3 Operating performance
Earnings before interest and tax/total assets I (EBIT/TA) is a standard ratio for assessing the overall efficient use of assets, regardless of the source of funding of those assets. The return to both debt (interest) and equity (profit before tax) is included in the numerator and compared with the total of debt and equity, short and long term. This ratio avoids financing and tax differences between I companies. However, it is hard to interpret without !comparison to an industry average: Without this, trend information, coupled with understanding of the nature of the industry, is required. Industries with heavy assets will report low EBIT/TA. Service I industries will report spectacularly high EBIT/TA, since they have few assets on the balance sheet.
Operating profit before tax/sales (PBT/Sales) is the standard for 'return on sales'. Again, interpretation depends on understanding the industry does the industry operate at high margins (and low turnover volumes) or low margins (and high turnover volumes)? This is a better measure for assessment of service organisations—how much margin do they have on each salo?
Sales/total assets, which is called the asset turnover or asset utilisation ratio, provides the measure of the actual 'turnover' of assets. A low figure (less than 1) will be recorded for heavy industries, but industries with ‘light' capital requirements will be in the 3-6 range.