As a business professional who may be considering investing in a firm or as someone who may be considering acquiring a company, it is important that you can accurately assess the value of a firm.
Your project in this course is a financial analysis of a publicly traded U.S. company of your choice, in order to assess the value of the firm and its place in the global market. You are expected to work on your project throughout this course in order to efficiently manage your time and workload. Your project is composed of the following elements:
Unit 1: Identify the Company
• Email your instructor with your choice of a publicly traded U.S. company (see the third study in Unit 1).
• Obtain the two most recent annual reports for your company by accessing the company 10-K on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Web site.
• Identify the industry and obtain industry statistics.
Unit 3: Financial Analysis
• Identify your company, its industry, and analyze the important segments (percentage of sales or subsidiaries) of your company compared to its industry and its overall business.
• Perform a complete financial analysis of your chosen company's financial statements-horizontal, vertical (Percentage of Sales and Common-Size), and changes in ratios-for the last two years.
o Compare all ratios to industry averages.
o Evaluate the company's ratios against the industry averages.
o Explain the significance of the company's ratios when compared to industry averages.
Analyze the company's cash flows.
Assess the overall financial health of your company based on this financial analysis.
Unit 6: Financial Evaluation
Evaluate the impact of international trade on the company's financial statements.
Evaluate the current decisions made within the company that have regulatory and tax implications.
Evaluate the current corporate governance and ethical responsibilities in your company.
Evaluate alternative methods of financing used in your company.
Provide an overall evaluation of the financial outlook for the company and make recommendations for stakeholders:
o Consider the various perspectives from different stakeholders: If you were considering investing in this company, would you buy shares?
o If you were considering acquiring this company, what is your decision regarding this company?
o If you were the CEO, how would you use this information to make tactical and operational decisions?
o If you were a banker, would you lend money to this company? Why or why not?
Your final submission in Unit 6 should include all of the above components, integrating the feedback that you receive from your instructor, as well as the work you did in Units 2, 4 and 5.
You are expected to use the theories, methods, and analytical tools presented in this course to help support your analyses.
Be sure to use proper APA citations and references for all of your resources. Your paper should be structured according to the following outline:
1.Title Page.
2. Overview of the Company.
3. Financial Analysis:
o Annual Reports.
o Competitive Standing.
o Financial Analysis (Horizontal, Vertical, Ratio).
4. International Trade and Risks.
5. SWOT.
6. Evaluation and Recommendations to Stakeholders.
7. References.
Note: Additional details are provided in the individual unit assignments.
• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to APA (current edition) style and formatting.
• Number of resources: Minimum of 5 references, of which 3 should be academic journals and no more than 2 should be textbooks.
• Length of paper: 10-12 typed, double-spaced pages not including title page, references, tables, graphs, or charts.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.