Research Guides: MKTG 300: Principles of Marketing: Industry Ratios

Industry Ratios

Financial ratios are often used to compare a company against an industry average or other companies in order to benchmark or measure a company’s performance. Industry ratios are often useful when creating the financial components of a business plan.

When looking for Industry Ratios it is important to know about and use the SIC/NAICS codes. Why? If you know the industry code, you can easily identify your industry's ratios within each of the recommended resources listed below. Click here to learn more about SIC/NAICS Codes.

Specialized Databases for Industry Ratios:

RMA eStatement Studies This link opens in a new window RMA Estatement Studies is the online version of RMA Annual Statement Studies. It combines Financial Ratio Benchmarks and Industry Default Probabilities and Cash Flow Measures.
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For a helpful tutorial that explains how to use the RMA eStatement Studies database, click the following link: E-Statement Studies Tutorial

IBISWorld This link opens in a new window Limited to 30 downloads per session.  Covers about 680 U.S. industries written at the 5-digit level of NAICS. Each report contains key statistics, market characteristics, segmentation, industry conditions, performance and outlook. These reports are written by industry specialists. Each report is updated every 4 months.
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Find Key Rations and Industry Financial Ratios in each report under the Industry Statistics section.

Mergent Online This link opens in a new window Summary company records and EDGAR files for over 11,000 U.S. public corporations and 17,000 non-US public companies.
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From Mergent, you can run an advanced search by the same NAICS codes as the company you are researching, then run a comparison report or use the "Competitors" tab in Mergent to select companies and build a list of competitors to compare their ratios.

Value Line Investment Survey Online This link opens in a new window
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Includes ratios for more than 90 industries. Look for "Value Line Featured Lists" in the middle of the screen and choose an industry from the drop-down menu under "Industry Screens". Value Line Company Reports are available for 1,700 publicly traded companies. Data is updated quarterly with a 10-year statistical history available.

Useful Websites for Understanding Industry Ratios: