What does risk taking have to do with the use of operating and financial leverage?

Short Answer

Expert verified

A company that operates with both high operating and financial leverage can be risky investment. High operating leverage means company sell small quantity with high margin. It may lead to the significant risk when the company wrongly forecast the future sales.

High financial leverage occurs when a company raises debt from the market which may lead to the increase in interest cost of the company and also decrease in the company’s profitability during the year.

Step by step solution

01

Step-by-Step Solution:Step 1: Operating leverage

Operating leverage is computed to measure the percentage or degree at which a company can increase the operating income by increasing the operating revenues. High operating levereag is risky when the margin or percentage is high. It is so because if the company wrongly forecast the future, then there is a large difference between the actual cash flow and the budgeted cash flows.

02

Financial leverage

Financial leverage is computed by an organization to know the use of the debts to buy more assets. If the financial leverage is high, then it is risky because it denotes that the company use more debts to acquire the assets. And, when the company use more debt, the interest expense increases and leads to the less income of the company.

Unlock Step-by-Step Solutions & Ace Your Exams!

  • Full Textbook Solutions

    Get detailed explanations and key concepts

  • Unlimited Al creation

    Al flashcards, explanations, exams and more...

  • Ads-free access

    To over 500 millions flashcards

  • Money-back guarantee

    We refund you if you fail your exam.

Over 30 million students worldwide already upgrade their learning with Vaia!

One App. One Place for Learning.

All the tools & learning materials you need for study success - in one app.

Get started for free

Most popular questions from this chapter

What advantage does the fixed charge coverage ratio offer over simply using times interest earned?

The Lancaster Corporation’s income statement is given below.

a. What is the times-interest-earned ratio?

Lancaster corporation

Sales

\(246,000

Cost of goods sold

122,000

Gross profit

\)124,000

Fixed charges (other than interest)

27,500

Income before interest and taxes

\(96,500

Interest

21,800

Income before taxes

\)74,700

Taxes (35%)

26,145

Income after taxes

$48,555

Using the income statement for Times Mirror and Glass Co., compute the following ratios:

The total assets for this company equal \(80,000. Set up the equation for the Du Pont system of ratio analysis, and compute c, d, and e.

c. Profit margin.

Times mirror and glass company

Sales

\)126,000

Less: Cost of goods sold

93,000

Gross profit

\(33,000

Less: selling and administrative expenses

11,000

Lease Expenses

4,000

Operating profit*

\)18,000

Less: Interest expenses

3,000

Earning before taxes

\(15,000

Less: Taxes (30%)

4,500

Earning after taxes

\)10,500

*equal income before interest and taxes

Using the Du Pont method, evaluate the effects of the following relationships forthe Butters Corporation:

c. What would happen to return on equity if the debt-to-total-assets ratio

decreased to 35 percent?

Botox Facial Care had earnings after taxes of \(370,000 in 20X1 with 200,000 shares of stock outstanding. The stock price was \)31.50. In 20X2, earnings after taxes increased to \(436,000 with the same 200,000 shares outstanding. The stock price was \)42.00

a. Compute earnings per share and the P/E ratio for 20X1. The P/E ratio

equals the stock price divided by earnings per share.

b. Compute earnings per share and the P/E ratio for 20X2.

c. Give a general explanation of why the P/E ratio changed.

See all solutions

Recommended explanations on Business Studies Textbooks

View all explanations

What do you think about this solution?

We value your feedback to improve our textbook solutions.

Study anywhere. Anytime. Across all devices.

Sign-up for free