Update. It looks good. I can tilt pics….

Rgds
Luqman

Summary: This document provides a description of a typical Cisco Interface.

a.irvnca.us.ra#sh int Serial3/0/3:1
Serial3/0/3:1 is up, line protocol is up
Hardware is PA-MC-2T3+
Description: Customer T1
Internet address is x.x.x.x/30
MTU 1500 bytes, BW 256 Kbit, DLY 20000 usec,
rely 255/255, load 1/255
Encapsulation PPP, crc 16, loopback not set
Keepalive set (10 sec)
LCP Open
Open: IPCP, CDPCP
Last input 00:00:03, output 00:01:08, output hang never
Last clearing of “show interface” counters never
Input queue: 0/75/0 (size/max/drops); Total output drops: 0
Queueing strategy: weighted fair
Output queue: 0/1000/64/0 (size/max total/threshold/drops)
Conversations 0/1/256 (active/max active/max total)
Reserved Conversations 0/0 (allocated/max allocated)
5 minute input rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
5 minute output rate 0 bits/sec, 0 packets/sec
20950 packets input, 1992090 bytes, 0 no buffer
Received 0 broadcasts, 0 runts, 0 giants, 0 throttles
1 input errors, 0 CRC, 0 frame, 0 overrun, 0 ignored, 1 abort
31524 packets output, 10804297 bytes, 0 underruns
0 output errors, 0 collisions, 0 interface resets
0 output buffer failures, 0 output buffers swapped out
0 carrier transitions no alarm present
Timeslot(s) Used: 1-4, subrate: 256Kb/s, transmit delay is 0 flags
non-inverted data

Interface and Line Protocol Status

Hardware

This field describes the type of hardware that the interface is connected to. In this case, this Serial interface is part of a channelized T3.

Description

This field is simply used to describe the interface by the network administrator. It has not bearing on connectivity.

Internet address

This is the IP address and subnet mask assigned to the interface in question.

MTU, BW, DLY, rely, and load

• MTU – Maximum Tranmission Unit. By default, this is 1500 bytes, which describes the largest packet that can be sent through the interface before the packet is fragmented.
• BW – Bandwidth. This field is defined by the network administrator and has no actual effect on the bandwidth of a line. It is simply used for describing the load on a specific interface.
• DLY – Delay. Amount of micro seconds of delay. I do not have any more information on this at this time.
• rely – Reliability. Reliability of the interface as a fraction of 255 (255/255 is 100% reliability), calculated as an exponential average over five minutes (default).
• load – Load Average. Load on the interface as a fraction of 255 (255/255 is completely saturated), calculated as an exponential average over five minutes (default).

Encapsulation and Loopback

• Encapsulation is the type of Data-Link encapsulation. This is commonly either PPP, HDLC (Cisco’s proprietary PPP), Frame-Relay, and ATM.
• Loopback specifies whether the loopback bit is set in the D channel signalling.

Last input

• The last input is the number of hours, minutes, and seconds since the last packet was successfully received by an interface. This is useful for determining when a dead interface.
• The last output is the number of hours, minutes, and seconds since the last packet was successfully transmitted by an interface. This is useful for determining when a dead interface failed.
• The output hang is the number of hours, minutes, and seconds (or never) since the interface was last reset because of a transmission that took too long.

Last clearing

This shows the elapsed time, in seconds, since the last clearing of the interface counters that will be described in a later section on counters.

Output queue, input queue, drops

Number of packets in output and input queues. Each number is followed by a slash, the maximum size of the queue, and the number of packets dropped due to a full queue.

5 minute input/output rate

Average number of bits and packets received and transmitted per second in the last five minutes.

Counters

• Packets input – Total number of error-free packets received.
• Broadcasts – Total number of broadcast or multicast packets received.
• Runts – Number of packets discarded because they are smaller than the medium’s minimum packet size.
• Giants – Number of packets that are discarded because they exceed the medium’s maximum packet size.
• Parity – Number of parity errors on the HSSI.
• RX Disabled – Indicates inability to get a buffer when accessing a packet.
• Input Errors – Sum of all errors that prevented the receipt of datagrams. This may not balance with the sum of the enumerated output errors, because some datagrams may have more than one error and others may have errors that do not fall into any of the specific categories.
• CRC – Cyclic redundancy checksum generated mismatch. CRC errors also are reported when a far-end abort occurs and when the idle flag pattern is corrupted. This makes it possible to get CRC errors even when there is no data traffic.
• Frame – Number of packets received incorrectly having a CRC error and a noninteger number of octets.
• Overrun – Number of times the serial receiver hardware was unable to hand received data to a hardware buffer because the input rate exceeded the receiver’s ability to handle the data.
• Ignored – Number of received packets ignored by the interface because the interface hardware ran low on internal buffers.
• Abort – Number of packets whose receipt was aborted.
• Bytes – Total number of bytes, including data and MAC encapsulation, transmitted by the system.
• Underruns – Number of times that the far-end router’s transmitter has been running faster than the near-end router’s receiver can handle. This may never happen (be reported) on some interfaces.
• Congestion Drop – Number of messages discarded because the output queue on an interface grew too long.
• Output Errors – Sum of all errors that prevented the final transmission. This may not balance with the sum of the enumerated output errors, because some datagrams may have more than one error and others may have errors that do not fall into any of the specific categories.
• Interface Resets – Number of times an interface has been completely reset.
• Restarts – Number of times the controller was restarted because of errors.
• Carrier Transitions – Number of times the carrier detect signal of a serial interface has changed state.

