Results season for the period ending June has seen the JSE’s stock exchange news service flooded with companies reporting lately. So, as is usual this time of the year, I’ve been reading balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements.
I do enjoy it and this year it also got me thinking about what these three different sets of statements tell us about the company reporting them. Usually, we delve deep into the numbers and details of these three key documents, running ratios and making valuation and investment decisions – which is all good and well. But I’ve been trying to also understand the bigger picture we get from them and what part of this bigger picture each of the three statements plays.
The balance sheet is the statement of assets and liabilities and is a snapshot in time, usually at the end of the reporting period. Get 14 days free to read all our investigative and in-depth journalism. Thereafter you will be billed R75 per month. You can cancel anytime and if you cancel within 14 days you won't be billed.