I'm new to course hero and I need help with project ( see attached)

FIN 5550 - Investments Project 1: Beta and Return. This project is worth 15% of your final grade. This project must be completed individually. The objectives of this exercise: 1. To access and download stock and index price data from yahoo.com. 2. To discern the difference between a real-time closing price and an adjusted closing price. 3. To discover how yahoo.com calculates beta for an individual stock. 4. To replicate the yahoo.com calculation for twenty firms in the S&P 500 index, tabulate the results and report your findings. Learning Outcomes: Students should be able to: 1. Identify individual stocks in the S&P 500 index and discuss the composition of the S&P 500 index. 2. Collect financial data including closing stock prices and adjusted closing stock prices. 3. Estimate beta from historical data. 4. Tabulate regression results and discuss empirical findings. Guidelines: 1. You will be assigned twenty (20) stocks from the current S&P 500 index. You must use these 20 stocks (or, more precisely, the ticker symbols) to download data from yahoo.com. Go to yahoo.com, then Finance, then type in your ticker symbol. Next choose Historical Prices from the tabs on the left. Tag \"Monthly\" then choose the appropriate dates (to be determined below). Click Get Prices, scroll to the bottom of the page and download to spreadsheet (it is actually saved as a '.csv' file, but it will open okay in Excel). The last month of return data should be August 2015. Be sure to use end-of-month data! Yahoo might print a beginning of month date in the monthly output, but it should be end of month. To check this, look at the daily data and verify that the last day of the month is used in the monthly spreadsheet (it should be if you wait until after the sample period to collect your data). 2. You must determine how exactly yahoo.com calculates historical beta, then replicate their calculations. This requires the use of regression software (or functions in Excel, if you know how to do that). Note, you must calculate returns first. Is the data sorted correctly - in time order? If not, you must sort your stock prices and market prices so that the oldest prices are first, then calculate returns. Answer the following questions: a. How, exactly, does yahoo.com calculate their beta? How many months of return data do they use? How many months of price data do you need? How do you know that you and Yahoo used the same data period? b. Should you use closing price or adjusted price when calculating returns? Why? c. What is the market proxy? What ticker did you use for your market proxy? 3. After calculating returns for your twenty stocks and the market, you must calculate beta for each of your twenty stocks. Create a Table showing the following: Ticker, Company Name, yahoo beta, calculated beta, intercept and r-square from your regressions. 4. Do your regression results match yahoo.com results? Why or why not? Output: You must submit a brief write-up of your results. Your paper should be detailed enough so that someone else could pick up your paper and replicate your results. So, you will need a brief introduction describing your data sources, how you manipulated the data, how you calculated returns, how you calculated beta, a Table, and a brief summary and discussion of your findings. In total, you must submit: 1. Your write-up as a Word file including the Table described above in Guideline #3 and your answers to the various questions. 