ACCT322, Inventory Annual Report Survey, 8c
In is interesting and instructive to research the inventory amounts and methods used by similar companies. Below is information
for three pairs of similar companies (Ford & GM; Home Depot & Lowes; Staples & Office Depot).
Complete the yellow boxes for each company on the table below by:
(1) Recording total inventory in dollars for the latest year.
(2) Recording the cost flow method(s) used by each company (LIFO, FIFO, weighted-average, etc.), usually found in the notes
to financial statements in the annual report or SEC Form 10-K.
(3) Comment on any patterns you see in the data over time (e.g. great recession/financial crisis affect inventory levels?) and
your observations about comparisons between each of the paired companies (e.g. GM has more inventory than Ford, etc.)
There are several ways to find the inventory information in the financial statements/notes. The easiest way is to look at the end
of this document, where your overly kind and generous professor pasted in the relevant excerpts from the financial statements.
The other way is to use the links below to download the financials yourself.
1.
Ford Motor Company (ticker symbol F).
http://corporate.ford.com/investors/reports-and-filings/annual-reports.html (See 2014 Annual Report, Balance Sheet and
Note 8)
2.
General Motors (ticker symbol GM)
http://www.gm.com/company/investors/stockholder-information.html (See 2014 Annual Report, Balance Sheet, and Notes
1 and 6).
3.
Home Depot (ticker symbol HD).
http://ir.homedepot.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=63646&p=irol-reportsAnnual (See 2014 Annual Report, Balance Sheet and Note
1)
4.
Lowe’s Corp. (ticker symbol LOW).
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=95223&p=irol-reportsannual (see 2014 Annual Report, Balance Sheet and Note
1)
5.
Staples (ticker symbol SPLS).
http://investor.staples.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=96244&p=irol-reportsannual (see 2014 Annual Report, Balance Sheet and Note
1)
6.
Office Depot (ticker symbol ODP). See Note 1.
http://investor.officedepot.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=94746&p=irol-reportsAnnual (see 2014 Form 10-K, Balance Sheet and
Note 1)
FYE:
Year
31-Dec
F
Ending Inventory in Millions of USD
31-Dec
1-Feb
1-Feb
GM
HD
LOW
31-Jan
SPLS
31-Dec
ODP
2014
2013
7,708
14,039
11,079
9,127
2,328
1,812
2012
7,362
14,714
10,710
8,600
2,314
1,051
2011
5,917
14,324
10,325
8,355
2,432
1,147
2010
5,901
12,125
10,625
8,321
2,359
1,234
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
5,450
8,618
10,121
10,017
10,271
10,766
9,151
10,107
13,195
15,193
14,106
14,354
12,247
11,602
10,188
10,673
11,731
12,822
11,401
10,076
9,076
8,249
8,209
7,611
7,144
5,911
5,982
4,584
2,261
2,404
2,053
1,920
1,706
1,603
1,466
1,253
1,332
1,718
1,540
1,360
1,409
1,336
2002
2001
METHOD
(Lifo, Fifo,
W/A, etc.)
6,980
6,127
9,967
10,034
GM failed to
disclose its
inventory
method –
shame,
shame. It
used FIFO.
8,338
6,725
3,968
3,611
1,555
1,460
1,306
1,253