The Kroger Company is one of the world’s largest supermarket chains. These selected items were adapted from a recent Kroger balance sheet. (Dollar amounts are in millions.)
Cash (including deposit-in-transit) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,078
Receivables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 909
Merchandise inventories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . 4,902
Other current assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . 561
Property, plant and equipment (net of depreciation). . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . 13,929
Retained earnings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 7,344
Total current liabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . 7,714
Instructions
a. Using the information above, compute the amounts of Kroger’s total current assets and total quick assets.
b. Compute the company’s
(1) Current ratio,
(2) Quick ratio, and
(3) Working capital. (Round to two decimal points.)
c. From these computations, are you able to conclude whether Kroger is a good credit risk for short-term creditors or on the brink of bankruptcy? Explain.
d. Is there anything unusual about the operating cycle of supermarkets that would make you think that they normally would have lower current ratios than, say, large department stores?
e. What other types of information could you utilize in performing a more complete analysis of Kroger’s liquidity?