Real-World Case Identifying companies based on financial statement information Presented here is selected information from the 2002 fiscal-year reports of four companies. The four companies, in alphabetical order, are Caterpillar, Inc., a manufacturer of heavy machinery; Oracle Corporation, a company that develops software; Feet’s Coffee & Tea, a company that sells coffee prod¬ ucts; and Tiffany & Company, a company that operates high-end jewelry and department stores. The data for the companies, presented in the order of the amount of their sales in millions of dollars, follow:

Based on these financial data and your knowledge and assumptions about the nature of the businesses that the companies operate, determine which data relate to which companies. Write a memorandum explaining your decisions. Include a discussion of which ratios you used in your analysis, and show the computations of these ratios in your memorandum.

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A B C D Sales $18,648 $ 9,673 $1,706.6 $104.1 Cost of Goods Sold 14,709 2,406 695.2 48.1 Net Earnings 798 2,224 189.9 4.7 Inventory 2,763 0 732.1 11.0 Accounts Receivable 2,838 2,036 113.1 2.2 Total Assets 32,851 10,800 1,923.6 95.1