Comparative financial statement analysis

Free IMA CMA Part 2 (Strategic Financial Management) lesson in Financial Statement Analysis. 13 min read, ~1,895 words.

Vertical (common-size) analysis scales each income-statement line to net sales = 100% and each balance-sheet line to total assets = 100%, normalizing across firm sizes. Horizontal analysis computes dollar and percent change across periods using a rolling base (prior year) or a fixed base (index year = 100). Single-period growth...