Analysis of ROA on different profit presentation forms in the level 1 companies of the corpora te governance of Bovespa

Resumen

The objective of the article is to analyze Rates of Return on Assets (ROA) as they appear in different forms of profit statements of companies listed in level 1 of the Bovespa corporate governance. The research methodology is descriptive: data collected from a cross-section sample using a quantitative approach. The population is composed of 36 public companies, all members of level 1 of Bovespa corporate governance. Accounting Statements from 2005 were examined in order to calculate the Rates of Return on the Assets (ROA) on the Operational Accounting Profit (LOC), on the Total Profit (LA) and on the Net Profit of each company according to Law n° 6.404/76 (LLEI), and to classify them according to their returns. The results of the classification of the companies using geometric average and discriminant analysis are similar to each other. Regarding the companies, only Klabin S.A., Cia. Fiação, Tecidos Cedro e Cachoeira and Aracruz Celulose S.A. diverge in their group classifications in the application of the methods. It is concluded that discriminant analysis classifies companies that presented rates between 0.95% and 5.38% in Group 1 (Low Return), companies from 5.55% to 9.59% in Group 2 (Medium Return), and the smallest group, composed of 9 companies, in Group 3 (High Return), with rates between 11.61% and 23.49%.

Key words: analysis of ROA, profit statement, corporate governance.