CT14.1 Your parents are considering investing in Apple Inc. common stock. They ask you, as an accounting expert, to make an analysis of the company for them. Go online to access Apple's 2015 annual report, including the notes to the financial statements. (Please provide instructions on how you came to the answer in excel format if possible)

Instructions:

(Follow the approach in the chapter for rounding numbers.)

a. Make a 3-year trend analysis, using 2013 as the base year, of (1) net sales and (2) net income. Comment on the significance of the trend results.

b. Compute for 2015 and 2014 the (1) profit margin, (2) asset turnover, (3) return on assets, and (4) return on common stockholders' equity. How would you evaluate Apple's profitability? Total assets at September 28, 2013, were $207,000 and total stockholders' equity at September 28, 2013, was $123,549.

c. Compute for 2015 and 2014 the (1) debt to assets ratio and (2) times interest earned. How would you evaluate Apple's long-term solvency?

d. What information outside the annual report may also be useful to your parents in making a decision about Apple?

DATA:

2015 $ 233,715 $ 53,394 2014 $ 182,795 $ 39,510 2013 $ 170,910 $ 37,037 2012 $ 156,508 $ 41,733 2011 $ 108.249 $ 25,922 $ $ $ $ 9.28 9.22 1.98 $ $ $ 6.49 6.45 1.82 A 6 $ $ 5.72 5.68 1.64 $ $ $ 6.38 6.31 0.38 $ $ $ 4.01 3.95 0 Net sales Net income Earnings per share: Basic Diluted Cash dividends declared per share Shares used in computing earnings per share: Basic Diluted Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities Total assets Commercial paper Total term debt (2) Other long-term obligations (1) Total liabilities Total shareholders' equity 5,753,421 5,793,069 6,085,572 6,122,663 6,477,320 6,521,634 6,543,726 6,617,483 6,469,806 6,556,514 $ 205,666 $ 290,479 $ 8,499 $ 55,963 $ 33,427 $ 171,124 $ 119,355 $ 155,239 $ 231,839 $ 6,308 $ 28,987 $ 24,826 $ 120,292 $ 111,547 $ 146,761 $ 207,000 $ 0 $ 16.960 $ 20,208 $ 83,451 $ 123,549 $ 121,251 $ 176,064 $ 0 $ 0 $ 16,664 $ 57,854 $ 118,210 $ 81,570 $ 116,371 $ 0 $ 0 $ 10.100 $ 39,756 $ 76,615