quarter

(noun)

A period of three consecutive months (1/4 of a year).

Examples of quarter in the following topics:

  • Approaches to Calculating Future Value

    • The loan accrues interest at a rate of 3% per quarter.
    • The problem says it's 3% per quarter, or 3% every three months.
    • That means that the interest must either be converted to % per year, or one period must be one quarter.
    • Let's take one period to be one quarter.

  • Announcements, News, and Returns

    • Macy's may announce higher profits in quarter 4 than quarter 3, but its price might not move, because analysts expected that Christmas would bring additional sales based on past data.

  • Time Lags and Targets

    • The government requires nine months to know whether the economy has entered a recession because economists define a recession as two consecutive quarters of negative real GDP growth.
    • Thus, a government knows the economy is in a recession by the end of the third quarter.
    • The GDP needs two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth before a recession is declared.

  • Reinvestment Assumptions

    • At the end of the first quarter, the investor had capital of $1,010.00, which then earned $10.10 during the second quarter.

  • Expected Dividends and Constant Growth

    • They may have been growing earnings at 10 - 15% over the past several quarters / years because of cost cutting, but their sales growth could be only 0 - 5%.

  • Calculating Values for Different Durations of Compounding Periods

    • You can think of it as 2% interest accruing every quarter, but since the interest compounds, the amount of interest that actually accrues is slightly more than 8%.

  • Cash Flow Factors

    • The net cash flow of a company over a period (typically a quarter or a full year) is equal to the change in cash balance over this period: It's positive if the cash balance increases (more cash becomes available); it's negative if the cash balance decreases.

  • Accounting for Preferred Stock

    • Cumulative preferred stock is preferred stock for which the right to receive a basic dividend, usually each quarter, accumulates if the dividend is not paid.

  • Managing Marketable Securities

    • You budget $500,000 for the purchase of coffee beans over a given quarter for all of your many successful locations.