Working Capital as Percentage of Fixed Assets for 18 Business Sectors

The chart below was created by using Google’s chart tools.

The chart shows working capital as a percentage of total assets for 18 business sectors.

The BizStats data gives the each percentage for cash, accounts receivables, inventory, and accounts payable of the total assets. To determine the percentage of working capital to total assets, the accounts payable percentage was subtracted from the total of the percentages for cash, accounts receivable, and inventory.

This survey data should be useful by comparing a company’s working capital as a percentage of total assets to the number on the graph that represents the company’s business sector. A deviation from the graph number suggests analysis should be done to determine if the company’s working capital needs adjusting.

Click here to go to the BizStats data that was used to create the chart.

Fixed and Other Current Assets as a Percentage of Total Assets for 18 Business Sectors

The chart below was created using Google’s Charting Tools.

The chart shows the percentage of fixed assets plus other current assets amounts on the balance sheet as a percentage of the total assets for 18 business sectors. The percentages are based on survey data compiled by BisStats (a BizMiner company) from US Government and possibly other sources.

The fixed assets plus other current assets to total assets percentage for all sectors is 67.4 %. Companies can use this benchmark data to determine how they are doing compared to their sector peers.
It is interesting that the percentages are so high and represent such a high amount of the value of a company. Fixed and other current assets are probably difficult to find a correct fair market value for and therefore these high percentages could represent a higher uncertainty in company valuation.

Click here to go to the BizStats data that was used to create the chart.

Inventory as a Percentage of Total Assets for Several Business Sectors

The box chart to the left was created using Google’s Chart Tools.

The chart shows the percentage of the inventory balance sheet amount as a percentage of the total assets for 18 business sectors. The percentages are based on survey data compiled by BisStats (a BizMiner company) from US Government and possibly other sources.

The average inventory to total assets percentage for all sectors is 5.2 %. Companies can use this benchmark data to determine how they are doing compared to their sector peers.

Those sectors with larger amounts of inventory, compared to sales, might consider reducing the inventory on hand as a way to reduce costs.

Click here to go to the BizStats data that was used to create the chart.

Fraudulently Obtained Information That Criminals Sell On the Internet

The graph below was created using Google’s graphing tools.

The vertical bar graph shows the relative value of categories of stolen information (and some services, e.g. cash-out services) that criminals sell in the underground economy.

The data in the graph is from a study done by First Data titled “Fraud Trends in 2010: Top Threats from a Growing Underground Economy”. The data from the First Data study is based on a 2008 study done by Symantec. The First Data study can be read by clicking here (PDF file).

Symantec analyzed underground economy websites where illegally-obtained information was posted for sale. The percentages on the graph are of total sales value on the underground economy websites that Symantec estimated each of the 10 illegally-obtained listed information (and service) categories accounted for. Symantec found that for the period they looked at the advertized offerings on the websites the total sales prices for all offerings was around $276 million. And, after further analysis, Symantec found that credit card information sales offerings represented 18% (the most of the categories) of the $276 million, and the other top 9 sales offerings are as shone on the graph.

Symantec’s 2008 study can be read by clicking here (PDF file).