Fixed point ratios for primitive permutation groups have been extensively studied. Relying on a recent work of Burness and Guralnick, we obtain further results in the area. For a prime $p$ and a finite group $G$, we use fixed point ratios to study the number of Sylow $p$-subgroups of $G$ and the minimal size of a covering by proper subgroups of the set of $p$-elements of $G$.