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SG&A History Chart
Chart any stock's 10-year SG&A expense trend in one view, with a SG&A-to-revenue ratio overlay and an operating leverage verdict. Auto-populates from Yahoo Finance. Pair it with the gross profit history chart and the operating income history chart.
How to Read the SG&A Overhead Trend
Selling, General & Administrative expenses — commonly abbreviated SG&A — represent the overhead costs a business incurs to run its operations outside of direct production. They include sales force salaries, marketing spend, executive compensation, rent, legal fees, and general corporate overhead. Unlike cost of goods sold, SG&A does not scale directly with production volume, which is why rising SG&A as a share of revenue is one of the earliest warning signs of a business losing operational discipline.
The bars on this chart are colored blue when SG&A declined in absolute dollar terms year-over-year — a genuine sign of cost discipline. Slate-colored bars mean SG&A grew. But raw dollars alone can mislead: a company growing revenue at 30% while SG&A grows 10% is actually gaining leverage, even though the bars are slate. That is why this chart overlays the SG&A-to-revenue ratio as an orange line. A falling ratio means overhead is consuming a smaller share of each revenue dollar — the definition of operating leverage.
The operating leverage verdict compares the average SG&A/revenue ratio over the past three years versus the prior three years. A drop of more than two percentage points earns “Operating Leverage Improving.” A rise of more than two points triggers “Overhead Growing Faster Than Revenue.” Pair this chart with the ROIC guide to understand how overhead efficiency feeds into overall capital returns.
Related Tools
Complete the profitability picture with these related tools:
- Gross Profit History Chart — 10-year gross profit trend with margin overlay
- Operating Income History Chart — core profitability after all overhead, over 10 years
- ROIC Guide — how overhead efficiency feeds into capital returns
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the SG&A history chart show?
It plots up to 10 fiscal years of annual selling, general and administrative expenses as bars, with the SG&A-to-revenue ratio overlaid as a line. Blue bars indicate years when SG&A declined in absolute dollars — a sign of cost discipline. Slate bars indicate growth. The ratio line reveals whether overhead is consuming a larger or smaller share of revenue over time.
What do the bar colors mean?
Blue bars mean SG&A declined year-over-year in absolute dollar terms — a sign of cost discipline or efficiency improvement. Slate bars mean SG&A grew. Note that growing SG&A is not always bad: if revenue is growing faster, the ratio still improves and the operating leverage verdict may be positive.
What is the Operating Leverage verdict?
The verdict compares the average SG&A/Revenue ratio over the most recent 3 years against the prior 3 years. If the ratio has dropped by more than 2 percentage points, the verdict is Operating Leverage Improving. If it has risen by more than 2 points, the verdict is Overhead Growing Faster Than Revenue. Otherwise, Consistent Overhead Structure.
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