What Is Inventory Turnover Ratio?

Definition and Examples of Inventory Turnover Ratio

The inventory turnover ratio is a simple method to find out how often a company turns over its inventory during a specific length of time. It's also known as "inventory turns." This formula provides insight into the efficiency of a company when converting its cash into sales and profits.

For example, a company like Coca-Cola could use the inventory turnover ratio to find out how quickly it's selling its products, compared to other companies in the same industry.

• Acronym: ITR
  

How the Inventory Turnover Ratio Works

You can save yourself a lot of trouble when finding ITRs by looking at a company's balance sheet and income statement. COGS is often listed on the income statement; inventory balances will be found on the balance sheet. With these two documents, you just need to plug the numbers into the formula.

If you compare figures, keep in mind that some analysts use total annual sales instead of the cost of goods sold. This is largely the same equation, but it includes a company's markup. That means it can lead to a different result than equations that use the cost of goods sold.

One isn't better than the other, but be sure you are consistent with your comparisons. You don't want to use annual sales to find the ratio for one company while using the cost of goods sold for another. It wouldn't give you any real sense of how the two compare.

How Do You Calculate the Inventory Turnover Ratio?

The first step for finding the ITR is to choose a time frame to measure (e.g., a quarter or a fiscal year). Then, find the average inventory for that period. You can do that by averaging the ending and beginning costs of inventory for the time in question. Once you have your time rame and average inventory, simply divide the cost of goods sold (COGS) by the average inventory.

Inventory Turnover Ratio Calculation Example

Consider this real-world example: Coca-Cola's income statement from 2017 showed that the COGS was $13.256 million. Its average inventory value between 2016 and 2017 was $2.665 million. We can use these figures to find the ratio:

• Inventory turns = COGS / average inventory
• Inventory turns = $13.256 million / $2.665 million
• Inventory turns = 4.974

Now you know that Coca-Cola's inventory turns for that year was 4.974. You can compare this to others in the soft drink and snack food industry to figure out how well Coca-Cola is doing. Let's say, for instance, that you found out that a competitor's inventory turns was 8.4. That would signal that the competitor is selling products more quickly than Coca-Cola.

There are many reasons why a company may have a lower ITR than another company. It doesn't always mean that one company is worse than the other. Be sure you read a company's financial statements and any notes to get a full picture.

Although Coca-Cola's ITR was lower, you might find other metrics that show that it was still stronger than the other averages for its industry. Using historical data to compare current years to past years could also provide helpful context.

Inventory Turnover Days

You can take this analysis a step further by using the inventory turn rate to find the number of days it takes for a business to clear its inventory.

Let's keep going with the Coca-Cola example. In that case, its ITR was 4.974. Next, we divide 365 by that number, which should give a result of 73.38. That means, on average, it took Coca-Cola 73.38 days to sell its inventory.

This puts the company's efficiency in another context. Finding the inventory turnover days doesn't provide any new information, but framing it in terms of days is helpful for some.

Limitations of the Inventory Turnover Ratio

The time it takes a company to sell through its supply can vary greatly by industry. If you don't know the average inventory turns for the industry in question, then the formula won't help you very much.

For instance, retail stores and grocery chains typically have a much higher ITR. That's because they sell lower-cost products that spoil quickly. As a result, these businesses require far greater managerial diligence.

On the other hand, a company that makes heavy equipment, such as airplanes, will have a much lower turnover rate. It takes a long time to manufacture and sell an airplane, but once the sale closes, it often brings in millions of dollars for the company.