2. An Excel spreadsheet (one sheet), properly formatted, containing the ticker symbol, closing price, adjusted price and dates (dates should be the same for each ticker) for each of your twenty stocks and your market proxy. 3. Another Excel spreadsheet, properly formatted, detailing how, exactly, you calculated the results in your Table (i.e., replicate the detailed findings for your stocks). The two Excel worksheets should be in one file with two different labeled worksheet tabs. Alternatively, you may use 20 Excel sheets named with the ticker symbol if you wish to combine the date, ticker symbol, closing price, adjusted closing price, and calculations and/or regressions separately for each of your 20 companies. List of Stocks in the S&P 500 Index on August 31, 2015: Ticker No. Ticker Symbol Company 21st Century Fox 1 FOXA 3M Co 2 MMM ACE Limited 3 ACE AES Corp 4 AES AFLAC Inc 5 AFL AGL Resources 6 GAS AT&T Inc 7T AbbVie Inc. 8 ABBV Abbott Laboratories 9 ABT Accenture plc 10 ACN Actavis Inc 11 ACT Activision Blizzard 12 ATVI Adobe Systems Inc 13 ADBE Advance Auto Parts Inc. 14 AAP Aetna Inc 15 AET Affiliated Managers Group, Inc. 16 AMG Agilent Technologies Inc 17 A Air Products & Chemicals Inc 18 APD Airgas Inc 19 ARG Akamai Technologies Inc 20 AKAM Alcoa Inc 21 AA Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc 22 ALXN Allegion 23 ALLE Alliance Data Systems 24 ADS Allstate Corp 25 ALL Altera Corp 26 ALTR Altria Group Inc 27 MO Amazon.com Inc 28 AMZN Ameren Corp 29 AEE American Airlines Group 30 AAL American Electric Power 31 AEP American Express Co 32 AXP American Intl Group Inc 33 AIG American Tower Corp A 34 AMT Ameriprise Financial Inc 35 AMP AmerisourceBergen Corp 36 ABC Ametek 37 AME Amgen Inc 38 AMGN Amphenol Corp A 39 APH Anadarko Petroleum Corp 40 APC Analog Devices Inc 41 ADI Anthem Inc (formerly WellPoint Inc) 42 ANTM Aon plc 43 AON Apache Corp 44 APA Apartment Investment & Mgmt 45 AIV Apple Inc. 46 AAPL Applied Materials Inc 47 AMAT Archer-Daniels-Midland Co 48 ADM Assurant Inc 49 AIZ AutoNation Inc 50 AN AutoZone Inc 51 AZO Autodesk Inc 52 ADSK Automatic Data Processing 53 ADP Avago Technologies 54 AVGO AvalonBay Communities Inc 55 AVB Avery Dennison Corp 56 AVY BB&T Corp 57 BBT Baker Hughes Inc 58 BHI Ball Corp 59 BLL Bank of America Corp 60 BAC Bard C.R. Inc 61 BCR Baxalta Inc. 62 BXLT Baxter Intl Inc 63 BAX Becton Dickinson & Co 64 BDX BBBY Bed Bath & Beyond Inc 65 Berkshire Hathaway B 66 BRK.B Best Buy Co Inc 67 BBY Biogen Idec Inc 68 BIIB BlackRock Inc 69 BLK Block H & R Inc 70 HRB Boeing Co 71 BA Borgwarner Inc 72 BWA Boston Properties Inc 73 BXP Boston Scientific Corp 74 BSX Bristol-Myers Squibb 75 BMY 76 BRCM 77 BF.B 78 CA 79 CBG 80 CBS 81 CF 82 CHRW 83 CMS 84 CNX 85 CSX 86 CVS 87 CVC 88 COG 89 CAM 90 CPB 91 COF 92 CAH 93 KMX 94 CCL 95 CAT 96 CELG 97 CNP 98 CTL 99 CERN 100 CHK 101 CVX 102 CME 103 CMG 104 CB 105 CI 106 XEC 107 CINF 108 CTAS 109 CSCO 110 C 111 CTXS 112 CLX 113 COH 114 KO 115 CCE 116 CTSH 117 CL 118 CPGX 119 CMCSA 120 CMA 121 CSC 122 CAG 123 COP 124 ED 125 STZ 126 GLW 127 COST 128 CCI 129 CMI 130 DTE 131 DVA 132 DHR 133 DRI 134 DE 135 DLPH 136 DAL 137 XRAY 138 DVN 139 DO 140 DFS 141 DISCA 142 DISCK 143 DG 144 DLTR 145 D 146 DOV 147 DOW 148 DPS 149 DUK 150 DNB 151 ETFC Broadcom Corp A Brown-Forman Corp B CA Inc CBRE Group Inc. CBS Corp B CF Industries Holdings CH Robinson Worldwide Inc CMS Energy Corp CONSOL Energy Inc CSX Corp CVS Caremark