Select a publicly traded retail or manufacturing company (e.g. inventory sales is material to operations).
1. Inventory is what percent of total assets?
2. What inventory accounting method (e.g. FIFO) does the company use? (In the financial statements)
3. What is the company's inventory turnover? How has this turnover ratio changed over the last 3 years?
4. What is the company's gross profit percentage?
5. Compare your selected company's inventory method and gross profit to that of a company selected by another student. Do the companies use the same inventory method? Compare their gross profit percentages and discuss potential reasons for any differences in gross profit percentages between the companies.