Question: How does a person perform a financial trend analysis using 5 years of financial statements? Writing a paper on the financial analysis using a large company's financial statements from 1999-2003 and would like to perform a trend analysis, but am unable to find clear directions in textbooks or on web.

Answer: You look for the direction of sales and what products offered are declining in sales and rising in sales.  All income and expense items are tracked to develop the direction of activity.  The efficiency of management can be measure by the cost of doing business and the profit margins achieved.  All that is part of financial trends.
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