Corp. Cablevision Systems Co A Cabot Oil & Gas A Cameron International Corp Campbell Soup Co Capital One Financial Cardinal Health Inc Carmax Inc Carnival Corp Caterpillar Inc Celgene Corp Centerpoint Energy Inc CenturyLink Inc Cerner Corp Chesapeake Energy Corp Chevron Corp Chicago Mercantile Exchange Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. Chubb Corp Cigna Corporation Cimarex Energy Cincinnati Financial Corp Cintas Corp Cisco Systems Inc Citigroup Inc Citrix Systems Inc Clorox Co Coach Inc Coca-Cola Co Coca-Cola Enterprises Cognizant Tech Solutions Corp Colgate-Palmolive Co Columbia Pipeline Group Inc. Comcast Corp Comerica Inc (MI) Computer Sciences ConAgra Foods Inc ConocoPhillips Consolidated Edison Inc Constellation Brands Inc A Corning Inc Costco Wholesale Corp Crown Castle Intl Corp Cummins Inc DTE Energy Co DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc Danaher Corp Darden Restaurants Inc Deere & Co Delphi Automotive PLC Delta Airlines Dentsply Intl Devon Energy Corp Diamond Offshore Drilling Discover Financial Services Discovery Communications Inc Discovery Communications Inc Dollar General Corp Dollar Tree Inc Dominion Resources Inc Dover Corp Dow Chemical Dr Pepper Snapple Group Duke Energy Corp Dun & Bradstreet Corp E*TRADE Financial Corp DD 152 153 EMC 154 EOG 155 EQT 156 EMN 157 ETN 158 EBAY 159 ECL 160 EIX 161 EW 162 EA 163 EMR 164 ENDP 165 ESV 166 ETR 167 EFX 168 EQIX 169 EQR 170 ESS 171 EL 172 EXC 173 EXPE 174 EXPD 175 ESRX 176 XOM 177 FFIV 178 FLIR 179 FMC 180 FTI 181 FB 182 FAST 183 FDX 184 FIS 185 FITB 186 FHN 187 FSLR 188 FE 189 FISV 190 FLS 191 FLR 192 F 193 FOSL 194 BEN 195 FCX 196 FTR 197 GME 198 GCI 199 GPS 200 GRMN 201 GD 202 GE 203 GGP 204 GIS 205 GM 206 GPC 207 GNW 208 GILD 209 GS 210 GT 211 GOOG 212 GOOGL 213 GWW 214 HCA 215 HCP 216 HAL 217 HBI 218 HOG 219 HAR 220 HRS 221 HIG 222 HAS 223 HCN 224 HP 225 HSIC 226 HSY 227 HES E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company EMC Corp EOG Resources EQT Corporation Eastman Chemical Co Eaton Corp plc eBay Inc. Ecolab Inc Edison Intl Edwards Lifesciences Corp Electronic Arts Emerson Electric Co Endo International Ensco PLC - CL A Entergy Corp Equifax Inc Equinix Equity Residential Essex Property Trust Inc. Estee Lauder Cos. Exelon Corp Expedia Expeditors Intl of WA Inc Express Scripts Holding Co. Exxon Mobil Corp F5 Networks Inc FLIR Systems Inc FMC Corp FMC Technologies Inc Facebook Fastenal Co FedEx Corp Fidelity National Information Fifth Third Bancorp (OH) First Horizon National Corp First Solar Inc FirstEnergy Corp Fiserv Inc Flowserve Corp Fluor Corp Ford Motor Co Fossil Inc Franklin Resources Inc Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Frontier Communications Corp GameStop Corp A Gannett Co Inc Gap Inc Garmin Ltd General Dynamics General Electric Co General Growth Properties Inc. General Mills Inc General Motors Genuine Parts Co Genworth Financial Inc Gilead Sciences Inc Goldman Sachs Group Inc Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co Google Inc Google Inc Grainger W.W. Inc HCA Holdings HCP Inc Halliburton Co Hanesbrands Harley-Davidson Inc Harman Intl Industries Inc Harris Corp Hartford Finl Services Group Hasbro Inc Health Care REIT Inc Helmerich & Payne Inc Henry Schein Hershey Foods Corp Hess Corp 228 HPQ 229 HD 230 HON 231 HRL 232 DHI 233 HST 234 HCBK 235 HUM 236 HBAN 237 ITW 238 IR 239 INTC 240 ICE 241 IPG 242 IBM 243 IFF 244 IP 245 INTU 246 ISRG 247 IVZ 248 IRM 249 JBHT 250 JPM 251 JEC 