Financial Statement Case Study – 125 points

(This assignment is to be prepared individually)

OBJECTIVE:  The objective of this assignment is to expose you to the type of information contained in an annual report as well as learn where to locate specific financial data within the report.  You will use the annual report from your assigned company to complete the three parts of this assignment.  Each of the three parts of this assignment will be evaluated on the criteria outlined below.

LeBow Focus:

Economics:  Explore stock pricing, inflation effects, and business cycles.

            Problem Solving:Use critical thinking skills to evaluate ratio relationships in interpreting company financial health.

            Career Planning:Explore some of the tasks and responsibilities for a career as a stockbroker, accountant, or financial manager.

            Writing:Writing specific to business such as company performance analysis and investment analysis.

Part 1:  Financial Statement Research – 30 points

GOAL:  For this section you should locate data in both the Income Statement and Balance Sheet.  You will have to find the data from the two most currentconsecutive yearsavailable for each of the items listed below.  You will then have to calculate the percentage change for those two consecutive years and indicate that change.  An excel spreadsheet should be used to complete this section.  You must include a copy of the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet for this section of the assignment and highlight data used.  Based on the data you gathered, what overall observations can you make about the company (that does not mean just stating assets went up or down, but rather strategies, trends or impacts)?  You can include questions you would ask or other information you would want to research.

*Sales                                                    *Cash

*Cost of Sales (COGS)                             *Total Current Assets

*Gross Profit                                          *Long Term Debt

*Net Income (loss)                                  *Total Equity

*Inventory                                              *Total Assets

Part 2:  Financial Statement Analysis – 40 points

GOAL:  For this section you will use financial ratios to evaluate the relationship between Balance Sheet and Income Statement data from the two most currentconsecutive years in making determinations about company performance.  You are to compare this data to the averages for your company’s industry. For each ratio you should show the formula used, enter your company’s numbers into that formula, compute the ratio, and assign the proper label to the answer ($, %, etc.).  You will complete this for each of the two years’ data.  Once again, an excel spreadsheet should be used to complete this section.  Based on the data gathered, what overall observations can you make about the company (that does not mean just stating a ratio went up or down, but rather why, given strategies, trends or impacts or particular input data)?  You can include questions you would ask or other information you would want to research.

*Current Ratio/Liquidity              *Inventory Turnover

*Debt to Equity Ratio                               *Profit Margin

*ROI                                                      *One additional ratio of your choice

Part 3:  Interpretive Analysis – 40 points

GOAL:  Each of the ratios in Section 2 provide relevant information to help answer specific questions about the financial health of the company.  You will have to interpret that information for three of those ratios by responding to each of the multi-part following questions. The discussion should be thorough and incorporate data and analysis from above.

1.  What is meant by liquidity?  Did the company experience and increase or a decrease in liquidity over the two-year period evaluated?  What effect do the liquidity figures have on the company’s long term and/or short term performance?

2. What is meant by Profit Margin?  Did the company experience an increase or decrease in profit margin over the two year period evaluated?  What effect do the Profit Margin figures have on the company’s long term and/or short term performance?

3.  What is measured in a Debt to Equity ratio? Did the company experience a change in its leverage over the two year period evaluated? What impact do these Debt to Equity figures have on the company’s overall long term and short term performance?

4.  How does inventory and inventory turnover affect liquidity?  Did the company experience and increase or decrease in inventory turnover?

Overall appearance of the report including, but not limited to: proper citations, proper use of grammar/spelling, sentence structure, formatting of the cover page and body of the report – 15 points.

Please be certain to include an introduction and conclusion to the case study.  The introduction should orient the reader to the company you have researched and provide an overview of the company.  The conclusion should summarize your case study and leave the reader with a positive final impression of the work being submitted.