Assignment: Apple Financial Management
This research will be on the company Apple that obtains two years of information. It must be large enough for you to be able to obtain information and be publicly traded. Minimum of 9 pages. The report should make complete use of computer software using graphs, etc. Make sure you label each part section
Part A
I. Industry Situation and Company Plans & Comparison -
i. Describe the industry and its outlook; then summarize the company's future plans based on your research and on reading the annual report.
ii. Include a market summary, past, present and future. Review the changes in the market share, leadership, players, shifts, costs pricing or competition that provide the opportunity for your company's success.
iii. Opportunities and Problems - State consumer problems and define the nature of product/service opportunities created by those problems.
iv. Competition - Summarize the competition and outline the company's competitive advantage.
v. Goals and Objectives - what are the five year goals, and state the measurable objectives, market share objectives and the revenue/profit objectives.
vi. Resource Requirements - Technology, personnel, resource (financial, distribution, promotion, etc) and external requirements (e.g. products/services/technology required to be purchased outside the company).
vii. Risks and Rewards - summarize risks and rewards of proposed future projects, what would the expected payoff be?
viii. Key Issues - Isolate key decisions and issues that need immediate or near-term resolution. Identify issues that need long-term resolution and state the consequences of decision postponement. If they are seeking funding, what are the specifics of that funding?
Part B
II. Financial Statement Analysis (Two year comparison)
i. Income Statement - Determine the gross profit, income from operations, and net income for the last two years; comment on the increases or decreases in these accounts. What is their main source of income, expenses, etc?
ii. Balance Sheet - Describe the types of accounts that make up the balance sheet and how they have changed. Discuss the equity accounts. What types of stock are issued, how many shares do they have available to sell, what types of dividends they have paid, etc.
iii. Statement of Cash Flows: Are the cash flows from operations more or less than net income for the past two years? Is the company expanding through investing activities? What is the company's most important source of financing? Overall has cash increased or decreased over the past two years?
iv. Financial Plan - Define the financial plan, pricing assumptions and the expected sales and profits for the next three years
III. Accounting Policies Comparison
What are the significant accounting policies, if any, relating to revenue recognition, cash short term investments, inventories, property and equipment, depreciation methods, etc? Again this is the short list, I expect much more.
IV. Ratio Analysis
I expect significant analysis of each company's financial position using the ratios that are included in chapter 5. Some company's will include them in their reports but they will not use all of them. Tell me what the ratio signifies.
Part C
V. Stock
Review any one month in 2018 and compare the stock prices for that same month in 2017. What has changed and why? Include this information in the paper.
VI. Events
i. What political, social etc. issues have affected your company? The economy, foreign competition, unemployment, etc. Include a significant discussion on the effect that this is having on your company.
ii. Find some ethical issues your company has dealt with. These could be environmental, financial or whatever. It could be something as simple as the way they record their depreciation or inventory. Did they change how they were recording things; did they amend quarterly projections because the world was watching?
VII. Executive Conclusion
Summarize all the aspects of the project. What would you conclude, suggest, etc to the company for improvement the company, etc.
VIII. Cite your sources; Give credit to your sources either through works cited or footnotes.
Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
i) The answer should be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), double spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
ii) 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.
iii) Also include a reference page. The Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.