Obtain the annual reports of 10 companies, two from each of five different industries. Most companies’ financial statements can be downloaded from their websites.

1. Compute each company’s gross profit percentage and rate of inventory turnover for the most recent two years. If annual reports are unavailable or do not provide enough data for multiple-year computations, you can gather financial statement data from Moody’s Industrial Manual.

2. How well does each of your companies compare to the other company in its industry?
What insight about your companies can you glean from these ratios?
3. Write a memo to summarize your findings, stating whether your group would invest in each of the companies it has analyzed.