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		Prior Year
Accounts payable	$314,000		$276,000
Current maturities of serial bonds payable	400,000		400,000
Serial bonds payable, 10%	1,980,000		2,380,000
Common stock, $1 par value	90,000		120,000
Paid-in capital in excess of par	990,000		990,000
Retained earnings	3,410,000		2,710,000

The income before income tax expense was $880,600 and $770,500 for the current and prior 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
Prior 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
Prior year	fill in the blank 4

c. The ratio of liabilities to stockholders' equity have

improveddeteriorated

and the times interest earned ratio has

improveddeteriorated

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

largersmaller

income before income taxes and

largerlower

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