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profit

  (prŏf'ĭt) pronunciation
n.
  1. An advantageous gain or return; benefit.
  2. The return received on a business undertaking after all operating expenses have been met.
    1. The return received on an investment after all charges have been paid. Often used in the plural.
    2. The rate of increase in the net worth of a business enterprise in a given accounting period.
    3. Income received from investments or property.
    4. The amount received for a commodity or service in excess of the original cost.

v., -it·ed, -it·ing, -its.

v.intr.
  1. To make a gain or profit.
  2. To derive advantage; benefit: profiting from the other team's mistakes. See synonyms at benefit.
v.tr.

To be beneficial to.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin prōfectus, from past participle of prōficere, make progress, to profit : prō-, forward; see pro–1 + facere, to make.]

profitless prof'it·less adj.
 
 
Investment Dictionary: Profit

The same as net income: total earnings less expenses.

Investopedia Says:
In other words, profit is the money a business makes after accounting for all the expenses. Profit is the goal of every company.

Related Links:
Learn how to use revenue and expenses, among other factors, to break down and analyze a company. Understanding The Income Statement
Learn this easy-to-understand technique of analyzing a company's financial statements and reports. Introduction To Fundamental Analysis
Take a deeper look at a company's profitability with the help of profit-margin ratios. The Bottom Line On Margins


 
Financial & Investment Dictionary: Profit

Finance: positive difference that results from selling products and services for more than the cost of producing these goods. See also Net Profit.

Investments: difference between the selling price and the purchase price of commodities or securities when the selling price is higher.

 
Business Dictionary: Not for Profit

Organization in which no stockholder or trustee shares in profits or losses; usually exists to accomplish some charitable, humanitarian, or educational purpose; also called nonprofit. Such groups are exempt from corporate income taxes (except for Unrelated Business Income), and donations to these groups may be tax deductible for the donor. Some examples are hospitals, colleges and universities, and foundations.

 
Insurance Dictionary: Disqualified Person (Tax-Exempt Organization)

person deemed to be an insider (according to section 4958 of the internal revenue code) in a tax-exempt organization who, during

the last five-year period ending as of the date of the transaction,

exercised substantial influence over the decision-making process of that organization.

 
Thesaurus: profit

noun

  1. Something beneficial: advantage, avail, benefit, blessing, boon1, favor, gain. See help/harm/harmless.
  2. Something that contributes to or increases one's well-being: advantage, benefit, good, interest (often used in plural). See help/harm/harmless.
  3. Something earned, won, or otherwise acquired: earnings, gain, return. See get/lose, money.
  4. The quality of being suitable or adaptable to an end: account, advantage, avail, benefit, use, usefulness, utility. See used/unused.

verb

  1. To make a large profit: batten. Slang clean up. Idioms: make a killing. See money.
  2. To derive advantage: benefit, capitalize, gain. See help/harm/harmless.
  3. To be an advantage to: advantage, avail, benefit, serve. Archaic boot2. Idioms: stand someone in good stead. See help/harm/harmless.

 
Antonyms: profit

n

Definition: gain after expenses
Antonyms: loss

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: profit

In business usage, the excess of total revenue over total cost during a specific period of time. In economics, profit is the excess over the returns to capital, land, and labour. Since these resources are measured by their opportunity costs, economic profit can be negative. There are various sources of profit: an innovator who introduces a new production technique can earn entrepreneurial profits; changes in consumer tastes may bring some firms windfall profits; or a firm may restrict output to prevent prices from falling to the level of costs (monopoly profit).

For more information on profit, visit Britannica.com.

 
US History Encyclopedia: Profiteering

Profiteering, a term for making unconscionable or socially destructive profits, especially in times of economic stress and widespread shortages. For example, during the American Revolution speculators profited from fluctuations in paper currency. During the Mexican-American and Civil Wars, profiteers extracted excessive prices from the government for war matériel. During the panic of 1893, J. P. Morgan provided necessary assistance—and made $7.5 million on the deal. Both world wars saw profiteering in munitions, supplies, and commodities. During the 1973–1975 energy crisis, oil corporations reported annual profits ranging up to 800 percent. Governmental and private efforts to control profiteering have encompassed a wide range of techniques, with limited success.

