This project is closely aligned with the Course Outcomes and Finance Program Objectives.  Completion of this project can be used as part of a portfolio to show potential employers the student is skilled at performing company valuations and financial statement analysis and can be included on the student’s resume.

Ratio Analysis

OBJECTIVE

You are to assume you have been recently hired by The Company and have been assigned to a team that reports to the CEO of THE COMPANY (SELECTED BY INSTRUCTOR). The head of your team is the CFO who is concerned about THE COMPANYs current financial performance and comparison against major competitors in the industry and the impact that may have on the firms stock price. The CFO would like your team to provide insights that will help them to project future financial performance. Specifically, the primary question to answer is: will THE COMPANY be financially viable over the next two to three years, and which steps should be done to improve its financial stability?

THE COMPANY that is to be analyzed for this project is to be a company selected by instructor.

Alternatively, you can request approval of another publicly traded company. This request must be submitted before the end of the first week of the course. The request must include

• identification of the company by ticker symbol and name
   
• a reasonable and appropriate explanation of why you want to examine the alternative company
   
• the source of the analyst’s report that will be used in the analysis (which must be submitted to me)
   
• acknowledgement by you that all of the specific elements of the assignment (see below) will be prepared by you and included in the final research project report
   

SUGGESTED WEBSITES

– To find the information for your company you need to type the stock symbol in the Quotes window to get into the companys page.

  -To find the information for your company you need to type the stock symbol in the Search window to get into the companys page.

– To find the information for your company you need click on Screener on the top of the screen, type the stock symbol in the Ticker window to get into the companys page., and click on the company in the list.

  -To find the information for your company you need to type the stock symbol in the Search window to get into the companys page.

– To find the information for your company you need to type the stock symbol in the Search window to get into the companys page.

Click on Data, then click on Stocks (under Quotes), and type the name of the company or the stock symbol in the window Keyword or symbol to get into the companys page.

– To find the information for your company you need to type the stock symbol in the Search window to get into the companys page.

Companys websites

YOUR SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENT

Using the information from the websites the students will develop evaluation of the financial performance for THE COMPANY (SELECTED BY INSTRUCTOR). (The evaluation portion will total 85% of the assignment grade)  

-1Background and Industry (one short paragraph). 

-2 Common size analysis of the balance sheet (15% of the project grade).  

Create a table that contains the most significant common size results of the balance sheet for the last 5 years for THE COMPANY and for the last year for the major competitor. Your analysis should include but not limited to:

• Cash & ST Investments / Total Assets
   
• Total Liabilities / Total Assets
   
• Common Equity / Total Assets  
   
• Total Shareholders’ Equity / Total Assets (if differ from Common Equity / Total Assets)
   

You can find these ratios in the Internet or calculate them. If you use published ratios you must indicate that and cite their source.

These ratios are available in   -To find the information for your company you need to type the stock symbol in the Search window to get into the companys page. Click on Financial > Balance Sheet > click on View Ratios.   

To present your findings, you will create the table(s) and/or graphs. You can use the bar graphs provided by or create your own ones.

Present the tables and the graphs with this information in your report. Write about 1-2 pages of the analysis of the financial conditions, its stability, and trends. What important information does this analysis provide?

-3 Trend analysis (15% of the project grade)

Analyze the financial trends over the last 5 years of  

• Sale Growth,  
   
• COGS Growth,  
   
• Gross Income Growth,  
   
• Interest Expense Growth,  
   
• Net Income Growth,  
   
• Cash & Short Term Investments Growth
   
• Assets – Total – Growth.
   

You can find these ratios in the Internet or calculate them. If you use published ratios you must indicate that and cite their source.

These growth rates are available in   -To find the information for your company you need to type the stock symbol in the Search window to get into the companys page. Click on Financial > Income Statement (or Balance Sheet) > click on View Ratios.

To present your findings, you will create the table(s) and/or graphs. You can use the bar graphs provided by or create your own ones.

Write about 1-2 pages of the analysis of the financial conditions, its stability, and trends. What important information does this analysis provide?

-4 Financial ratio analysis. (20% of the project grade)

In this part of the project you will complete ratio analysis of THE COMPANY. Please remember that you are the financial analyst of THE COMPANY and should prepare the report to be read by the chairman (CEO) of THE COMPANY. The ratio analysis should be completed from the point of view of THE COMPANYs the management.

