Operating Ratio

The operating ratio is a metric that compares a company's operating expenses to its net sales, helping to assess how efficiently the company manages its costs while generating revenue. One of the many things you need to evaluate before investing in a company is its operational efficiency. Various financial ratios can help you with this assessment, among which is the operating ratio. It measures the percentage of a company’s net sales that go towards meeting its operating expenses. Generally, the lower this percentage or ratio, the better.

In this article, we examine the meaning of the operating ratio, check out the operating ratio formula and calculation and discuss what it can tell you. Let us begin by exploring what the operating ratio is.

What is the operating ratio?

The operating ratio compares the operating expenses (OPEX) incurred by a company during a given period with its net sales over the same period. This ratio tells you how much of a company’s sales go towards meeting its operating costs. Naturally, the lower the operating ratio is, the better.

A lower ratio means that the company is capable of keeping its operating expenses from exceeding a reasonable limit. This, in turn, reflects positively on the efficiency of the company’s management team.

Key takeaways

• The operating ratio is a measure that compares a company’s operating costs to its net revenue or sales over a given period.

• The operating ratio formula involves dividing the sum of the operating expenses and the cost of goods sold (COGS) by the net sales.

• A lower ratio is considered better because it indicates that the company has greater operational efficiency.

• Investors can compare the operating ratio over different periods to assess how a company’s operational efficiency has changed with time.

How the operating ratio works?

When investors evaluate if a company is a potentially lucrative investment, they often limit their assessment to the valuation aspects. However, you should not stop with this element alone. You must also check the company’s operational efficiency to get a more comprehensive overview of its long-term profitability and stability.

Here is where the operating ratio can be useful. It tells you whether a company redirects most of its sales to meet the costs of running the business. If this is the case, the company’s prospects of profitability may be slim.

That said, many companies may have high operating ratios during the early stages of their growth. However, over time, the ratio should decrease as the company becomes more efficient at managing costs and increasing its revenue. This is why it is important to evaluate the ratio not just for one financial year, but to check its trajectory over the previous few years.

Components of the operating ratio

The operating ratio formula includes two key components. Let us check out the formula below before decoding what the components mean.

Operating ratio = Operating expenses ÷ Net sales

Sometimes, the ratio may be expressed as a percentage, in which case the operating ratio formula becomes:

Operating ratio = (Operating expenses ÷ Net sales) x 100

As you can see from the formulas shown above, the operating ratio typically uses two components. The numerator includes the operating costs incurred by a company to support its business. They are not directly related to production or service generation. Some common examples of operating expenses include rent, utility costs, office supply purchases, salaries, marketing and advertising expenses and repairs and maintenance.

Sometimes, the cost of goods sold (COGS) may be shown separately in a company’s books. In that case, the COGS must also be included in the numerator. This gives us a modified version of the operating ratio formula, as shown below:

Operating ratio = (Operating expenses + Cost of goods sold) ÷ Net sales

The second component in the formula is the net sales of a company. This is simply the gross or total sales, adjusted for returns, discounts, commissions and other such reductions. Ultimately, it reflects the amount actually earned from a company’s sales.

What does the operating ratio tell you?

The operating ratio gives you crucial insights into how a company manages its costs and aims for efficiency in its operations. In simpler terms, it tells you how well a company controls its operating expenses and/or increases its revenue. A low value of the operating ratio means that only a small portion of the company’s sales go towards meeting its operating costs.

This means the entity is capable of keeping its costs low while generating high sales revenue — which directly translates to increased profitability. You can use the operating ratio to compare different companies within the same industry. This will tell you which companies are better at managing their expenses.

You can also evaluate this ratio for the same company over different years to assess if its operational efficiency has improved. An increasing operating ratio can be a red flag as it indicates rising expenses, reducing revenues, or both.

Example of the operating ratio

We have seen the meaning of the operating ratio, its formula and its components. Now, let us discuss a hypothetical example to understand how you can calculate and interpret this ratio.

Say a company has the following financial details in a given year:

• Operating expenses: Rs. 2,00,000

• Cost of goods sold: Rs. 1,50,000

• Net sales: Rs. 8,70,000

Plugging these values into the operating ratio formula, this is what we get.

Operating ratio:

= (Operating expenses + Cost of goods sold) ÷ Net sales

= (Rs. 2,00,000 + Rs. 1,50,000) ÷ Rs. 8,70,000

= Rs. 3,50,000 ÷ Rs. 8,70,000

= 40.23%

The ratio indicates that around 40% of the company’s sales are used to meet its operating costs. Whether or not this is normal depends on the company’s historical operating ratios, the industry average and other factors.

Limitations of the operating ratio

The operating ratio can be beneficial to investors and analysts in many ways. However, it has some limitations that you should be mindful of. They include:

• Exclusion of debt: This ratio does not include a company’s debt. So, it may offer only a partial view of profitability. For instance, a company may have a low operating ratio, leading you to think it is profitable. But if its debts are significant, it may still record low profits.

• Not insightful as a standalone metric: The operating ratio may not tell you much as a standalone metric. To understand if the ratio is high or low, you need to compare it to the company’s historical operating ratios. You also need to check how the ratio compares with the industry average or with its peers’ operating ratios.

Operating ratio vs. operating expense ratio

Many beginners may assume that the operating ratio is the same as the operating expenses ratio (OER). This is a common mistake because the operating ratio uses the operating expenses of a company. However, the OER is a unique ratio used in the real estate industry. It measures the costs incurred to manage and operate a property against the revenue generated by that property.

The operating ratio, on the other hand, is a common term that applies to companies across various industries and sectors. So, although the two ratios compare similar metrics, the industry-specific usage varies.

Conclusion

To assess a company’s profitability, the operating ratio is an essential metric. That said, it should not be the sole measure you rely on to make investment decisions. You also need to consider other financial metrics like valuation ratios and leverage ratios. If this is too much to assess for each company you are interested in, investing in mutual funds may be a more viable option.

Mutual fund schemes are managed by professional fund managers who perform the necessary analyses for you. If you are looking for suitable mutual funds for your portfolio, check out the 1,000+ schemes available on the Bajaj Finserv Mutual Funds Platform. You can even compare mutual funds on this platform and use the free mutual fund calculator to assess how your investments could potentially grow over any given tenure.