The ratio of a company's annual sales to its inventory; or equivalently, the fraction of a year that an average item remains in inventory. Low turnover is a sign of inefficiency, since inventory usually has a rate of return of zero. For instance, if a company was able to generate $10 million in sales but averaged $5 million in inventory, the inventory turnover would be 10 million / 5 million = 2. This number indicates that there would be 2 inventory turns per year, meaning that it would take 6 months to sell all the inventory.

Copyright©2009 by InvestorWords.com. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Reproduction of all or part of this glossary and/or this page, in any format, without written consent is prohibited. If you have questions about this dictionary please feel free to contact us feedback\@\investorguide.com