The Application Of Cash Flow Ratios In Appraising The Financial Perfor-mance Of Listed Companies in Tehran Stock Exchange

The users of financial statements need to appraise the performance of companies for their decisions. Then they would analyze the finan-cial statements for this appraise. There are different methods of ana-lyzing the financial statements, and "fianacial ratios" is one of the most important of them. Financial ratios show the relationship between two or more numbers that have been obstructed from financial statements and usually this numbers are taken from balance sheet and income statement and little attention have been to cash flow ratio.In this research, the application of cash flow ratios in appraising the performance of accepted companies in Tehran Stock Exchange for four, Nonmetal minerals, Equipment, Foodstuffs, Chemical and Pharmaceutical industries have been examined. Data analysis has been done with employing of 5 main hypothesis and a minor hypothesis, and result from those shows that cash flow ratios and income state-ment and balance sheet ratios have their own specific information con-tents and they can not be substituted with each other. Presenting both of ratios together will help to understand the strength and weaknesses of a company. Moreover, cash flow ratios can present a good picture of profitability and return investment, and the ability to pay the debts by companies. But these ratios fail to show a reasonable picture of li-quidity for companies.