Calculate a Company's 5-Year Average Gross Margin

The GrossMarginFiveYearAverage function returns a company’s average gross margin (as a percentage) over the last five years directly within your Excel worksheet. By passing a valid stock ticker symbol to this function, MarketXLS seamlessly fetches the necessary data from its fundamentals database and provides you with a quick and reliable historical viewpoint on that company's gross margin performance.

Why Use This Function?

• Evaluate historical profitability trends quickly without manually gathering multiple years of data.
• Make better-informed investment decisions by assessing whether a company’s margins are stable or improving over time.
• Compare multiple companies side by side, leveraging consistent five-year margin calculations for all.
• Integrate with your existing Excel models or portfolio trackers to see updated gross margin trends at a glance.
• Save time and reduce errors by avoiding manual or external data retrieval processes. It all happens automatically with MarketXLS.

How to Use in Excel

Use this function in any cell just like other Excel formulas. For instance, if you want to check Apple’s 5-year average gross margin, place the following in a cell:

=GrossMarginFiveYearAverage("AAPL")

Alternatively, you can reference a cell containing the ticker:

=GrossMarginFiveYearAverage(A1)

Where A1 contains “AAPL” (or any valid stock ticker).

When called, MarketXLS will look up the ticker’s gross margin data for the last five years, calculate an average, and return that figure into your worksheet cell. If the symbol is invalid, or if there is insufficient data, the function will return "NA".

Parameters Explained

• No additional parameters are necessary. The function automatically fetches the 5-year average gross margin for the provided Symbol.
• The output is typically a percentage, e.g., 40.2, representing a 40.2% gross margin average.

Example Usage

Basic Examples

1. Single Stock Ticker:
   =GrossMarginFiveYearAverage("MSFT")
   This formula returns Microsoft’s five-year average gross margin percentage.

2. Dynamic Input:
   A1: AMZN
   B1: =GrossMarginFiveYearAverage(A1)
   If you change the ticker in cell A1, the result updates automatically.

3. Error Handling:
   =GrossMarginFiveYearAverage("INVALID")
   Returns “NA” if the symbol is unrecognized in the MarketXLS database.

Advanced Scenarios

• Portfolio Analysis: Combine multiple instances of this function in a single sheet to compare the five-year gross margin averages of different companies side by side.
• Trend Validation: Use the function along with other MarketXLS metrics, like revenue growth or net margin over multiple time frames, to confirm the consistency of a company’s margins.
• Combined Metrics: In an Excel strategy model, calculate GrossMarginFiveYearAverage side by side with other fundamental data (e.g., Price-to-Earnings Ratio, Debt-to-Equity) for a more holistic valuation approach.

Common Questions and Troubleshooting

• “Why am I getting ‘NA’ instead of a number?”

• Ensure the ticker symbol is valid and spelled correctly. If your subscription or license is not valid, or if data is unavailable, you will also see “NA.”

• “Does this function recalculate automatically for updates?”

• Yes. MarketXLS retrieves updated data whenever you open or refresh the workbook, assuming your license and data are current.

• “What if the company doesn’t have five full years of data?”

• In such cases, the function may still attempt to compute an average for the available data. If there isn’t enough data at all, you’ll receive “NA.”

• “Can I use this function for non-US tickers?”

• MarketXLS supports many global tickers, but coverage varies. If the fundamentals data for a particular stock is not available, “NA” is returned.

By leveraging GrossMarginFiveYearAverage in your Excel workflows, you can effortlessly gain insight into a company's recent profitability trends and incorporate that knowledge into broader investment or financial models.