Archive of Journal - Financing

Financing – scientific magazine for economy

ISSUE 2024, No. 4, Article 3, Year of publication: 15, December, 2024
Profitability and Liquidity from the Perspective of the Largest and Smallest Joint-Stock Companies Listed on the Banja Luka Stock Exchange

AUTHORS

Nikola Rakić

*Assistant, University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Economics Subotica, Department for Accounting and Business Finance

ABSTRACT

ARTICLE INFO

This paper analyzes the profitability and liquidity of the ten largest and ten smallest companies listed on the Banja Luka Stock Exchange during the period from 2021 to 2023. The companies were classified based on their total assets, and the analysis was conducted using aggregated financial statements publicly available on the official website of the Banja Luka Stock Exchange. The aim of the study is to examine the earning capacity of these companies measured by ROA and ROE, as well as their liquidity position, the trends of these indicators over a three-year period, and to determine whether there is a significant difference in these indicators depending on the company size. The research results, including the Mann-Whitney U test, indicate that profitability indicators are higher in larger companies, while liquidity indicators are higher in the smallest companies. However, a statistically significant difference between profitability and liquidity indicators of the largest and smallest companies exists only in the return on assets (ROA). For the return on equity (ROE) and liquidity indicators, company size, measured by its total assets, does not create a statistically significant difference and is not a prerequisite for achieving higher levels of these indicators..

Keywords: profitability, liquidity, largest companies, smallest companies, Banja Luka Stock Exchange

DOI: 10.7251/FIN2404033R

Corresponding author:
nikola.rakic@ef.uns.ac.rs