Analysis of the relationship between profitability and working capital management strategies of companies listed in B3

Abstract

The main purpose of working capital management is to maintain a balance between each of its components and, therefore, the balance between insolvency risk and profitability. The company can therefore adopt an aggressive or conservative policy of working capital management, depending on the management strategy. In this sense, the purpose of this article is to analyze the influence of working capital management strategies on the profitability of the companies listed in B3. It was then selected a sample of 152 companies listed in B3 and segregated between aggressive or conservative policy of working capital management. The period analyzed was from 2000 to 2014 and the data collected consists of current assets, current liabilities, total assets, total assets profitability and net assets' profitability. Data were organized and analyzed based on simple and multivariate regression. The results indicate that the investment strategy in working capital positively influences the profitability of total assets and shareholders' equity. As regards the financing policy, it was verified that the companies, when analyzed together, had a negative influence of the aggressiveness of financing on the profitability of assets and equity. However, companies that adopt aggressive financing policies above average and show above-average return on assets represent a positive influence of the financing policy on profitability.

Keywords

• Capital de giro
• Rentabilidade
• Estratégia agressiva
• Estratégia conservadora