Review the Apple Inc. CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR 2014 2016 (Apples financial year ended on September 26, 2016). See below for online links to the Apple information. Using your financial knowledge and ratio analysis:

1. What are the gross profit, operating profit, and net profit margins and do they change significantly over the course of these three years? Remember profits are always related to Sales.

2. How do you think these percentages compare to other major businesses? Choose one firm from each of these categories retail (Target, Walmart), manufacturing (GE, Ford), technology (Microsoft, Google) and explain briefly why these industries margins might differ. The companies I show in parenthesis are only there for example. Chose any companies you want.

3. How would you assess Apples balance sheet? Look at their liquidity, fixed assets, debt, and shareholder equity and analyze the relationships among these key components of the balance sheet.

4. What is the inventory turn for the company? How would this number compare with other companies in the retail sector?

5. How does Apple generate cash and what are the primary uses that it is making of its cash in each component of the cash flow statement cash from operations, cash from investing activities, cash from financing activities, R&D, etc.?

6. Make a general statement about the financial health of Apple Inc. How does this seem to be reflected in the price of the stock? What does the progression of the stock price tell us about the future prospects of the company?

Financial statements are available online. The most convenient place to find these statements, along with a good deal of supplemental information related to the company and its performance, is at Yahoo Finance (see link below) http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/AAPL/?p=AAPL Below is a pic of the site this link will bring you to. Click on Financials near the top of the screen. You will then see the line an inch below that that reads Show the Income Statement, Cash Flow and Balance Sheet. Click on each to see those particular statements.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) NasdaqGS - NasdaqGS Real Time Price. Currency in USD Add to watchlist 137.10 +0.17 (+0.12%) As of 1:25PM EST. Market open. Summary Conversations Statistics ProfileFinancials Options Holders Historical Data Analysts Avoiding Home Repair Bills Really Pays Off! HomeServe USA Show: Income Statement Cash Flow Balance Sheet AnnualQuarterly Income Statement All numbers in thousands Revenue 9/24/2016 9/26/2015 9/27/2014 Total Revenue 215,639,000 131,376,000 84,263,000 233,715,000 140,089,000 93,626,000 82,795,000 112,258,000 70,537,000 Cost of Revenue Gross Profit