The financial statements for Columbia Sportswear Company can be found in Appendix A at the end of this textbook, and the financial statements of Under Armour, Inc. can be found in Appendix B.

Required

a. Compare the dollar value of inventory carried on the balance sheet by each company in 2017 and 2016. Which company carries the greatest dollar amount of inventory? Compare the ratio of inventory divided by total assets for each company for 2017 and 2016. Which company carries the largest relative investment in inventory?

b. Calculate the inventory turnover and days' sales in inventory for 2017 and 2016 for each company. Inventory at December 31, 2015, for Columbia and Under Armour, Inc. was \(\$ 473.6\) million and \(\$ 783.0\) million, respectively.

c. Which company appears to be doing the better job of managing its investment in inventory?