How to calculate Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio: Formula, Examples [+Excel Template]

What is the fixed asset turnover ratio? How to calculate the fixed asset turnover ratio with the right formula? Why is it important? If you're looking for answers to these questions, you've come to the right place. In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about the fixed asset turnover ratio. Furthermore, you will have access to an excel template that lets you calculate the fixed asset turnover ratio for more than 65,000 companies with just one click.

What is the Fixed Asset Turnover Ratio? Why Is it important?

The fixed asset turnover ratio (FAT) helps determine a company’s ability to generate revenue from its fixed assets. Property, plant, and equipment (PP&E) typically make up the majority of a company’s fixed assets. As a result, the fixed asset turnover ratio is mostly used in the manufacturing industry since they frequently make PP&E purchases. Investors will sometimes use the FAT ratio to track if a company’s new investment in fixed assets actually helped generate more sales.

While a high FAT ratio indicates that a company is effectively creating revenue from its fixed asset investments, there is no accepted range that is considered “efficient”. Consequently, it’s vital to draw conclusions with the fixed asset turnover ratio through comparison, either through company historicals or peer and industry averages. It’s also important to calculate the FAT ratio over time. This is because a company could have cyclical sales or be in the process of outsourcing its production, leading to an over or underexaggerated fixed asset turnover.

A too low fixed asset turnover ratio compared to the sector average may indicate that the company is not using its asset efficiently. Obviously, there is a high chance that an inefficient business brings you low returns. You don't want to get poor returns, do you? The best way to know if your companies' fixed asset turnover ratio is good is to compare it to the other companies in the sector.

How can you check that? Simple! All you have to do is use the Finbox data explorer. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Sign Up for free at Finbox

2. Go to the Finbox data explorer

3. Select the company and the metric you want to check (In this case we want to check the fixed Asset Turnover ratio)
   

4. Scroll down to Sector Benchmark Analysis
   

5. Control in what decile are your stocks (If your company is in the lowest decile, there is a high chance of underperforming the market. As you can guess, Apple is not at risk.)

How to calculate the fixed asset turnover ratio with the right formula

Fixed Asset Turnover = Revenue / Average Fixed Assets

The fixed asset turnover ratio is calculated by dividing a company’s revenue by its average fixed assets over the same period. Since revenue is generated over the course of a year, fixed assets are averaged between the start and end of the year.

Fixed Asset Turnover ratio: Benchmarks by Sector

As of May 14, 2020, the sectors with the highest fixed asset turnover ratios are information technology, financials, and communication services. Utilities, Energy, and Materiales are the sectors with the lowest fixed asset turnover ratios.

You can get up to date stats and graphs like that directly in Excel with the
Finbox Excel Add-in.

Fixed Asset Turnover ratio Example [+Excel Template]

I’ve created an example calculation of fixed asset turnover to try out. To explore the FAT ratios of the 65,000+ companies that Finbox supports, just change the ticker in the spreadsheet. Click here to open the spreadsheet in Google Sheets. Select File > Make a copy to modify the example calculation. If you are not already registered on Finbox, all you have to do is sign up for free here.

Don't underperform the market!

Finbox makes it easy to find companies with strong fixed asset turnover ratios. View the top 100 stocks with the highest fixed asset turnover ratios here.