• • Research project on Tesla is closely aligned with the Course Outcomes and Finance Program Objectives. Completion of this project can be used as part of a portfolio to show potential employers the student is skilled at performing company valuations and financial statement analysis and can be included on the student's resume.

    OBJECTIVE

    You are to assume you have been recently hired by The Company and have been assigned to a team that reports to the CEO of THE COMPANY (SELECTED BY INSTRUCTOR). The head of your team is the CFO who is concerned about THE COMPANY’s current financial performance and comparison against major competitors in the industry and the impact that may have on the firm’s stock price. The CFO would like your team to provide insights that will help them to project future financial performance. Specifically, the primary question to answer is to analyze the company’s financial trends over the last 5 years, and which steps should be done to improve its financial stability?

    THE COMPANY that is to be analyzed for this project is to be a company selected by instructor.

    Alternatively, you can request approval of another publicly traded company. This request must be submitted before the end of the first week of the course. The request must include

    • identification of the company by ticker symbol and name
    • a reasonable and appropriate explanation of why you want to examine the alternative company
    • the source of the analyst's report that will be used in the analysis (which must be submitted to me)
    • acknowledgement by you that all of the specific elements of the assignment (see below) will be prepared by you and included in the final research project report

    YOUR SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENT

    Using the information from the websites the students will develop evaluation of the financial performance for THE COMPANY (SELECTED BY INSTRUCTOR). (The evaluation portion will total 85% of the assignment grade)

    -1—Introduction (5% of the project grade)- The paper should begin with a short introduction, explains the purpose of the paper, and provides an overview of the contents that follow (one short paragraph).

    2— Trend analysis (60% of the project grade)

    The website to be used for this project:

    The growth rates are available in www.marketwatch.com -To find the information for your company please type the stock symbol in the Search window to get into the company’s page. Click on Financial > Income Statement (or Balance Sheet) > Annual.

    1. Present the following data for your COMPANY over the last 5 years:

    • Sale Growth rates,
    • COGS Growth rates,
    • Interest Expense Growth rates,
    • Net Income Growth rates,
    • Assets - Total – Growth rates.
    • Total Liabilities / Total Assets Growth rates
    • Total Shareholders' Equity / Total Assets

    You can find these ratios in the Internet or calculate them. If you use published growth rates you must indicate that and cite their source.

    2. Present the following data for the major competitor over the last 5 years:

    • Sale Growth rates,
    • COGS Growth rates,
    • Net Income Growth rates,
    • Total Liabilities / Total Assets Growth rates

    To present your findings, you will create the table(s). In addition, you can create the graphs. You can use the bar graphs provided by www.marketwatch.com or create your own ones.

    Please note that you don’t need to sign up for any premiums or to pay for any information for the project.

    c) Write about 2-3 pages of the analysis of the financial conditions, its stability, and trends. In your analysis compare financial trends of your company to the trend of major competitor. What important information does this analysis provide?

    -3- Develop a specific recommendation, with supporting rationale, as to whether the assigned company's recent trends demonstrate sufficient financial strength, will THE COMPANY be financially sustainable over the next two to three years, and which steps should be done to improve its financial stability? (about 1 page) (15% of the project grade). Your recommendations should be based on the results of your analysis in the project.

    -4- Reflection – the student should write a paragraph in their own words reflecting on specifically what they learned from the assignment and how they think they could apply what they learned in the workplace. (5% of the project grade)

    PRESENTATION OF PAPER AND WRITING (15%) of the project grade):

    -Organization, Format and Presentation of Paper including the Title page, Introduction, Body, and Summary. Each section of the paper must begin with sub-headings. Please use the sub-headings included in the assignment. Please use double space, with one-inch margins, and use 12-point Times New Roman font. (4% of the project grade)

    Use of Tables, Figures and Other Graphics to Summarize and Support Analysis Presented in the Paper. All tables and charts should have the numbering system, like “Table 1…”, the title, and foot/end note to reference the source of the information. (3% of the project grade)

    Logical and Smooth Flowing Transitions and Relationships among Sections of the Written Report (3% of the project grade)

    Research Sources and Significance of Research Information and Data, Use of APA Citation Methodology (5% of the project grade)

  •