Vertical Analysis Term category: Finance/Accounting In 10 words or less: A method of analyzing financial statements that looks at the breakdown for one period.
Definition: Vertical analysis puts the balance sheet and income statement into percentage terms. This allows you to compare, for example, what percent of sales is spent on marketing.
Example: Sales 100% COGS 79%
Gross Margin 21%
SG&A 7%
Operating Margin 14%
StockJargon Advice: Vertical analysis is very useful when used with horizontal analysis. This helps investors determine such trends as margin expansion and contraction.
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