Industry Ratios and Benchmarks

Financial ratios show relationships between various items appearing on balance sheets, income statements, etc. Industry ratios use financial analysis to evaluate and compare an individual company's performance with companies in the same industry (NAICS) and the same asset size if possible. Industry ratios often include revenues, operating costs, operating income, balance sheet, and financial ratios.

The following reference books have financial benchmarks for hundreds of industries:

Dun & Bradstreet Industry Norms and Key Business Ratios
Ask at Reference Desk
Ref HG 4007 D83
Arranged by SIC, this source offers statistics on over 800 lines of business. Industry Norms contain typical balance sheets and income statements, and common-size financial figures, as well as key business ratios - providing 14 indicators or performance.
Read the Introduction for a complete description and definition of terms.

RMA Annual Statement Studies (Risk Management Association)
Ask at Reference Desk
Ref HG 4028 B2 R6
The Statement Studies is organized by SIC. It contains composite financial data. Financial statements on each industry are shown in common size, and are accompanied by widely used ratios.
Read the Introduction for a complete description and definition of terms.

Almanac of Business/Industrial and Financial Ratios
Ask at Reference Desk
Ref HF 5681 R25 A44
Features NAICS data covering North America - U.S., Canada, & Mexico.
Provides 50 performance indicators on 192 industries. The data is based on actual IRS tax returns from 5 million U.S. and international corporations.

Standard & Poor's Analysts Handbook
Ref HG 4519 S772
A wonderful resource that contains a unique set of analytical tools: Selected account and balance sheet items and related ratios as applied to the Standard & Poor's industry group stock price indexes from 1967 to date. These data are kept up to date quarterly (through the monthly supplement).
With these series, it is possible to compare the major factors bearing on group price actions - sales, profit margins, earnings, dividends, book value, capital expenditures, etc. - as well as those price actions themselves. It is also possible to compare the progress of given corporations with a composite of their industry groups, both related to their stock market action.

Databases

Factiva
A joint venture between Dow Jones & Reuters, Factiva provides an unmatched collection of world-class global content powered by content management and integration services.
Tip: Select Companies/Markets tab. Next, enter company ticker. Once the report loads scroll down to Comparison Report - Comparative financial performances between this company and the primary Factiva industry group to which it belongs.

Mergent Online
An Internet-accessible subscription service covering 10,000 public companies and their SEC filings.

Basic Search | Advanced Search | Executive Search | EDGAR Search* | Industry Reports

International Company Data
More companies from more countries than any other international database, with global searching across databases

U.S. Annual Reports
Easy-to-access current and historical annual reports on 10,000 U.S. public companies, all in PDF image format that provides faster download and allows viewing the document

International Annual Reports
Hard-to-get, timely annual reports on all companies in our International Company Data database, available in PDF image formats

*What is EDGAR? Visit: http://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml

Related Research Guides