A company's retained earnings measure the amount of money the company keeps from its profits after paying dividends. On a company's balance sheet, the retained earnings is included as part of the ...

One of the benefits of understanding how the income statement and balance sheet work together is that you can figure out missing pieces of information based on numbers elsewhere in the financial ...

The three primary sections of a balance sheet are assets, liabilities and stockholders' equity. Liabilities and equity are the two sources of financing a business uses to fund its assets. Liabilities ...

Stockholders' equity is the value of assets a company has remaining after eliminating all its liabilities. Companies with positive trending shareholder equity tend to be in good fiscal health. Those ...

Equity-to-asset ratio indicates how much of a company is owned versus debt-leveraged. To calculate, divide total equity by total assets; e.g., $4M/$5M = 80%. Compare ratio to industry to assess ...

Assets are quantifiable things — tangible or intangible — that add to your company’s value Liabilities are what your company owes to others, whether that’s an investor or a bank that issued a loan ...

When you want to get an idea of a company's financial condition, ratio analysis is one of the tools of the trade. In the following article, you'll learn about two useful balance sheet ratios: the debt ...

The cost of equity formula is a financial metric that represents the return investors expect for holding a company's stock. This formula can help you evaluate whether a company's stock is generating ...

Sean Ross is a strategic adviser at 1031x.com, Investopedia contributor, and the founder and manager of Free Lances Ltd. Andy Smith is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP®), licensed realtor and ...