Project Outline

Choose a publicly traded company that interests you. If you don't know how to choose a company, think of IBM, DELL computer, Nike, Apple computer, GM, Ford, Nokia, Home Depot, and on and on. Think of the companies that make things you use everyday. Choose one from them.

Part A.

Go to COMPUSTAT Research Insights, Reuters, Thomson Financial Service, or Bloomberg Financial (E-Trade Financial Learning Center has them all) or any other financial database such as Yahoo Finance to download the historical closing prices (five years) of your company on the monthly basis (twelve data points a year). Use Microsoft Excel to chart the historical prices (like the one below) based on the monthly data.

Part B.

Based on the financial statements of the latest available annual report, calculate the following financial ratios using only one year data. If the ratios are not available, please explain why. For example, Citibank doesnt have inventory because its a financial company.

(Please use spreadsheet software (MS Excel) for this part and show your calculation)

Current ratio

Quick ratio

Fixed assets turnover

Total assets turnover

Total debt to total assets

Profit margin on sales

Return on total assets

Return on common equity

Price/earnings ratio

Market/book ratio

The final report should include a chart of monthly stock price movements described in part A and the financial ratios in part B above.

Based on the materials provided in the annual report and business news from The Wall Street Journal, as well as the financial information from any other sources, such as Datastream, Reuters, and Bloomberg Financial, explain as much as you can the movement of your stock during the last twelve months. Your report should start with a description of the business and the status of financial condition such as Line of business, Competitive positions, and Profitability History (going back five years). Do not turn in a sloppy, rapidly completed report. All papers should have a title page, a table of contents, a statement of purpose, footnotes or endnotes, or a bibliography or reference. The due date for submitting your project is the last date of the class. You will use Assignment manager to submit your project.