What are Financial Highlights?

Financial highlights summarize the key monetary results of an organization. These highlights are usually set forth in a separate section of the financial report of a publicly-held company to its shareholders . The types of information that may be found in a financial highlights section include:

• Acquisition summaries. This states the nature of the acquisition, the revenues of the acquired entity, and whether the acquisition increased or decreased earnings per share.

• Dividends . This states the amount of dividends paid, and whether there were any changes from the prior reporting periods.

• Earnings per share . This addresses any significant changes in the earnings per share from prior reporting periods.

• Liquidity statistics. This covers a standard set of liquidity ratios, noting the reasons for any significant changes.

• Net cash flows. This covers the net amount of cash flows generated, and describes the reasons for any significant changes from prior periods.

• New product performance. This covers the revenues and market share gained from new product introductions.

• Performance statistics. This covers a standard set of metrics that management believes are representative of the overall performance of the business.

• Profitability . This covers the percentage profit derived from each business segment, with commentary on any major changes.

• Revenues . This covers the sales generated by each business segment, with comments about any significant changes.

The summary is commonly presented in a multi-year comparison format and may include percentage change information.

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