1、毕业外文翻译 财务报表分析与运用The analysis and use of financial statementChapter 1 FRAMEWORK FOR FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSISNEED FOR FINANCIAL STATEMENT ANALYSISThe United Sates has the most complex financial reporting system in the word. .Detailed ac-counting principles are augmented by extensive disclosure req
2、uirements .The financial state-ments of large multinationals add up to dozens of pages, and many of these firms voluntarily publish additional “fact books” for dissemination to financial analysis and other interested users.Financial reporting in other major developed countries and many emerging mark
3、ets has also evolved substantially in recent years .with an increasing emphasis on providing information useful to both domestic and foreign creditors and equity investors. International Accounting Standards have become a credible rival to U.S. standards.In an ideal word, the user of financial state
4、ments could focus only on the bottom lines financial reporting: net income and stockholders equity. If financial statements were comparable among companies (regardless of country),consistent over time , and always fully reflecting the economic position of firm , financial statement analysis would be
5、 simple , and this text a very short one.The financial reporting system is not perfect. Economic events and accounting entries do not correspond precisely; they diverge across the dimensions of timing, recognition, and measurement. Financial analysis and investment decisions are further complicated
6、by variations in accounting treatment among countries in each of these dimensions.Economic events and accounting recognition of those events frequently take place at different times. One example of phenomenon is the recognition of capital gains and losses only upon sale in most cases. Appreciation o
7、f a real estate investment, which took place over a period of many years, for example, receives income statement recognition only in the period management chooses for its disposal.Similarly, long-lived assets are written down. Most of time. In the fiscal period of managements choice. The period of r
8、ecognition may be neither the period in which the impairment took place nor the period of sale or disposal. Accounting for discontinued operations. In the same manner. Results in recognition of loss in a period different from when the loss occurred or the disposal is consummated.In addition, many ec
9、onomic events do not receive accounting recognition at all. Most contracts, for example, are not reflected in financial statements when entered into, despite significant effects on financial condition and operating and financial risk .Some contracts, such as leases and hedging activities, are recogn
10、ized in the financial statements by some companies, but disclosed only in footnotes by others. Disclosure requirements for derivatives and hedging activities are in place in many jurisdictions, but recognition and measurement is only recently required in the United Stated.Further, generally accepted
11、 accounting principles (GAAP) in the United States and elsewhere permit economic events that do receive accounting recognition to be recognized in different ways by different financial statement prepares. Inventory and depreciation of fixed assets are only two of the significant areas where comparab
12、ility may be lacking.Financial reports often contain supplementary data that, although not included in the statements themselves, help the financial statement user to interpret the statements or adjust measures of corporate performance (such as financial ratios) to make them more comparable, consist
13、ent over time, and more representative of economic reality. When making adjustments to financial statements, we will seek to discern substance from form and exploit the information contained in footnotes and supplementary schedules of data in the annual report and SEC filings. The analytic treatment
14、 of “off-balance-sheet” financing activities is a good example of this process. We also illustrate the use of reconciliations to U.S. GAAP in foreign registrants Form 20-F filings.Finally, information from outside the financial reporting process can be used to make financial data more useful. Estima
15、ting the effects of changing prices on corporate performance, for example, may require the use of price data from outside sources.FOCUS ON INVESTMENT DECISIONSThis book is concerned with the concepts and techniques of financial analysis employed by users of financial statements who are external to t
16、he company. Principal emphasis is on the financial statements of companies whose securities are publicly traded. The techniques described are generally applicable to the analysis of financial statements prepared according to U.S. GAAP. However, we will also discuss the pronouncements of the Internat
17、ional Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and standard setters in other countries, compare them to U.S. GAAP, and analyze financial statements prepared in accordance with these other reporting standards.Classes of UsersExternal users of financial information encompass a wide range of interests but can
18、 be classified into three general groups:Credit and equity investors Government (executive and legislative branches), regulatory bodies, and tax authoritiesThe general public and special interest groups, labor unions , and consumer groupsEach of these user groups has a particular objective in financ
19、ial statement analysis, but, as the FASB stated, the primary user are equity investors and creditors. However, the information supplied to investors and creditors is likely to be generally useful to other user groups as well. Hence, financial accounting standards are geared to the purposes and perce
20、ptions of investors and creditors. That is the group for whom the analytical techniques in this book are intended.The underlying objective of financial analysis is the comparative measurement of risk and return to make investment or credit decisions. These decisions require estimates of the future,
21、be it a mouth, a year, or a decade. General-purpose financial statements, which describe the past, provide one basis for projecting future earnings and cash flows. Many of the techniques used in this analytical process are broadly applicable to all types of decisions, but there are also specialized
22、techniques concerned with specific investment interests or, in other words, risks and returns specific to one class of investors or securities.The equity investor is primarily interested in the long-term power of the company, its ability to grow, and, ultimately, its ability to pay dividends and inc
23、rease in value. Since the equity investor bears the residual risk in an enterprise, the largest and most volatile risk, the require analysis is the most comprehensive of any user and encompasses techniques employed by all other external user.Creditors need somewhat different analytical approaches. S
24、hort-term creditors, such as banks and trade creditors, place more emphasis on the immediate liquidity of the business because they seek an early payback of their investment. Long-term earning power of the company investors in bonds, such as insurance companies and pension funds, are primarily conce
25、rned with the long-term asset position and earning power of the company. They seek assurance of the payment of interest and the capability of retiring or refunding the obligation at maturity. Credit risks are usually smaller than equity risks and may be more easily quantifiable.More subordinated or
26、junior creditors, especially owners of “high-yield” debt, however, bear risk similar to those of equity investors and may find analytic techniques normally applied to equity investments more relevant than those employed by creditors.Financial Information and Capital MarketsThe usefulness of accounti
27、ng information in the decision-making processes of investors and creditors has been the subject of much academic research over the last 35 years. That research has examined the interrelationship of accounting information and reporting standards in financial markets in great detail. At times, the res
28、earch conclusions are highly critical of the accounting standard-setting process and of the utility of financial analysis. This criticism is based on research performed in a capital market setting. These findings do not negate the usefulness of financial analysis of individual securities that may be
29、 mispriced or of decisions made outside a capital market setting.PRINCIPAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTSThe Balance SheetThe balance sheet (statement of financial position) reports major classes and amounts of assets (resources owned or controlled by the firm), liabilities (external claims on those assets),
30、and stockholder equity (owners capital contributions and other internally generated sources of capital) and their interrelationships at specific points in time.Assets reported on the balance sheet are either purchased buy the firm or generated through operations: they are, directly or indirectly, fi
31、nances by the creditors and stockholders of the firm. The fundamental accounting relationship provides the basis for recording all transactions in financial reporting and is expressed as the balance sheet equation:Assets (A) = Liabilities (L) + Stockholders Equity (E)In the United States firm issue
32、balance sheets at the end of each quarter and the end of the fiscal. Annual or semiannual reporting in the norm in most other countries.Elements of the Balance SheetSFAC 6 discusses the elements of financial statements. Although this statement also deals with nonprofit organizations, we restrict our
33、 comments to business enterprises.Assets are defined in SFAC 6 asProbable future economic benefits obtained or controlled by a particular entity as a result of past transactions or events.This definition seems to be noncontroversial. Its weakness is its lack of reference to risk. It seems to us that an enterprise tha
