Analyze the factors behind the increase in ExCom's ROA from year 6 to year 7 (from 8.9% to 11.1%). Be sure to decompose ROA and to describe specifically how the patterns in these ratios explain the change in ROA. Your closing sentence should give a cohesive summary of what the evidence suggests has happened to the company between year 6 and year 7.

Presented below are financial statement ratios for a manufacturing company, ExCom Co. Use this information to answer the questions that follow. Year 7 Year 6 Year 5 ROA 11.1% 8.9% 5.6% 7.0% 5.9% 3.8% 27.6% 26.4% 23.1% 17.8% 17.8% 17.7% 1.6 1.5 1.5 7.8 8.0 7.9 8.1 8.0 Profit Margin for ROA Gross Margin (Gross Profit/Sales) Selling and Administrative Expenses/Sales Revenue Total Asset Turnover Accounts Receivable Turnover Inventory Turnover PPE Turnover Current Ratio Quick Ratio Cash Flow from Operations/Average Current Liabilities Debt to Equity Ratio Interest Coverage Ratio 8.1 3.6 3.2 3.3 1.8 1.7 1.6 1.2 1.1 1.1 73.0% 51.0% 49.6% 56.5% 61.4% 62.4% 24.2 15.8 8.2 Additional Information Sales Revenue (in millions) Total Assets (in millions) $192 $166 $150 $122 $120 $110