is stockholders equity equal to cash on hand 
no since equity accounts for total assets and total liabilities cash and cash equivalents would only represent a small piece of a company s financial picture the bottom lineinvestors and analysts look to several different ratios to determine the financial company one of these is a company s return on equity this shows how well management uses the equity from company investors to earn a profit part of the roe ratio is the stockholders equity which is the total amount of a company s total assets and liabilities that appear on its balance sheet 