As a team, select an industry to analyze. Reuters provides lists of industries at www.reuters .com/finance/personal-finance. Another source is csimarket.com.  Each group member should access the annual report for one publicly traded company in the industry, with each member selecting a different company. In addition to the company’s own website, a great source is the Canadian Securities Administrators’ System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) service. This free source is available by going to the Search Database section of www.sedar.com, clicking on Search for Public Company Documents, and then filling in the required information. 

Required: 

1. On an individual basis, each team member should write a short report that lists the following information: 

a. What type of business organization is it? 

b. What types of products or services does it sell? 

c. On what day of the year does its fiscal year end? 

d. For how many years does it present complete balance sheets? Income statements? Cash flow statements? 

e. Are its financial statements audited by independent CPAs? If so, by whom? 

f. Did its total assets increase or decrease over the last year? 

g. Did its net income increase or decrease over the last year? 

2. Then, as a team, write a short report comparing and contrasting your companies using these attributes. Discuss any patterns across the companies that you as a team observe. Provide potential explanations for any differences discovered.