Question: Use the Internet to research an annual report of a retail company. Then, imagine you are an investor or creditor and suggest the ratios that you believe would provide an investor or creditor with the most important information needed to make accurate predictions about the company's financial condition. When analyzing a company, is it more important to compare the ratios to competitors or to the company's previous history? Provide a rationale for your response. Note: You must provide a link or instructions to the researched report.

Please read and respond to the post below of another student.

The company I chose to report is Wal-Mart. this report is from 2017:

Annual revenue was $486 billion with operating income of $22.8 billion

Operating cash flow was $31,5 billion and return on investments was 15.2 percent.

$14,5 billion was returned to shareholders

The annual report I will be comparing to is Target for 2017:

total sales were $71,879 million

net earnings were $2,9 million

EBIT was $4,312 million

Gross margin was $20,754 million

Growth 16.2 percent

By comparing the two companies as an investor I would choose Target to invest in. Because even though Wal- Mart is in the billions its annual growth is at 15% where Target is at 16%. As an investor, I would be looking at the growth percentage because when the growth is higher it always better for investors.