Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)

Financial Reporting Quality: Aggregate Accruals

Difficulty: Advanced

Earnings can be decomposed into cash and accrual components. The accrual component (aggregate accruals) has been found to have less persistence than the cash component, and therefore (1) earnings with higher accrual component are less persistent than earnings with smaller accrual component, all else equal; and (2) the cash component of earnings should receive a higher weighting evaluating company performance.

Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio
Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio

Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio

Microsoft Corp., balance sheet computation of aggregate accruals

USD $ in millions

		Jun 30, 2018	Jun 30, 2017	Jun 30, 2016	Jun 30, 2015	Jun 30, 2014	Jun 30, 2013
	Operating Assets
	Total assets
	Less: Cash and cash equivalents
	Less: Short-term investments
	Operating assets
	Operating Liabilities
	Total liabilities
	Less: Short-term debt
	Less: Current portion of long-term debt
	Less: Long-term debt, excluding current portion
	Less: Operating lease liabilities
	Operating liabilities

	Net operating assets¹
	Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals²
	Ratio
	Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio³
	Benchmarks
	Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Competitors
	Adobe Inc.
	Alphabet Inc.
	Facebook Inc.
	International Business Machines Corp.
	Oracle Corp.
	salesforce.com inc.
	Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Sector
	Software & Computer Services
	Balance-Sheet-Based Accruals Ratio, Industry
	Technology

Based on: 10-K (filing date: 2018-08-03), 10-K (filing date: 2017-08-02), 10-K (filing date: 2016-07-28), 10-K (filing date: 2015-07-31), 10-K (filing date: 2014-07-31), 10-K (filing date: 2013-07-30).

2018 Calculations

¹ Net operating assets = Operating assets – Operating liabilities
= hidden – hidden = hidden

² Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals = Net operating assets ₂₀₁₈ – Net operating assets ₂₀₁₇
= hidden – hidden = hidden

³ Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio = 100 × Balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals ÷ Avg. net operating assets
= 100 × hidden ÷ [( hidden + hidden ) ÷ 2] = hidden

Ratio	Description	The company
Balance-sheet-based accruals ratio	Ratio is found by dividing balance-sheet-based aggregate accruals by average net operating assets.	Using the balance-sheet-based accruals ratio, Microsoft Corp. improved earnings quality from 2017 to 2018.

Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio

Microsoft Corp., cash flow statement computation of aggregate accruals

USD $ in millions

		Jun 30, 2018	Jun 30, 2017	Jun 30, 2016	Jun 30, 2015	Jun 30, 2014	Jun 30, 2013
	Net income
	Less: Net cash from operations
	Less: Net cash used in investing
	Cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals
	Ratio
	Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio¹
	Benchmarks
	Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Competitors
	Adobe Inc.
	Alphabet Inc.
	Facebook Inc.
	International Business Machines Corp.
	Oracle Corp.
	salesforce.com inc.
	Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Sector
	Software & Computer Services
	Cash-Flow-Statement-Based Accruals Ratio, Industry
	Technology

2018 Calculations

¹ Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio = 100 × Cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals ÷ Avg. net operating assets
= 100 × hidden ÷ [( hidden + hidden ) ÷ 2] = hidden

Ratio	Description	The company
Cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio	Ratio is found by dividing cash-flow-statement-based aggregate accruals by average net operating assets.	Using the cash-flow-statement-based accruals ratio, Microsoft Corp. improved earnings quality from 2017 to 2018.

	Microsoft Corp.	Other companies (not purchased previously)
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Long-term Trends
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Financial Statements
Common-Size Financial Statements
Ratios
Relative Valuation
Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Valuation
Economic Value Added (EVA)
Long-term Trends
Analysis
Financial Reporting Quality