Bibliography

Brandes, Stuart D. Warhogs: A History of War Profits in America. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1997.

The Industrial Reorganization Act, Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the Committee on the Judiciary, 93rd Congress, 1st session.

Profiteering, 65th Congress, 2nd session, Senate Document No.248.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: profit,
in economics, return on capital, also called earnings, minus the costs of maintaining land, labor, and capital. It is also known as net income. Economic theorists generally make a distinction between two types of profit: normal profit, in which the entrepreneur receives the minimal necessary amount to encourage him to open or stay in a particular business; and excess profit, that which exceeds normal profit. With the development of the corporation, profits are apportioned between dividends to the holders of stock, and investment and depreciation funds in the control of hired managers. Interest paid on loans is usually considered as separate from profit, and is therefore deducted from the net profit. Profit is often considered to be the major incentive for production in a capitalist economy, although with the decline of the entrepreneur and the rise of a salaried managerial class, it has tended to become less personal and more institutional in character. See also profit sharing.

Bibliography

See F. Knight, Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit (1921); M. Obrinsky, Profit Theory and Capitalism (1983); D. C. Mueller, Profits in the Long Run (1986); S.-Y. We Production, Entrepreneurship, and Profits (1988).

 
Law Encyclopedia: Profit
This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

Most commonly, the gross proceeds of a business transaction less the costs of the transaction; i.e., net proceeds. Excess of revenues over expenses for a transaction; sometimes used synonymously with net income for the period. Gain realized from business or investment over and above expenditures.

Accession of good, valuable results, useful consequences, avail, or gain. The benefit, advantage, or pecuniary gain accruing to the owner or occupant of land from its actual use; as in the familiar phrase rents, issues and profits, or in the expression mesne profits.

 
Veterinary Dictionary: profit

The amount by which income exceeds expenditure.

  • p. sharing — profit sharing between a professional and a lay person is illegal in most countries because it is considered to be improper for a nonveterinarian to have any authority over the quality and style of the work of a professional person.
 
Word Tutor: profit
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: Gain of any kind.

pronunciation Many receive advice, but the wise profit from it. — Publilius Syrus (~100 BC)

Tutor's tip: Another word that sounds like "profit' which is a gain of any kind, is "prophet" which is a person who claims to be able to foretell the future.

 
Quotes About: Profits

Quotes:

"Civilization and profits go hand in hand." - Calvin Coolidge

"What is a man if he is not a thief who openly charges as much as he can for the goods he sells?" - Mahatma Gandhi

"In the state of nature profit is the measure of right." - Thomas Hobbes

"Profit and morality are a hard combination to beat." - Hubert H. Humphrey

"Take every gain without showing remorse about missed profits, because an eel may escape sooner than you think." - Lope de Vega

"Profits on the exchange are the treasures of goblins. At one time they may be carbuncle stones, then coals, then diamonds, then flint stones, then morning dew, then tears." - Lope de Vega

See more famous quotes about Profits

 
Wikipedia: profit
For the television series, see Profit (TV series)

Profit generally is the making of gain in business activity for the benefit of the owners of the business. The word comes from Latin meaning "to make progress", is defined in two different ways, one for economics and one for accounting.

Pure economic profit is the increase in wealth that an investor has from making an investment, taking into consideration all costs associated with that investment including the opportunity cost of capital. Accounting profit is the difference between retail sales price and the costs of acquisition (whether by harvest, extraction, manufacture, or purchase). A key difficulty in measuring either definition of profit is in defining costs. Accounting profit may be positive even in competitive equilibrium when pure economic profits are zero.

