This assignment requires students to utilize some simple tools to understand the performance and liquidity/solvency position of a public firm, Target Corporation, which is listed on a US exchange (New York, ticker symbol: TGT). Public firms are required to file quarterly return periodically with SEC in a standardized format. Firms are identified either by their name, ticker symbol or CIK (Target Corporation: 27419) on the SEC website, EDGAR. Databases, like Bloomberg Professional, are available from the library where you can do some query at the workstations to find the industry ratios.

You are required to:

1 Download the excel version of the quarterly (e.g. 26-week ended July 30, 2022) reports of Target Corporation for the four quarter-periods ended from 2019 to 2022. The quarter of interest is the two-quarter results ended on July 30, 2022 while the prior period figures (2019 to 2021) are used to develop a trend for the ratios. See note 1 on the various types of reports available on EDGAR.

2 (a) Calculate the following ten ratios for the four periods . (b) With seasonality factor controlled (same quarters last year), study the performance and financial position over time and comment on liquidity, profitability and solvency accordingly. Include a word count on the narrative part (not exceeding 300 words). Avoid changing the sequence of the following 10 ratios.

1 Current ratio (for example 1.23)

2 Current Cash Debt coverage (for example 12.34%)

3 Inventory turnover (for example 1.23 times)

4 Gross Profit ratio

5 Profit Margin

6 Asset Turnover

7 Free Cash Flow

8 Debt to Asset ratio

9 Cash Debt coverage