Problem:
You are to conduct an analysis and evaluation of the capital structures and costs of capital for three publicly held firms in the same industry over a history of 5 years. The firms are Dell, HP and Apple. You are to follow the guidelines that were used in your project annotation. You are to research the various aspects of these organizations, such as creditworthiness, leverage, dividend policy, and working capital management. The organizations that are selected must be publicly traded on a large exchange, such as the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, the London Stock Exchange, or the Tokyo Stock Exchange. You do not have to select three companies listed on the same exchange; however, the companies selected must have information that is readily and easily accessible, such as through the firm's Web site. Specifically, you will need to research the following aspects of each organization, while analyzing the differences between the three:
- Capital structure
- Use and effect of leverage
- Dividend policy
- Long-term financing policy
- Working capital management practices
- Mergers and acquisitions (possibility of, past history of, and outcomes/effects)
Your project should also include a section on how and where you obtained the information sources, while ensuring that the Harvard Referencing System is adhered to and fully complied with. In addition, you should describe the methodology used to perform any analysis. This Project should follow a structured approach and should be prepared and presented as a professional business report for about 3000 words. It must also show the formulas and calculations performed to get the answers. (calculations and formulas must be done in excel).
Additional Information:
This question is from Finance and it is a report upon financial analysis, particularly capital structure analysis of three publicly held companies belonging to the same industry.The companies which have been considered here are Apple, HP and Dell. These are technology companies. The computations have been given in the excel sheet and they have been stated in the solution comprehensively.