http://finance.yahoo.com; http://www.marketwatch.com/

Industry Research by Yahoo! Finance has industry categories that summarize relevant industry news, press releases, industry research, market performance, industry calendar events, and top companies within the industry.

Task: You have a client who is interested in the pharmaceutical industry. As part of the basic analysis, you want to compare the operation ratios of each top three companies (by cap size). You are especially interested in looking at profit margin ratios (eg. net profit margin, EBITDA); growth rate ratios (earnings per share (EPS), and sales); financial strength ratios (eg. current ratio); Long Term Debt to Equity; and management effectiveness ratios (eg. return on assets and return on equity). Ideally, you want to find a spreadsheet that lists each companys ratios for comparison purposes.

Hint:

You need to find the largest three companies in the industry (in U.S.) first. My screeners at yahoo finance http://finance.yahoo.com/screener/new can be used to find companies under the sector Healthcare and industry Drug Manufacturers Major

You may not be able to find all the ratios in one resource. http://www.marketwatch.com/ is another good resource. First search by company name, then you can find relevant ratios under Overview, Profile, and Financials.

What to present: 1. Print out the spreadsheet as required. 2. How did you find the largest three companies in the industry? 3. How did you find the ratios for the companies? 4. How did you construct the chart in an efficient way? 5. Are there any other resources you used to finish the task?