Year to date

Year-to-date (YTD) is the period between the first day of the calendar year and the current date. It is generally used for the calculation of investment returns on a security or a firm’s income to the current date.

Year-to-date is widely used by financial analysts to provide details about a firm’s performance during a specified period or to compare the return of a portfolio during a specified period. By calculating YTD results, managers can perform a comparison between the firm’s current performance and the performance of past years. For instance, the fiscal year for most companies is on January 1. The YTD results for company A to the current date (April) are $500,000 revenues in January, 250,000 revenues in February, 356,000 revenues in March, and $485,000 in April, a total of $1,591,000 YTD. Comparing YTD results with the results of the previous fiscal year allows the firm’s manager to identify areas that may need improvement. On the other hand, YTD comparison should be performed on companies with a common fiscal year start date to avoid distortion of results due to seasonal or other factors.