Final answer:
A profit and loss analysis that considers historic trends in the profitability of the company is an example of descriptive analytics, which aims to summarize past business data.
Step-by-step explanation:
The data analytic type exemplified by a profit and loss analysis that considers historic trends in the profitability of the company is descriptive analytics. Descriptive analytics is concerned with describing or summarizing the existing data to understand what has happened in the past. This type of analysis often involves the calculation of various statistics, such as averages, percentages, and ratios, to give a clear picture of business operations over a period.
When you are working with descriptive analytics, you are not predicting the future (predictive analytics) or prescribing actions (prescriptive analytics), nor are you diagnosing the cause of past outcomes (diagnostic analytics). A profit and loss analysis fits into descriptive analytics because it provides a historical view of the company's financial performance.