Ratios: Return on Assets (ROA): Study with Video Lessons, Practice Problems & Examples

Return on Assets (ROA) is a key profitability and efficiency ratio that measures a company's net income relative to its average total assets. The formula is ROA=Net IncomeAverage Total Assets. A higher ROA indicates better asset efficiency, with variations across industries. Negative ROA signals a net loss, which is undesirable. Benchmarking against competitors helps assess performance, emphasizing the importance of asset management in financial accounting and the accounting cycle.

Ratios: Return on Assets (ROA)

Alright, let's discuss another ratio here, the return on assets. So, return on assets is a really common ratio used and I would expect you to have to know it. This measures the income a company earns based on the amount of assets it has to maintain. So, you can imagine, it's better to earn the same amount of money using fewer assets than more assets, right? That should make sense. If we can make $1,000,000 using just $1,000,000 worth of assets, well, that sounds better than having to make that same $1,000,000 while holding $10,000,000 or $100,000,000 of assets, right? The fewer resources we need to make the same amount of money, the better, right? So, ROA, it's a common profitability ratio but it's also an efficiency ratio. How efficient are we with our assets? It kind of helps us measure both of those there. Alright? So, return on assets. We generally, you're gonna hear it as ROA. This very common acronym for return on assets is ROA. So, this is how we do it here. We've got net income in our numerator and average total assets in the denominator. Remember, average, whenever we've got an average amount in any of our ratios, well, we're gonna take the beginning balance of that amount and the ending balance and divide it by 2. That's how we're always gonna do it for any average balance. Beginning balance plus ending balance divided by 2. Okay? And remember, not every question is going to give you a beginning and ending balance. If they just give you one balance, well, just use that number. If they don't give you two years of balance sheets that show you total assets last year, total assets this year, well, just use the number they gave you. You don't have to calculate an average in this case. And one more note here with return on assets, well, it's generally shown as a percentage. So, remember, this is always gonna give you a decimal when you do your calculation here. So, multiply by 100, move the decimal place two places and you'll be in percentage mode. Alright? So let's go ahead and discuss how do we analyze a return on assets ratio. Remember that this return on assets, what's it showing us? Well, it's showing us how much of the numerator for each unit of the denominator. So, how much net income does the company get for each dollar of assets, right? So for each dollar of assets we hold, how much net income do we get out of that? Okay. Different industries, you can imagine, are going to have different return on assets. There's going to be some industries that are heavily reliant on having a lot of assets. Think of something like an airline industry, right? Where they have to have airplanes that cost millions of dollars and they're going to have tons of assets. Whereas, there might be companies that have way fewer assets; a lot of tech companies might not have to have tons of assets to make their money. So, you're going to have to compare when you do this. We're going to use, like we've done with a lot of ratios, what's called benchmarking. So, we want to compare to our competitors and see how our ROA compares to our competitors or an industry average. That's how we're going to really be able to tell how we're doing. Cool? So, a red flag; the only way we're going to get a negative ROA, well, we couldn't have a negative denominator, right? There's no way to have negative assets, but we could have negative income, we could have a net loss. So, negative ROA, well, that lets us know that the company had a net loss and generally, those aren't good things, right? We want to be making money, not losing money. So that's pretty much it for ROA. It's not the most complicated ratio. So why don't we go ahead and just jump into some practice and you guys try and calculate some ROA. Cool? Let's do that now.

XYZ Company had net sales during the period of $380,000 and net income of $60,000. If total assets were $480,000 at the beginning of the period and $720,000 at the end of the period, what is the company's ROA?

• A. 8%
• B. 10%
• C. 13%
• D. 63%

A company has income before taxes of $100,000. Net sales are $400,000 and gross profit is $300,000. What is the ROA, assuming the company has a 40% tax rate, and average total assets were $900,000?

• A. 6.7%
• B. 11.1%
• C. 33.3%
• D. 44.4%

Here’s what students ask on this topic:

What is the formula for calculating Return on Assets (ROA)?

The formula for calculating Return on Assets (ROA) is:

$\frac{\mathrm{Net} \mathrm{Income}}{\mathrm{Average} \mathrm{Total} \mathrm{Assets}}$

This ratio measures a company's net income relative to its average total assets, indicating how efficiently the company is using its assets to generate profit.

Why is Return on Assets (ROA) important in financial analysis?

Return on Assets (ROA) is important because it provides insight into a company's profitability and efficiency. A higher ROA indicates that the company is effectively using its assets to generate income. It helps investors and analysts compare the performance of companies within the same industry, as different industries have varying asset requirements. Additionally, ROA can signal potential issues if it is negative, indicating a net loss.

How do you calculate the average total assets for the ROA formula?

To calculate the average total assets for the ROA formula, you take the beginning balance of total assets and the ending balance of total assets, add them together, and then divide by 2. The formula is:

$\frac{(\mathrm{Beginning} \mathrm{Balance} + \mathrm{Ending} \mathrm{Balance})}{2}$

If only one balance is provided, use that number directly.

What does a negative ROA indicate about a company's financial performance?

A negative ROA indicates that a company has a net loss, meaning its net income is negative. This is generally a red flag, as it suggests the company is not generating enough income to cover its asset costs. Negative ROA can be a sign of poor financial health and inefficiency in asset management.

How does industry type affect the interpretation of ROA?

Industry type significantly affects the interpretation of ROA because different industries have varying asset requirements. For example, asset-heavy industries like airlines require substantial investments in assets, leading to lower ROA compared to asset-light industries like tech companies. Therefore, it's crucial to benchmark ROA against industry averages or competitors to get a meaningful assessment of a company's performance.