Turnover

Turnover is the total sales (excluding VAT) of a company as shown by the last annual report (AR) or by the preliminary announcement of results (PA) for the following year.

Turnover gives an immediate indication of the size and stature of a company.

Pre-Tax Profits

Pre-tax profits are the total profits of a company before tax as shown by the last reported accounts (AR) or by the preliminary results (PA) for the following year.

The Moons

Any statistic has little value unless it is examined in relation to other statistics of a similar nature. Clearly, the most relevant comparisons are with the average of the whole market (first column - M) and with the average of other companies in the sector (second column - S).

The moons should be used as gauges to show at a glance if a company's ratios or percentage returns are good news or bad. The moons are calibrated to show the position of a company in the market as a whole and in its sector. The key point is that the blacker the moons the better
the statistics. In other words, in REFS - black is beautiful.

To give an example, full black moons against the PER would mean that the PER was the lowest in the market and in its sector. Blank moons against return on capital employed would mean that the returns were the worst in the market and the sector. If a company was in a sector containing twenty companies and it held the fifth best position for a particular statistic, the
relevant moon would be three quarters black.

The statistics are grouped together. The PER, PEG, GR, ROCE and MARGIN are all growth statistics, whereas the PBV, PTBV, PCF, PSR and PRR are all value statistics. This makes it possible to see at a glance from a cluster of black moons whether a share is an attractive growth company or an asset situation.