what are net tangible assets 
the term net tangible assets refers to the total physical assets of a company minus all intangible assets and liabilities in other words net tangible assets focus on physical assets such as property plant and equipment pp e as well as inventories and cash instruments physical assets are anything that is listed on a company s balance sheet while intangible assets are those without a physical form a company s net tangible assets can help it secure financing and determine how much risk it carries investopedia zoe hansenunderstanding net tangible assetsas noted above net tangible assets are any physical assets less intangible assets and liabilities in order to calculate this a company takes the fair market value fmv of its tangible assets and subtracts the fair market value of its liabilities remember that physical assets refer to anything that can be touched and can be found listed on a company s balance sheet such as intangible assets on the other hand are those that have no tangible form such as trademarks goodwill patents and copyrights liabilities of course refer to any debts the company owes whether that s current or non current including accounts payable long term debt and other similar obligations for example if a company has total assets of 1 million total liabilities of 100 000 and intangible goodwill of 100 000 its net tangible asset amount is 800 000 this is derived by subtracting 200 000 the sum of both liabilities and goodwill from the value of the company s total assets of 1 million the value of a company s net tangible assets may also be referred to as its net asset value nav or book value this value is important to a company as it provides a window into how much risk it carries notably its liquidity and solvency it can also be used to help it access financing to meet its future goals advantages and disadvantages of net tangible assetsthis measurement of a company s tangible assets is important because it allows a firm s management team to analyze its asset position without including obsolete or difficult to value intangible assets a company s return on assets roa for example is often more accurate when net tangible assets are used in the calculation the usefulness of deriving net tangible assets however varies across industries medical device manufacturers for example have high levels of valuable intangible assets this means it s important to look at a company s price to book p b value and compare it against similar companies to gauge performance companies can assess asset position without including intangible assetsusefulness can vary across industries especially those with higher intangible asset valuesnet tangible assets vs net tangible assets per sharesome companies use their net tangible assets per share value in lieu of the net tangible assets measurement to calculate a company s net tangible asset per share of common stock divide its net tangible assets figure by the number of outstanding common shares if a company has net tangible assets of 1 million and 500 000 shares outstanding its net tangible asset value per share is 2 this value is useful when conducting a comparative analysis of companies within an industry auto manufacturers for example may have high net tangible assets per share while a software company with a high level of intangible assets may have a much lower number per share it is therefore important to use this measure only when analyzing companies within the same industry real world examples of net tangible assetslet us look at some actual data for amazon and meta and calculate the net tangible assets for each using their annual 10 k filings 