Comments: This is an opportunity to make inferences about business models from the accounting reports. Accounting should tell the story of the organization. Retail companies should have proportions in the balance sheet that reflect their business model of being a retail company. Utility companies should have proportions in the balance sheet that reflect their business model of being a utility company. Working backwards in this problem, the ratios should suggest the business of the organization. For example: Utility companies have a high investments in assets. Inventory turns over faster than equipment, so a retail companys asset turnover tends to be higher.

Required: 1. Which company is which? Explain how you identified each company from the data in the table.

The following table shows four ratios derived from the financial statements of three real companies, labeled A,B, and C in the table. (They are not listed in the table in any particular order.) The real companies are: - Brunswick Corporation, a leader in the leisure products industry that manufactures boats and marine engines, bowling and billiard products, as well as fitness equipment. - Consolidated Edison, an electricity and natural gas company whose nonutility operations include energy marketing and fiber-optic telecommunications. - Foot Locker, a shoe retailer with about 3,400 specialty stores in North America, Australia, and Europe. It also operates Champs Sports, an athletic wear retail chain, and a direct-tocustomers business that sells through catalogs, mobile devices, and the Internet