The objectives/purpose of the research paper project are to enable you to do a comprehensive financial analysis of a publicly traded corporation; and provide you with substantial information for you to make recommendations regarding investing in this corporation.
Your financial analysis report will be driven by a rigorous ratio analysis, and aggressively supplemented with your written analysis, interpretation, and evaluation of the data.
Your research should be strategically driven by two probing questions:
-Would you invest your financial capital in the selected firm as a shareholder?
-Would you invest your human and intellectual capital in the firm as an employee?
Steps in preparation of financial analysis report:
1. Select a publicly held company
2. Select a benchmark firm to compare your company against. The benchmark firm is typically the largest competitor.
3. Obtain the firm’s balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows for the past 5 years. Download or read the firm’s annual report.
4. Go to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission website (Links to an external site.) and research EDGAR’s database for additional SEC report filings: 8-k, 10-Q.
5. The following table is the type of Excel or Word table that should be used to gather and report your ratio and financial performance data. Note the 5 financial diagnostic categories that should be used in your analysis.
