gains or losses experienced with subsidiaries, as well as negative cash flow or positive cash flow into or out of capital investment projects such as production infrastructure, are recorded in a portion of the Cash Flow Statement called Investing Activities. Continue reading...
What are the Risks Associated With Stocks?
Stocks are inherently risky, and an investor has risk of capital loss. As with most things in life, no risk yields no return. Theoretically, the greater the risk, the greater the potential return. A new company which has not established itself yet will have a decent chance of crashing and an investor can lose all invested capital. But — what if it takes off? Your potential gains in such a situation are potentially vast. There is a point when the rate of increased return per degree of risk begins to slow down. Continue reading...
What is an Operating Profit?
Operating profit is a company’s profit from its business operations, and can be calculated by taking gross profits minus operating expenses. Operating profit is synonymous to operating income, and represents a company’s profitability from its core operations, which excludes earnings from other investments or interests and also does not factor the impact of taxes or interest. Continue reading...