Year-to-date (YTD) is the period between the first day of the calendar year and the current date. It is generally used for the calculation of investment returns on a security or a firm’s income to the current date.
Year-to-date is widely used by financial analysts to provide details about a firm’s performance during a specified period or to compare the return of a portfolio during a specified period. By calculating YTD results, managers can perform a comparison between the firm’s current performance and the performance of past years.
For instance, the fiscal year for most companies is on January 1. The YTD results for company A to the current date (April) are $500,000 revenues in January, 250,000 revenues in February, 356,000 revenues in March, and $485,000 in April, a total of $1,591,000 YTD. Comparing YTD results with the results of the previous fiscal year allows the firm’s manager to identify areas that may need improvement. On the other hand, a YTD comparison should be performed on companies with a common fiscal year start date to avoid distortion of results due to seasonal or other factors.