Financial statement data for the years ended December 31 for Parker Corporation are as follows: Current Year Prior Year Sales $2,595,600 $2,409,498 Fixed assets (net) : Beginning of year $901,070 $820,000 End of year 829,330 901,070 a. Determine the fixed asset turnover ratio for the current and prior years. Round your answers to one decimal place. Current Year: Prior Year: b. Does the change in fixed asset turnover ratio from the prior year to the current year indicate a favorable or unfavorable trend

a. Current year 1.5 Prior year 1.4

b. Yes it indicates a favorable trend as it shows that sales of $1.50 was generated for every $1 invested in current year as against $1.40 for every $1 invested in prior year.

Explanation:

Fixed Asset turnover is the ratio of revenue to average Fixed assets of a company.

It is a financial indicator that shows how much revenue a company generates in an accounting period for each $ 1 invested in assets (fixed asset in this case).

Average assets in the

current year

= $901,070 + $829,330

= $1,730,400

Prior year

= $820,000 + $901,070

= $1,721,070

As such fixed assets turnover for

current year

= $2,595,600/$1,730,400

= 1.5

prior year

= $2,409,498/$1,721,070

= 1.4

we need to calculate the Average Fixed assets for both the periods.

Average Fixed Assets = (Fixed Assets at the beginning + Fixed assets at the ending period) / 2

Current Year = ($901070+829330) / 2

= 1730400/2

=$865200

Prior Year = $820000+901070

= 1721070/2

= $860535

Fixed Assets Turnover = Sales/Average Fixed Assets

Current year = $2595600/865200

= 3

Prior Year = $2409498/860535

= 2.8

b) There is an increase in the Fixed asset turnover which indicates an increase in efficiency of using fixed assets to generate sales.