Companies are Target and Walmart.

Your group must choose two U.S. Companies in the same industry that are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or NASDAQ that have inventory and cost of sales, in other words a retailer, wholesaler or manufacturer. Please send me an email to approve your choice, so that the companies are not duplicated. Requests will be honored in the order received. You will need to find the two most recently audited annual reports for your companies. There will be at least two years of statements given in one annual report. In addition to the annual reports, you will also need to do some research on your companies as well. You may use the library business databases or other resources, and also read managements discussion in the annual report. Make sure that you have a reference list of any sources used at the end of the paper and properly cite the sources within your paper. I will list some useful websites at the end. You will need to perform the following analysis:

I. Corporate Overview

A. Industry (One per project 1-2 pages)

1. What is the industry?

2. What are the largest companies within the industry?

3. What is the geographic presence in the industry (local, U.S. only, multinational, or global)?

4. How has the economy affected the industry?

B. Business Strategy (1-2 pages each company)

1. Brief historical perspective on company

2. What is primary focus of operations?

3. What is the most important strategy used by this company (low-cost producer, product differentiation, quality, service)?

4. What is the forecast for this company for the next 1-5 years?

II. QUANTITATIVE FINANCIAL RATIO ANALYSIS For each company compute the 17 ratios for each of the following categories (Appendix 5A of text) in Excel or a Word Doc and attach to project. Compute the ratios for 2 years. This will require the use of two annual reports. Show the ratio formulas, then input the numbers, and show the calculation so that I can follow numbers from the annual reports. Each group should be consistent in their format among companies. You should be using the financial statement numbers from the 10-K filed at the SEC website or the annual report from the Companys website. (Not yahoo.finance)

A. Liquidity

B. Activity

C. Profitability

D. Coverage

III. COMPREHENSIVE ANALYSIS (2 to 3 pages per company) Using your findings from part I and II, summarize the most relevant information for determining whether or not to invest in the company by emphasizing key points both good and bad. When using ratios, make sure you interpret what an increase or decrease in that ratio means. You should compare some of the key ratios to industry averages. You do not have to use all the ratios, but you should use at least two from each category above. IV.

INVESTMENT DECISION (1 page minimum per project) You need to choose which company you would invest in among the three and support your decision from points made in part III. V. Submit to Dropbox in Unit 11

A. Word Doc Annual Report double spaced

B. Excel Spreadsheet (unless all calculations are in Word Doc)

C. Audited Annual Reports for each company - (Only the financial statements)