Please use Excel cell formulas and functions to compute answers to these questions in your spreadsheet in order to receive credit. Please type the names of everyone in your group at the top of the first page of your workbook. You should use Excel to do your work for this project.

Has Cord Cutting taken its toll? Ratio Analysis: Charter vs. Comcast.

The best source for financial statements for these companies is Morningstar.com. Morningstar is best known for their mutual fund rating services but their website provides a wealth of financial market and statement information for individual companies as well. Morningstar has financial statements for the last 5 years for your company and the best feature is these statements export to Excel perfectly which helps tremendously in computing the financial ratios. To find your company on Morningstar, just start typing ticker of each company in the Search Quote box at the top of the home page. Charter Communications ticker symbol is CHTR, and Comcasts is CMCSA. You can then click on the Financials link in the menu below the company name and above the stock quote. Then scroll down the page a little bit and click on Income Statement and the Income Statements for the past 5 years will appear. Then click Annual and Restated and then click the Export to Excel button to download to Excel. Then click on Balance Sheet and repeat the process.

Here are some notes about these statements from Morningstar.com.

Income Statement: the TTM column in the Income Statement wont be used in your analysis and can be deleted, negative Net Interest income/Expense represents the companys interest expense.

Balance Sheet Notes: Net Property, Plant, and Equipment is Net (Tangible) Fixed Assets as described in the textbook. Accrued expenses are accruals.

1. Trend Analysis. Calculate all the financial ratio values for the last 5 fiscal years 2015 thru 2019 for Charter and Comcast for the ratios talked about in the class videos and the textbook (chapter 4). There are 14 ratios. Group these by the four categories discussed: Liquidity, Asset Management, Debt, and Profitability. Do not worry about calculating any of the market ratios. Divide negative Provision for Income Tax (it will be a negative number if the company paid taxes) by Pretax Income if you need a tax rate in any of your ratio calculations, otherwise use zero for the tax rate. What are the strengths and weaknesses of each company in your opinion?

2. Comparison Analysis. Compare and contrast each financial ratio of Charter and Comcast, or vice versa. Which company do you think is managing each ratio better and each group of ratios better (liquidity, asset management, debt, and profitability)? Explain why.