The first thing to notice is that cash and short term investments has gone down from almost 200 to 25. I have hesitated from making sweeping judgments on the behavior of the company because although the percentage changes in things like revenue tend to be small, we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. The second thing to do is to examine the cash flow statement to see if we can determine where the cash for May s is going. Net Income has been steadily increasing from 700 in 1995 to 927 in 1999.However, changes in net working capital have differed wildly from year to year. Because of this, total cash from operating activities varies from year to year, though it has remained near to 1530 for the last three years.
Capital expenditures is next.
The other investing cash flow items hasn t had much of an impact except in year 1998, where May s spent 258. Without further details, I have no idea where that money went. They also pay out roughly 300 a year in cash dividends. Looking at these numbers, cash flow behavior on the balance sheet is a little better understood. May s cash has declined the past two years because their Financing Activities and Investing Activities are draining more cash than May s can pull in a year.