Economic definitions of profit

Note: these definitions are different from those used by accountants

In economics, a firm is said to be making a normal profit when total revenues equal total costs. These normal profits then match the rate of return that is the minimum rate required by equity investors to maintain their present level of investment. Economically, the "normal profit" is thus treated as a cost, and recognised as one of the two components of the cost of capital.

An economic profit arises when its revenue exceeds the total (opportunity) cost of its inputs, noting that these costs include the cost of equity capital that is met by "normal profits." A business is said to be making an accounting profit if its revenues exceed the accounting cost the firm "pays" for those inputs.[1] Economics treats the normal profit as a cost, so when deducted from total accounting profit what is left is economic profit (or economic loss).

All enterprises can be stated in financial capital of the owners of the enterprise. The economic profit may include an element in recognition of the risks that an investor takes. It is often uncertain, because of incomplete information, whether an enterprise will succeed or not. This extra risk is included in the minimum rate of return that providers of financial capital require, and so is treated as still a cost within economics. The size of that return is commensurate with the riskiness associated with each type of investment, as per the risk-return spectrum.

"Normal profits" arise in circumstances of perfect competition when economic equilibrium is reached. At equilibrium, average cost = marginal cost at the profit-maximizing position. Since normal profit is economically a cost, there is no economic profit at equilibrium. In a single-goods case, a positive economic profit happens when the firm's average cost is less than the price of the product or service at the profit-maximizing output. The economic profit is equal to the quantity output multiplied by the difference between the average cost and the price.

Economic profit does not occur in perfect competition in long run equilibrium. Once risk is accounted for, long-lasting economic profit is thus viewed as the result of constant cost-cutting and performance improvement ahead of industry competitors, or an inefficiency caused by monopolies or some form of market failure.

Positive economic profit is sometimes referred to as supernormal profit or as economic rents.

The social profit from a firm's activities is the normal profit plus or minus any externalities that occur in its activity. A polluting oil monopoly may report huge profits, but by doing relatively little for the economy and damaging the environment. It would exhibit high economic profit but low social profit.

Accounting definitions of profit

Note: these definitions are different from those used by economists

In the accounting sense of the term, net profit (before tax) is the sales of the firm less costs such as wages, rent, fuel, raw materials, interest on loans and depreciation. Costs such as depreciation and amortization tend to be ambiguous. Within US business, the preferred term for profit tends to be the more ambiguous income.[2]

Gross profit is profit before Selling, General and Administrative costs (SG&A), like depreciation and interest; it is the Sales less direct Cost of Goods (or services) Sold (COGS),

Net profit after tax is after the deduction of either corporate tax (for a company) or income tax (for an individual).

Operating profit is a measure of a company's earning power from ongoing operations, equal to earnings before the deduction of interest payments and income taxes.

To accountants, economic profit, or EP, is a single-period metric to determine the value created by a company in one period - usually a year. It is the net profit after tax less the equity charge, a risk-weighted cost of capital. This is almost identical to the economist's definition of economic profit.

There are commentators who see benefit in making adjustments to economic profit such as eliminating the effect of amortized goodwill or capitalizing expenditure on brand advertising to show its value over multiple accounting periods. The underlying concept was first introduced by Schmalenbach, but the commercial application of the concept of adjusted economic profit was by Stern Stewart & Co. which has trade-marked their adjusted economic profit as EVA or Economic Value Added.

Some economists define further types of profit:

Optimum Profit - This is the "right amount" of profit a business can achieve. In business, this figure takes account of marketing strategy, market position, and other methods of increasing returns above the competitive rate.

Accounting profits should include economic profits, which are also called economic rents. For instance, a monopoly can have very high economic profits, and those profits might include a rent on some natural resource that firm owns, where that resource cannot be easily duplicated by other firms.

