A stock's historical variance measures the difference between the stock's returns for different periods and its average return. A stock with a lower variance typically generates returns that are ...

Facilities that focus on manufacturing and production track two kinds of costs: fixed costs and variable costs. The variable costs are those that change when production levels change: raw materials, ...

Identify budget overages and savings to forecast future costs more accurately. Use variance analysis to pinpoint operational areas needing financial adjustment. Regularly update budgets based on ...

A differentiation in the amount of inventory that a company has on hand and the amount that it has on the books can lead to signs of errors in recording or dishonest employees. Both have potentially ...

Adam Hayes, Ph.D., CFA, is a financial writer with 15+ years Wall Street experience as a derivatives trader. Besides his extensive derivative trading expertise, Adam is an expert in economics and ...

A company's planned budget at the beginning of the year will always end up being different from how the year actually plays out. It's just impossible to predict how the year will go. The differences ...