Select a company from the accompanying list and write a short report answering the following questions about your company. Create a Word file to answer the following questions.

Provide a basic history of the company you have selected. When was the company founded? Who are the senior leaders (CEO, CFO, Board Chair)? Where is the company incorporated? Has the company been in the news recently (last 5 years) and for what?

What types of products or services does your company sell?

On what day of the year does its fiscal year end?

For how many years does it present complete:

a. Balance sheets?

b. Income statements?

c. Cash flow statements?

Are its financial statements audited by independent CPAs? If so, by whom? What type of opinion did the financial report receive?

What are the values in the companys accounting equation for the most recent year?

Did its total assets increase or decrease over last year? By what percentage? (Hint: Percentage change is calculated as [current year - last year] / last year. Show supporting computations.)

Did its net income increase or decrease over last year? By what percentage?

Which of the following had the largest percentage increase from last year to the current year? (See the formula in 6. above. Show all supporting computations.)

a. Net sales

b. Cost of sales

c. Net income

6. What are the future financial projections of the company and how does it plan to get there?

List of Accompanying Companies

Green Mountain Coffee

Kimberly Clark

Caterpillar

Hershey Foods

Alcoa

WalMart

Ben and Jerry's

IBM

DuPont

eBay

Amazon