Final Project

For the final project, you will be expected to locate the financial statements of a publicly-traded company for the past three years and perform a complete analysis of those statements using all the concepts you have learned in the course.

Go to the PBSC library:

Search for the company you wish to analyze. Their financials will be listed in Yahoo Finance, on the company's website, or on any of the Business databases. Feel free to consult with the Librarian for the Bachelor's Program

Formatting and length guidelines:

It would be best if you used APA (American Psychological Association) guidelines for formatting the title page (make sure you give your paper a meaningful title like "Financial Analysis of XYZ company"), references, in-text citations, and subheads. Some (free) helpful sites on doing APA-style citations are on the PBSC library website.

Your completed paper should be a minimum of 20 pages, plus a title page, a list of references, and an Appendix as needed. Each section of the paper should be a minimum of 4- pages plus the cover and reference page.

You should use MS Word format, double-spacing, 1-inch margins all the way around, page numbers on every page except for the title page, and 12-point Times New Roman font.

Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation are expected. You are also expected to write formally at a collegiate level.

Research guidelines: and Writing guidelines:

Throughout the term, you will submit portions of the Final Project and receive feedback from your instructor. Before you use those sections for the final paper, review the feedback carefully and edit the sections to incorporate the feedback before using them in your final paper. Your paper should have the following sections, using headings and subheads.

Each section should be a minimum of 4- pages of content plus the cover page, reference page, and relevant statements. While you must reference and include parts of the statement in your analysis, the statement should not be part of your four pages of content. For example, your full income statement should not be counted as part of your four-page analysis of the income statement.

Section 1. Introduction: In this section, introduce the company you have selected and include basic background information about the size and type of company, locations, products, market share, stock price, etc.

Section 2. Ratio Analysis: In this section, you will complete the Ratios Analysis of the company you chose, based on the commonly used ratios, as found in the textbook: Chapter 4 Summary of Key Equations, pages 4-34 to 4-35. Use Equations 4-1 to 4-19. Do not include the Market Ratios.

After calculating the ratios, provide an overview of ratios and their purpose, describe each category (Liquidity, Efficiency, Leverage, and Profitability) and comment on what each is measuring and what the result tells you about how the company has performed. Compare and comment on how the company generally performed when compared to the industry within which it operates. The Industry Ratios can be found here: https://www.readyratios.com/sec/.

Your analysis should be a minimum of four pages and must include a cover page, reference page, and section headings.

Section 3. Income Statement Analysis: In this section, you will analyze the company income statement using information from the textbook as a guide. Be sure to provide an overview of the income statement and address the following: what are the total revenue/sales, costs of goods sold/revenue /sales, operating expenses, net income, etc., for each year? How have these numbers changed over the three years, what could be some reasons why these numbers have changed the way they have, what are the trends, what are the numbers saying about the company's performance, and what are your recommendations

Section 4. Balance Sheet Analysis: In this section, you will analyze the company's balance sheet using information from the textbook as a guide. Be sure to provide an overview of the balance sheet and address the company's current assets, current liabilities, total assets, shareholder equity for each year, etc. Discuss how these numbers changed over the three years and what could be some reasons why these numbers have changed the way they have? What are the trends, what are the numbers saying about the company's value, and what are your recommendations?

Section 5. Cash Flow Analysis: In this section, you will analyze the company's cash flow statement. Your analysis should include an overview of the statement of cash flow, an analysis of the cash flows from operating, investing, and financing activities, as well as the change in cash and cash equivalents for each year. How have these numbers changed over the three years, and what could be some reasons why these numbers have changed the way they have?

Final Project. For the final project, you will combine all the previous five sections into one document for submission and include your conclusion and recommendations. What are some of the conclusions you reached? What are the highlights of your paper? What recommendations would you make to the management of the company? What recommendations would you make to shareholders in the company? Your final project must be submitted with your cover page, a table of contents, a reference page, and an appendix with the different statements.