1. Each student needs to identify a company to analyze. The firm that you analyze must meet the following criteria:
   1. Publicly traded
   2. In existence for at least five years as a publicly traded company
   3. Access to data is usually better for larger firms, but students might work at a smaller company and wish to analyze as part of expanded career opportunities
3. to identify an issue(s) that the company is facing or has faced and make recommendations of how to solve or how to improve on solution by applying tools discussed in class. After identifying an issue(s) select one or more suggested topic area tools to explode:
   1. Depiction of financial strength or weakness from financial statement analysis and ratios
      1. Cross sectional comparison to another firm or benchmark index or time series analysis over time
   2. What has caused stock price to increase or decrease over last 3-5 years?
      1. Analysts opinions might be helpful here, but you are expected to develop an argument in support or opposed for why such opinions are accurate or inaccurate
   3. How has the firms capital structure changed (debt to asset and equity to asset), if any, over last 3-5 years and how has this affected cost of debt and stock? How does this impact share price? Think about why firm might have issued more debt and signaling effect
   4. Current asset management decisions
      1. How well does firm utilize short term vs long term debt financing?
   5. Does the firm pay dividends? Why or why not? How does this decision impact use of earnings as retained earning or as dividends in financial management of shareholder investment?