Taser International

Taser International

Introduction

Taser International is a publically listed company that aims at providing range of products and services that keep the world a safer place to live. The company is engaged in producing products that are legally used by military, correction personnel, security officials, and life protectors. The company widely operates in the industry of Conducted Electrical Weapons. The company mainly produces goods that lower the risk of dangerous items to armed forces and law enforcement officials. Its products are well known for reducing the injury rates and protects life.

The company was formed in 1993. The company is also ISO certified in 2008. The products offered by the company are divided into four categories, which are Taser CEWs, officer videos, digital evidence management and other solutions. The company performs its operations in USA solely and operates from Arizona. The company's operations were initiated by two brothers namely Rick and Tom Smith and got the idea to produce such products as a result of sudden killings of their teammates in parking lot.

The company passed all federal and state laws in 1994 with respect to production of accessories used by firearms only along with a tracker. The company gradually started to market its products to law enforcement bodies and officials in 1998. The private users and protectors also began to buy its products. The company went into public during 2001 and began trading on NASDQ with a symbol of TASR (Taser International, 2013).

Financial Ratios

The desired Financial Ratios of the company for the year 2012 and 2011 are given below:

2012

2011

Industry Average

Current ratio

4.37

3.89

6.32

Quick ratio

3.09

2.40

4.29

Accts Rec Turnover

7.68

7.11

11.24

Inv Turnover

4.19

3.11

5.75

Total Asset Turnover

1.04

0.75

1.42

Times Interest Earned

280.49

-9.17

275.90

Debt to equity

0.33

0.27

0.47

Profit Margin Ratio

12.84

-7.82

8.93

Gross margin ratio

59.01

49.46

83.74

Return on total assets

13.33

-5.84

10.41

Return on equity

17.37

-7.04

13.85

Current Ratio

Current ration is the measures the company's capacity to fulfill its short term commitments, it is computed by dividing current liabilities to current assets (Fraser. L. M. and Orimiston. A. 2007). The current ratio of the company is exhibiting an increasing trend for the given years, it represents a positive sign that company has adequate sum of money to pay off its short term debt as it comes due and manage its routine tasks smoothly. The main reason behind increase in the current ratio for the year has been greater increase in current assets i.e. 60% as compare to current liabilities i.e. 18% during the year 2012. The liquidity ratio of the company is observed to be below from industry's average, which shows that the competitors and market is more liquid enough as compare to Taser International and it must increase investment in short term securities and improvise the over all operating cycle to manage its liquidity well.

Quick Ratio

Quick Ratio is considered as an aggressive means of measuring company's short-term solvency as it excludes inventory from current assets because inventory is a less quick means of immediate cash availability (Fraser. L. M. and Orimiston. A. 2007). The Quick ratio of the company exhibits an increasing trend during the given 2 years. The quick ratio of the company also shows an ...