252 JNJ 253 JCI 254 JOY 255 JNPR 256 KLAC 257 K 258 GMCR 259 KEY 260 KMB 261 KIM 262 KMI 263 KSS 264 KRFT 265 KR 266 LLL 267 LH 268 LRCX 269 LM 270 LEG 271 LEN 272 LUK 273 LVLT 274 LLY 275 LB 276 LNC 277 LLTC 278 LMT 279 L 280 LOW 281 LYB 282 MTB 283 MAC 284 M 285 MNK 286 MRO 287 MPC 288 MAR 289 MMC 290 MLM 291 MAS 292 MA 293 MAT 294 MKC 295 MCD 296 MHFI 297 MCK 298 MJN 299 MDT 300 MRK 301 MET 302 KORS 303 MCHP 304 MU Hewlett-Packard Co Home Depot Inc Honeywell Intl Inc Hormel Foods Corp Horton D.R. Inc Host Hotels & Resorts Inc Hudson City Bancorp Humana Inc Huntington Bancshares (OH) Illinois Tool Works Inc Ingersoll-Rand Plc Intel Corp IntercontinentalExchange Interpublic Group Cos Intl Business Machines Corp Intl Flavors & Fragrances Intl Paper Co Intuit Inc Intuitive Surgical Inc Invesco Ltd Iron Mountain Inc JB Hunt Transport Services Inc. JP Morgan Chase & Co Jacobs Engineering Group Inc Johnson & Johnson Johnson Controls Inc Joy Global Inc Juniper Networks Inc KLA-Tencor Corporation Kellogg Co Keurig Green Mountain KeyCorp Kimberly-Clark Kimco Realty Corp Kinder Morgan Inc Kohl's Corp Kraft Foods Group Inc. Kroger Co L-3 Communications Holdings Lab Corp of America Hldgs Lam Research Corp Legg Mason Inc Leggett & Platt Lennar Corp Leucadia National Corp (NY) Level 3 Communications Lilly Eli & Co L Brands Inc Lincoln National Corp Linear Technology Corp Lockheed Martin Loews Corp Lowe's Cos Inc LyondellBasell Industries N.V. M&T Bank Corp Macerich Macy's Inc Mallinckrodt Plc. Marathon Oil Corp Marathon Petroleum Corp. Marriott Intl A Marsh & McLennan Companies Martin Marietta Materials Masco Corp Mastercard Inc A Mattel Inc McCormick & Co McDonald's Corp McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. McKesson Corp Mead Johnson Nutrition Co Medtronic Inc Merck & Co Inc Metlife Inc Michael Kors Microchip Technology Inc Micron Technology Inc 305 MSFT 306 MHK 307 TAP 308 MDLZ 309 MON 310 MNST 311 MCO 312 MS 313 MOS 314 MSI 315 MUR 316 MYL 317 NKE 318 NRG 319 NDAQ 320 NOV 321 NAVI 322 NTAP 323 NFLX 324 NWL 325 NFX 326 NEM 327 NWSA 328 NEE 329 NLSN 330 NI 331 NBL 332 JWN 333 NSC 334 NU 335 NTRS 336 NOC 337 NUE 338 NVDA 339 ORLY 340 OKE 341 OXY 342 OMC 343 ORCL 344 OI 345 PCAR 346 PCG 347 PNC 348 PPG 349 PPL 350 PH 351 PDCO 352 PAYX 353 PYPL 354 PNR 355 PBCT 356 POM 357 PEP 358 PKI 359 PRGO 360 PFE 361 PM 362 PSX 363 PNW 364 PXD 365 PBI 366 PCL 367 PX 368 PCP 369 PCLN 370 PFG 371 PLD 372 PG 373 PGR 374 PRU 375 PEG 376 PSA 377 PHM 378 PVH 379 QRVO 380 QCOM 381 PWR Microsoft Corp Mohawk Industries Molson Coors Brewing Co B Mondelez International Inc Monsanto Co. Monster Beverage Corp Moody's Corp Morgan Stanley Mosaic Co Motorola Solutions Inc Murphy Oil Corp Mylan Inc. NIKE Inc B NRG Energy Nasdaq OMX Group/The National Oilwell Varco Inc Navient NetApp Inc NetFlix Inc Newell Rubbermaid Inc Newfield Exploration Co Newmont Mining Corp News Corporation NextEra Energy Inc Nielsen Holdings Nisource Inc Noble Energy Inc Nordstrom Inc Norfolk Southern Corp Northeast Utilities Northern Trust Corp (IL) Northrop Grumman Corp Nucor Corp Nvidia Corp O'Reilly Automotive ONEOK Inc Occidental Petroleum Omnicom Group Oracle Corp Owens-Illinois Inc PACCAR Inc PG&E Corporation PNC Finl Services Group PPG Industries Inc PPL Corp Parker-Hannifin Corp Patterson Cos Inc Paychex Inc Paypal Pentair Ltd. People's United Financial Inc Pepco Holdings Inc PepsiCo Inc PerkinElmer Inc Perrigo Co Pfizer Inc Philip Morris International Phillips 66 