The field of science is perhaps the best illustration of how success always seems to come to those who apply the principle of accurate thinking in a persistent, determined effort. America’s great inventor Thomas A. Edison is said to have failed 10,000 times in his attempt to develop a workable electric lightbulb. He learned from each failure and refused to quit until he succeeded. Breakthroughs occur every day because a determined person continues to search for solutions to complex problems long after everyone else has given up and gone home. You may not invent the lightbulb or the next supercomputer, but you can find creative solutions to old problems if you apply the proven principles of success consistently and persistently.

How to analyse an annual report

Personal Investing – By Ooi Kok Hwa

 

MANY of us receive a lot of annual reports every year.

Even though we are aware that there is a lot of important information in the reports, not many of us are willing to spend time going through those reports before buying stocks.

Besides, it is quite difficult for some investors, especially those who lack proper financial training, to analyse the financial information.

In this article, we will provide a quick guide on how to analyse an annual report.

Given that there are many ways to dissect an annual report, the following six pointers are just a quick check on the financial health of any listed companies.

Income statement is the financial statement that shows the effects of transactions completed over a specific accounting period.

In this statement, we have three key pointers: the current level of revenue; high growth in revenue; and the profits made in proportion to the level of revenue.

The current level of revenue indicates the size of a company. A company with revenue or sales of RM1bil is definitely bigger than one that has revenue of only RM100mil.

In Malaysia, companies with revenue of RM500mil and above should be considered as more established companies.

High growth in revenue implies that the company has been expanding over the past period.

Assuming the high growth in revenue will eventually translate into high growth in profits, we should invest in companies with higher growth in revenue because this may lead to higher stock prices.

If the overall economy is expanding, avoid those companies that are showing a decline in revenue.

This might imply that the overall operating activities of the companies are declining.

The profits made in proportion to the level of revenue indicates whether this company has high or low profit margins in its products. The profits here refer to the profit after tax or net income.

We should invest in high profit margin companies because high profit margins will provide a cushion to the sudden change in operating environment. A company with revenue of RM1bil and profits of RM10mil is more likely to face tougher challenges in a stiff price competition environment compared with a company with revenue of RM100mil and profits of RM10mil.

Balance sheet is the financial statement that shows a company’s assets, liabilities and owners’ equity at a point in time. The two main pointers in this statement are cash in hand and total borrowings.

Cash in hand refers to the cash or cash equivalent like fixed deposits. If possible, we should invest in companies with high cash in hand and zero borrowings. High cash in hand may imply that the company has high chances of rewarding shareholders with higher dividend payments.

Besides, companies with high cash in hand have more financial stability than companies with very tight level of cash. This explains why most investment gurus like to invest in cash-rich companies.

Total borrowings include the short- and long-term borrowings. Here, we should check whether the company has reported any sharp increase in borrowings during the financial periods. Most companies need to increase borrowings to support their capital expenditure on any business expansion.

However, if a company has been increasing its borrowings each year and the level has far exceeded one to two times the shareholders’ funds, unless its operating activities are able to support the repayments, the company faces very high financial risk.

Cash flow statement shows the sources and uses of cash over the period. One very important pointer in this statement is the operating cash flow.

High operating cash flow implies that the company is generating cash from its operating activities. A healthy company should show high operating cash flow because this number will indicate how much actual cash the company has generated from operations during the period.

We need to be careful of the companies that are showing profits but at the same time generating negative operating cash flows every year. This may imply that these companies have very high receivables. Any economic downturn may cause a sharp increase in provisions on bad debts.

Lastly, investors need to understand that the above six pointers are just a quick guide to analysing any annual report. Serious investors should not only analyse these six pointers. They are advised to scrutinise the reports further for more details.

l Ooi Kok Hwa is an investment adviser and managing partner of MRR Consulting.