An annual report is a comprehensive statement describing a company's activities throughout the preceding year. Annual reports are intended to give shareholders and other interested stakeholders information about the company's activities and financial performance. All public corporations must provide shareholders with a financial report every year so that shareholders understand and are able to assess overall performance.

The front part of the report often contains an impressive combination of graphics, photos and an accompanying narrative, all of which chronicle the company's activities over the past year. The back part of the report contains detailed financial and operational information.

In this assignment, you will read and assess the financial performance of IBM, Inc. over the past couple of years. Begin by downloading the 2013 IBM annual report from the IBM Website.

Read Pages 1 28 and then find the financial data (i.e., income statements, balance sheets and statements of cash flows) on pages 78 81.

Using the IBM income statement data on Page 78 in the annual report, create a common size income statement by filling in the following format:

DATA COMPLETED BELOW, I CAN READ FIRST 28 PAGES AND DO SECTION 2 OF BELOW

At December 31: Assets Current assets	Notes	2013	2012
Cash and cash equivalents		10,716	10,412
Marketable securities		350	717
Notes and accounts receivabletrade (net of allowances of $291 in 2013 and $255 in 2012)		10,465	10,667
Short-term financing receivables (net of allowances of $308 in 2013 and $288 in 2012)		19,787	18,038
Other accounts receivable (net of allowances of $36 in 2013 and $17 in 2012)		1 ,584	1 ,873
Inventories		2,310	2,287
Deferred taxes		1 ,651	1,415
Prepaid expenses and other current assets		4,488	4,024
Total current assets		51 ,350	49,433
Property, plant and equipment Less: Accumulated depreciation		40,475 26,654	40,501 26,505

Then, using the income statement data and the balance sheet data on page 80 in the IBM annual report, create a table of ratios

To create the required common size income statements for IBM, see the following resources:

NetMBA (2010) Common Size Financial Statements Investigating AnswersUse total revenue for sales to construct these values.

Write a four-part analysis of IBM. In Section 1 your paper, summarize what you learned and/or found particularly interesting about IBM in your reading of the first 28 pages of the annual report. In Section 2, insert the tables you created (either cut and paste from Excel or create tables in Word) . In Section 3, evaluate IBM by discussing the numbers in your common size income statement and balance sheet ratios. Look for trends that identify areas of strength, stability or possible concern. Finally, in Section 4, find two scholarly reports that discuss IBMs financial performance during this period and discuss how those professional reports correlate with what you found in your analysis.

Length: 4-5 pages not including title page and references

Your response should demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the ideas and concepts presented in the course and provide new thoughts and insights relating directly to this topic. Your response should reflect scholarly writing and current APA standards.

3/21/17: the spreadsheet above is page 80 of IBM's 2013 annual report. I just cut and pasted it into the document.