Ratio of Liabilities to Stockholders' Equity and Times Interest Earned

The following data were taken from the financial statements of Hunter Inc. for December 31 of two recent years:

	Current Year	Previous Year
Accounts payable	$522,000		$153,000
Current maturities of serial bonds payable	350,000		350,000
Serial bonds payable, 10%	1,450,000		1,800,000
Common stock, $1 par value	80,000		90,000
Paid-in capital in excess of par	850,000		860,000
Retained earnings	2,940,000		2,340,000

The income before income tax expense was $522,000 and $456,800 for the current and previous years, respectively.

a. Determine the ratio of liabilities to stockholders' equity at the end of each year. Round to one decimal place.

Current year	fill in the blank 1
Previous year	fill in the blank 2

b. Determine the times interest earned ratio for both years. Round to one decimal place.

Current year	fill in the blank 3
Previous year	fill in the blank 4

c. The ratio of liabilities to stockholders' equity has

deteriorated/improved

and the number of times bond interest charges were earned has

deteriorated/improved

from the previous year. These results are the combined result of a

larger/smaller

income before income taxes and

larger/lower

interest expense in the current year compared to the previous year.