An upward trend is usually a good sign - with one exception. That is the Debt-to-Worth ratio, where lower is financially stronger, as it indicates less debt.
There really are no right or wrong ratios. However, examining the trends over time can provide early warnings of potential trouble spots.
Connecting the dots of the cause-effect connections can be very revealing.
At first glance, just comparing one year's results, the Women's Apparel segment seems to be doing better: virtually all of their Key Ratios appear to be better than the Men's Stores segment.
With a Pre-Tax Profit of 0.3%, the Menswear stores are barely breaking even. Meanwhile, the Women's stores generated 1.4% Pre-Tax Profits in 2019. However, the trends show that both segments saw declines in profit from 2018. Meanwhile, both segments saw increases in Gross Margin, and again, the Women's stores (increasing nearly 2 points to 48.3%) seemed to be outperforming the Menswear (increased just 0.6% to 47.8%.)
Are we starting to see what might be driving those Gross Margin increases?
Still less than $1 a day! 👀
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