References

  • Albrecht, William P. (1983). Economics. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0132243458
  • Böhm-Bawerk, E, (1959) Capital and Interest, Libertarian Books edition (3-volume set)
  • Pyle, William W., and Kermit D. Larson (1981). Fundamental Accounting Principles. Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin. ISBN 0256023867

Notes

  1. ^ Albrecht, p. 409
  2. ^ Pyle & Larson, pp. 157-158

See also

External links


This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
Translations: Translations for: Profit

Dansk (Danish)
n. - fordel, fortjeneste
v. intr. - gavne
v. tr. - gavne

idioms:

  • profit margin    profitmargen
  • profit sharing    udbyttedeling
  • profit taking    gevinstrealisering

Nederlands (Dutch)
winst, profijt, nut, voordeel hebben van, verdienen aan

Français (French)
n. - (Comm) bénéfice, profit, (fig) profit, avantage
v. intr. - tirer profit de qch
v. tr. - profiter à

idioms:

  • profit margin    marge bénéficiaire
  • profit sharing    intéressement des salariés aux bénéfices
  • profit taking    prise de bénéfices

Deutsch (German)
n. - Gewinn, Vorteil, Nutzen
v. - profitieren, von Nutzen sein

idioms:

  • profit margin    Gewinnspanne
  • profit sharing    Gewinnbeteiligung
  • profit taking    Gewinnmitnahme

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (οικον., μτφ.) κέρδος, όφελος, ωφέλεια
v. - κερδίζω, (επ)ωφελούμαι

idioms:

  • profit margin    (οικον.) περιθώριο κέρδους
  • profit sharing    (οικον.) συμμετοχή στα κέρδη (επιχείρησης)
  • profit taking    (οικον.) πώληση μετοχής με σκοπό την αποκόμιση των πραγματοποιηθέντων κερδών

Italiano (Italian)
profitto, guadagno, guadagnare

idioms:

  • profit margin    margine di profitto
  • profit sharing    partecipazione agli utili
  • profit taking    presa di beneficio

Português (Portuguese)
n. - lucro (m)
v. - lucrar, aproveitar

idioms:

  • profit margin    margem de lucro
  • profit sharing    divisão dos lucros
  • profit taking    fins lucrativos

Русский (Russian)
прибыль, доход, польза, извлекать пользу, приносить пользу

idioms:

  • profit margin    торговая наценка, чистый доход, доля прибыли в добавленной стоимости
  • profit sharing    участие в прибыли
  • profit taking    получение прибыли

Español (Spanish)
n. - provecho, beneficio, ganancias
v. intr. - sacar provecho, aprovecharse, sacar partido o utilidad
v. tr. - servir a, aprovechar a, ganar

idioms:

  • profit margin    margen de beneficio
  • profit sharing    participación en los beneficios
  • profit taking    realización de beneficios

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - vinst, förtjänst, utbyte, nytta, behållning
v. - dra nytta av, vara till nytta, (för)tjäna på, gagna

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
利润, 利益, 赢利, 有益, 赚钱, 获利, 有益于

idioms:

  • profit margin    利润之百分比, 利润率
  • profit sharing    分红制
  • profit taking    获利完成

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 利潤, 利益, 贏利
v. intr. - 有益, 賺錢, 獲利
v. tr. - 有益於

idioms:

  • profit margin    利潤之百分比, 利潤率
  • profit sharing    分紅制
  • profit taking    獲利完成

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 이익, 수익
v. intr. - 이익을 보다, 소득을 얻다
v. tr. - ~에의 이익이 되다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 収益, 儲け, 利益, 利潤, 利得, 利益率, 得
v. - 利益を得る, 得をする, 利益になる, 役に立つ

idioms:

  • profit margin    利潤差額
  • profit sharing    利益分配
  • profit taking    利食い

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) فائدة, ربح, منفعه (فعل) يحصل على أرباح‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮רווח, תועלת, יתרון, טובה‬
v. intr. - ‮הפיק רווח‬
v. tr. - ‮הצמיח תועלת‬

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Investment Dictionary. Copyright ©2000, Investopedia.com - Owned and Operated by Investopedia Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Financial & Investment Dictionary. Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms. Copyright © 2006 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Business Dictionary. Dictionary of Business Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Insurance Dictionary. Dictionary of Insurance Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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