The chairman of THE COMPANY is especially concerned about the following groups of ratios:

• Liquidity (current ratio, quick ratio)
   
• Operating performance ratio (Days of Sales in Inventory, Days of Sales Outstanding, Days of Payables Outstanding), Receivables Turnover, Inventory Turnover, Fixed Assets Turnover, Total Assets Turnover)
   
• Profitability ratios (Gross Profit Margin, Operating Profit Margin, Net Profit Margin)
   
• Return on Investment ratios: (ROA, ROE)
   

These ratios are available on > Companys page under Financials and under Operating Performance

You can find financial ratios for the company for the last 1-5 years in the Internet or calculate them. If you use published ratios you must indicate that and cite their source.

a)  Present the ratios as the table(s) in your project. Create graphs for some ratios on your choice over three years to show trends.

b) Write 2 pages (or more) of analysis of the ratio results that you found. In your analysis you should answer the following questions:

• How liquid is the company?
   
• Is management generating a substantial profit on the companys assets?
   
• If the management of the company would like to improve the companys financial performance, what should the management of THE COMPANY do?
   

-5- Evaluate Return on Equity for the company for the last three years using the DuPont analysis. (15% of the project grade).

You can find these ratios in the Internet or calculate them. If you use published ratios you must indicate that and cite their source.

1. Find ROE, Net profit margin (listed as net margin), asset turnover, financial leverage for the last three years for your company. You also may use debt/equity ratio in your analysis. Present the ratios as the table(s) in your project.
    
2. Find ROE, Net profit margin (listed as net margin), asset turnover, financial leverage for the last year for its major peer competitor. You also may use debt/equity ratio of peer competitor in your analysis. Present the ratios as the table(s) in your project.
    
3. Has the companys ROE changed over the last three years? What was the main factor that influenced this change?
    
4. Compare the ratios of you company to the peer competitor. If the management of the company would like to improve their return on equity, what should the management of the company do? 
    

Write about 1 page of analysis to answer the questions (c) and (d).  

–6- Develop a specific recommendation, with supporting rationale, as to whether the assigned company’s recent trends and results in financial performance is of sufficient financial strength, will THE COMPANY be financially sustainable over the next two to three years, and which steps should be done to improve its financial stability? (about 1 page) (15% of the project grade).

-7- Reflection the student should write a paragraph in their own words reflecting on specifically what they learned from the assignment and how they think they could apply what they learned in the workplace. (5% of the project grade)

PRESENTATION OF PAPER AND WRITING (15%) of the project grade):

-Organization, Format and Presentation of Paper including the Title page, Introduction, Body, and Summary. Each section of the paper must begin with sub-headings.  Please use the sub-headings included in the assignment (4% of the project grade)

Use of Tables, Figures and Other Graphics to Summarize and Support Analysis Presented in the Paper (3% of the project grade)

Logical and Smooth Flowing Transitions and Relationships among Sections of the Written Report (3% of the project grade)

Research Sources and Significance of Research Information and Data, Use of APA Citation Methodology (5% of the project grade)

Starting your own business can be very risky, depending upon how much knowledge you have about your new venture. 

Write a 2-page , double-spaced paper on 5 obstacles that would concern you when starting a small business.  This paper should be based off of your own experiences and thoughts.  

Assignment Content

1. Resources:
   
   • Create either a 2- to 4-minute podcast, a 15- to 20-slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, a 1- to 2-minute video, or other presentation on the interaction and influence among leadership tactics according to the following criteria:
   • Explain power and compare how it relates to leadership
   • Analyze the five sources of power
   • Summarize the relationship between influence and power
   • Determine how relationships between leaders and staff affect influence and power
   • Cite a minimum of two references other than the text.
     Format your assignment consistent with APA guidelines.
     Submit your assignment.

1. Determine whether each of the following would cause a shift of the aggregate demand curve, a shift of the aggregate supply curve, neither, or both. Which curve shifts, and in which direction? What happens to aggregate output and the price level in each case?
 

a. The price level changes
 

i. Which curve shifts?
ii. Which direction does it shift?
iii. What happens to aggregate output?
iv. What happens to the price level?

b. Consumer confidence declines
i. Which curve shifts?
ii. Which direction does it shift?
iii. What happens to aggregate output?
iv. What happens to the price level?

c. The supply of resources increases
i. Which curve shifts?
ii. Which direction does it shift?
iii. What happens to aggregate output?
iv. What happens to the price level?
 

d. The wage rate increases
i. Which curve shifts?
ii. Which direction does it shift?
iii. What happens to aggregate output?
iv. What happens to the price level?

2. Determine whether the following statements are true or false.
i. Some people who are officially unemployed are not in the labor force.
ii. Some people in the labor force are not working.
iii. Everyone who is not unemployed is in the labor force.
iv. Some people who are not working are not unemployed.