Pinnacle West Capital (AZ) Pioneer Natural Resources Pitney Bowes Inc Plum Creek Timber Co Praxair Inc Precision Castparts Corp Priceline.com Inc Principal Financial Group ProLogis Inc Procter & Gamble Progressive Corp Prudential Financial Inc Public Service Enterprise Grp Public Storage Pulte Group Inc PVH Corp Qorvo QUALCOMM Inc Quanta Services Inc 382 DGX 383 KSU 384 RL 385 RRC 386 RTN 387 O 388 RHT 389 REGN 390 RF 391 RSG 392 RAI 393 RHI 394 ROK 395 COL 396 ROP 397 ROST 398 RCL 399 R 400 SCG 401 SLG 402 CRM 403 SNDK 404 SLB 405 SCHW 406 SNI 407 STX 408 SEE 409 SRE 410 SHW 411 SIAL 412 SIG 413 SPG 414 SWKS 415 SJM 416 SNA 417 SO 418 LUV 419 SWN 420 SE 421 STJ 422 SWK 423 SPLS 424 SBUX 425 HOT 426 STT 427 SRCL 428 SYK 429 STI 430 SYMC 431 SYY 432 TROW 433 TEL 434 TE 435 TJX 436 TGT 437 THC 438 TDC 439 TSO 440 TXN 441 TXT 442 ADT 443 BK 444 WMB 445 TMO 446 TIF 447 TWC 448 TWX 449 TMK 450 TSS 451 TSCO 452 RIG 453 TRV 454 TRIP 455 TYC 456 TSN 457 USB 458 UA Quest Diagnostics Railroad Kansas City Southern Ralph Lauren Corp Range Resources Corp Raytheon Co Realty Income Corporation Red Hat Inc Regeneron Regions Financial Corp Republic Services Inc Reynolds American Inc Robert Half Intl Inc Rockwell Automation Inc Rockwell Collins Roper Industries Inc Ross Stores Inc Royal Carribean Cruises Ltd. Ryder System Inc SCANA Corp SL Green Realty Salesforce.com SanDisk Corp Schlumberger Ltd Schwab Charles Corp Scripps Networks Interactive Seagate Technology Sealed Air Corp Sempra Energy Sherwin-Williams Co Sigma-Aldrich Corp Signet Jewelers Simon Property Group Skyworks Solutions Inc. Smucker J.M. Co Snap On Inc Southern Co Southwest Airlines Co Southwestern Energy Co Spectra Energy Corp St Jude Medical Inc Stanley Black & Decker Staples Inc Starbucks Corp Starwood Hotel & Resort World State Street Corp Stericycle Inc Stryker Corp SunTrust Banks Inc (GA) Symantec Corp Sysco Corp T Rowe Price Group Inc TE Connectivity Ltd. TECO Energy Inc TJX Cos Inc Target Corp Tenet Healthcare Teradata Corp Tesoro Corp Texas Instruments Inc Textron Inc The ADT Corp. The Bank of New York Mellon Corp The Williams Companies Inc Thermo Fisher Scientific Tiffany & Co Time Warner Cable Inc Time Warner Inc Torchmark Corp Total System Services Inc Tractor Supply Company Transocean Travelers Cos Inc TripAdvisor Inc. Tyco Intl Tyson Foods Inc A US Bancorp Under Armour 459 UNP 460 UAL 461 UPS 462 URI 463 UTX 464 UNH 465 UHS 466 UNM 467 URBN 468 VFC 469 VLO 470 VAR 471 VTR 472 VRSN 473 VZ 474 VRTX 475 VIAB 476 V 477 VNO 478 VMC 479 WMT 480 WAG 481 DIS 482 WM 483 WAT 484 WFC 485 WDC 486 WU 487 WRK 488 WY 489 WHR 490 WFM 491 WEC 492 WYN 493 WYNN 494 XL 495 XEL 496 XRX 497 XLNX 498 XYL 499 YHOO 500 YUM 501 ZMH 502 ZION Union Pacific Corp United Continental Holdings United Parcel Service Inc B United Rentals United Technologies Corp Unitedhealth Group Inc Universal Health Services Unum Group Urban Outfitters VF Corp Valero Energy Corp Varian Medical Systems Inc Ventas Inc VeriSign Inc Verizon Communications Inc Vertex Pharmaceuticals Viacom Inc B Visa Inc Vornado Realty Trust Vulcan Materials Co Wal-Mart Stores Walgreen Co Walt Disney Co Waste Management Inc Waters Corp Wells Fargo & Co Western Digital Corp Western Union Co Westrock Co Weyerhaeuser Co Whirlpool Corp Whole Foods Market Inc Wisconsin Energy Corp Wyndham Worldwide Corp Wynn Resorts Ltd XL Group Plc Xcel Energy Inc Xerox Corp Xilinx Inc Xylem Inc Yahoo Inc Yum! Brands Inc Zimmer Holdings Inc Zions Bancorp (UT)