The possibility that a company will have lower than anticipated profits, or that it will experience a loss rather than a profit. Business risk is influenced by numerous factors, including sales volume, per-unit price, input costs, competition, overall economic climate and government regulations. A company with a higher business risk should choose a capital structure that has a lower debt ratio to ensure that it can meet its financial obligations at all times.
Investors in a company are exposed not only to business risk, but also to financial risk, liquidity risk, systematic risk, exchange-rate risk and country-specific risk. To calculate business risk, analysts use four simple ratios: contribution margin, operation leverage effect, financial leverage effect and total leverage effect. For more complex calculations, analysts can incorporate statistical methods.
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