3. Refer to the following data on the U.S. consumer price index and answer the questions below.
Year CPI Year CPI Year CPI Year CPI
1988 118.3 1993 144.5 1998 163.0 2003 184.0
1989 124.0 1994 148.2 1999 166.6 2004 188.9
1990 130.7 1995 152.4 2000 172.2 2005 195.3
1991 136.2 1996 156.9 2001 177.1 2006 201.8
1992 140.3 1997 160.5 2002 179.9
 

a. Compute the inflation rate for each year 1989-2006.
b. Which years were years of inflation?
c. In which years did deflation occur?
d. In which years did disinflation occur?
e. Was there hyperinflation in any year?

Strategic Management and StrThe ategic Competitiveness

Overview

Choose one public corporation in an industry with which you are familiar. Research the company on its own website, the public filings on the Securities and Exchange Commission , the University’s , the , and any other sources you can find. The annual report will often provide insights that can help address some of these questions.

Requirements

Write a four- to six-page paper in which you do the following:

• Assess how globalization and technology changes have impacted the corporation you researched.
• Apply the industrial organization model and the resource-based model to determine how your corporation could earn above-average returns.
• Assess how the vision statement and mission statement of the corporation influence its overall success.  
• Evaluate how each category of stakeholder impacts the overall success of this corporation.  
• Go to and locate at least three quality references. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Develop your distribution strategy for the car. In order to develop the strategy, answer the following questions:

What will be your initial pricing strategy and what will be your ultimate pricing strategy?

How will you focus it on your target market? Next, what will be your distribution strategy?

How will you create a dealer network for the car?

How will the dealer network enable you to effectively reach your target market?

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Please have a great command of English with great grammar.

Consider a business with which you are familiar, and which has at least one known, significant competitor. Write a paper that includes the following sections, organized using APA headings (not the Part letter).

Part A: Introduce the paper with the background and information about the business, and the thesis for your paper (1 paragraph).

Part B: Explain, using Teeces (2010) research article as a basis for your assignment:

1. The business model.
2. The business strategy by:
   • Segmenting the market.
   • Creating a value proposition for each segment.
   • Describing the apparatus to deliver the value.
   • Creating the preventative methods to avoid being imitated (p. 180).
3. The businesss competitive advantage, using Teeces definition and explanation as support (35 paragraphs).

Part C: Describe the main advantage your business’s main competitor has against the business.

1. Analyze, using the Red Queen effect articles, [Derfus, Maggitti, Grimm, and Smith (2008) and Giachetti, Lampel, and La Pira (2017)], your business’s potential problem caused by its competition’s solution to the Red Queen effect.
2. Include in your analysis one paragraph that synthetically presents each of the Red Queen articles’ main themes, research findings, and implications. Explain how the concepts of Red Queen effect have grown from 2008 to 2017 (at least 2 paragraphs).
3. In one paragraph, explain your one recommended action as a solution to the problem caused by the competitor’s action. Describe whether or how it could increase competitiveness.

Part D: Conclusion. Summarize the main points of your paper and leave the reader with a thought to go forward with as an implication or recommendation from your ideas and analysis.

Part E: References.

• Include a list of all references used.
• Use at least 4 references: the three required readings, and one supporting your information about your selected business.
• Use APA 6th edition on your paper and submit a paper free from errors and of high academic quality.

Refer to the scoring guide to ensure you have covered all the requirements.

References

Derfus, P. J., Maggitti, P. G., Grimm, C. M., & Smith, K. G. (2008). The red queen effect: Competitive actions and firm performance. Academy of Management Journal, 51(1), 6180.

Giachetti, C., Lampel, J., & Li Pira, S. (2017). Red queen competitive imitation in the U.K. mobile phone industry. Academy of Management Journal, 60(5), 18821914.

Teece, D. J. (2010). Business models, business strategy and innovation. Long Range Planning, 43(23), 172194.

Chapter 3 Questions:

1. Define value creation for customers and the components that can be used to determine value creation per unit. How value creation is related to competitive advantage?
2. What is a value chain? Why is efficiency so important in an organizations’ value chain activities?
3. What building blocks in value creation can an organization use to sustain competitive advantage? How best you can sustain competitive advantage? 
4. What does internal analysis help a company to determine? How does this process contribute to the overall health (value creation, competitive advantage, profitability) of a company?
5. Why do companies fail? How does competitive advantage relate to failure? If competitive advantage is not maintained, what would be the consequence for a company? 

Chapter 4 Questions:

1. What are functional level strategies? How they relate to competitive advantage of a company? How can functional level strategy contribute to efficiency? 
2. Describe economies of scale and how it relates to competitive advantage. What strategic significance does economies of scale have for a company? What it does with the competitive advantage of a company? 
3. How does innovation relate to competitive advantage? What can be done to sustain innovation in a company?
4. How does customer relations contribute to competitive advantage? What is the effect of customer relations on value creation and its components?