Assignment: Business & Finance
Length: 5 pages
For this assignment, you must first choose a publicly-traded company that you want to analyze. It is recommended that you choose a company from an industry in which you have an interest. One way to find an annual report for a company is to search on annualreports website. Reports are grouped by industries, public market exchanges on which listed and other filters.
Once you have chosen a company, find the organizations' most recent annual report online. You can usually find the annual report on the company's website in Investor Relations. Or, you can just conduct an Internet search on "' company name' annual report." Your first task is to read the entire annual report, paying close attention to the Letter to Shareholders (perhaps a slightly different name, but usually the first few pages of the report in the form of a letter from the CEO or chairman of the board to the company's stockholders).
Create a chart of financial ratios for your company of choice. Include the last 2 years of reported data found in the Annual Report. If you cannot compute a specific ratio due to a lack of data, record N.A. for that ratio in that year in your chart.
Using these tables and the information you learned from reading the company's annual report, complete a financial analysis of the company. Your report should use the following structure:
• Company profile (written in your own words, this is a summary of what the company does, how long the company has been in existence, and information about future plans that you believe an outside reader should know about the company).
• A table of ratios. Use a single-spaced format for this table.
• A written analysis of the ratio table - for three ratios (choose whichever you think are most interesting). Identify what you believe might be trends that indicate strengths or weaknesses.
• A written analysis of the comparison of fiscal years for income statement found in the annual report, comparing the changes in key categories from the statements (e.g., total revenue, gross margin or profit, return on assets, research and development expenditures, total administrate costs). Identify what you believe might be trends that indicate strengths or weaknesses in the operations.
• Your opinion of the overall financial and ethical health of the company. Discuss the company's Statement of Condition as reported in the Letter of Opinion from the external auditors.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
(1) The answer should be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
(2) The response also includes a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student's name, the course title, and the date. The cover page is not included in the required page length.
(3) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references should follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.