Go to www.finance.yahoo.com and look up the financial statements for Walmart Stores and Sears Holding Corp., two

Question:

Go to www.finance.yahoo.com and look up the financial statements for Walmart Stores and Sears Holding Corp., two retailers at opposite ends of the performance scale. Calculate the net working capital, the operating cycle, and the cash conversion cycle, discussed in Section 20.2, for each firm. By how much would the investment in working capital fall if each firm could reduce its cash conversion cycle by one day? Using the number of employees listed on the "competitors" page, compare and contrast revenues per employee. Choose some financial ratios to compare the financial performance and use stock prices to calculate each stock's rate of return. Do you think the market has reacted to the performance differences between the companies?

Cash Conversion Cycle
Cash conversion cycle measures the total time a business takes to convert its cash on hand to produce, pay its suppliers, sell to its customers and collect cash from its customers. The process starts with purchasing of raw materials from suppliers,... Financial Statements
Financial statements are the standardized formats to present the financial information related to a business or an organization for its users. Financial statements contain the historical information as well as current period’s financial... Financial Ratios
The term is enough to curl one's hair, conjuring up those complex problems we encountered in high school math that left many of us babbling and frustrated. But when it comes to investing, that need not be the case. In fact, there are ratios that,...