Which of the following statements is CORRECT?
a. In general, if investors regard a company as being relatively risky and/or having relatively poor growth prospects, then it will have relatively high P/E and M/B ratios.
b. The basic earning power ratio (BEP) reflects the earning power of a firm's assets after giving consideration to financial leverage and tax effects.
c. The "apparent," but not necessarily the "true," financial position of a company whose sales are seasonal can change dramatically during a given year, depending on the time of year when the financial statements are constructed.
d. The market/book (M/B) ratio tells us how much investors are willing to pay for a dollar of accounting book value. In general, investors regard companies with higher M/B ratios as being more risky and/or less likely to enjoy higher future growth.
e. It is appropriate to use the fixed assets turnover ratio to appraise firms' effectiveness in managing their fixed assets if and only if all the firms being compared have the same proportion of fixed assets to total assets

c. The "apparent," but not necessarily the "true," financial position of a company whose sales are seasonal can change dramatically during a given year, depending on the time of year when the financial statements are constructed.

Explanation:

Financial statements are used to show the financial activity of a business within a given period.

One of the principles of a accounting is periodicity. This requires businesses to report their financial position at regular intervals consistently, and not in an inconsistent manner. So if a business reports their finances twice a year. At year end and at mid year, it is possible that at mid year due to seasonal sales performance will be high and business is perceived to be highly profitable.

But financial report at end of year in the off-season will show low performance.

So for seasonal businesses there can be apparent view of a business during the year that can change dramatically because of time at which reports are made.

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