You are to look up the company with its ticker symbol, BLK, and conduct a SWOT analysis of that company relying primarily on its financial statements as well as industry average comparisons and any other information you find to be relevant.

 

Because you can copy the financial statement data from their pages and paste it directly into an Excel file Links to an external site., you should use zacks.com Links to an external site.as your primary source for financial data (e.g., balance sheet, income statement, etc.) but you are encouraged to use other resources as needed (e.g.,sec.gov Links to an external site.,barchart.com Links to an external site.,finance.yahoo.com Links to an external site.,marketwatch.com Links to an external site., etc.) as long as youdocument your sources. At zacks.com Links to an external site.the site, in the 'search' box near the top on the right, enter your company's ticker symbol. To find that company's financial statements, lookunder'financials'in the left-frame below 'charts,' fifth section down.)

What to do:

Answer the ten questions and directives listed below. Provide some detail to question #9 in particular.

Here are the ten questions/directives:

1. Cite any data source you used other than zacks.com.
2. Compute theearnings per share links to an external site.for your company using the 2020 and 2021 income statements. Confirm that your EPS number is the same as that reported on your company's profile page. If your EPS number is not the same as that reported on your company's profile page, give your best guess as to why that is.
3. Preparecommon-sized balance sheets and income statementsLinks to an external site.for your company for 2020 and 2021.
4. Compute the changes (in $, not %) in the balance sheet from 2020 to 2021.
5. How do the numbers reported in (4) relate to the 2021 cash flow statement?
6. Compute your company'sfree cash flowfor 2021.
7. Compute the following financial ratios for your company:
8. Currentratio
9. Net profit margin
10. Totalassetturnover (TATO)
11. Timesinterestearned (TIE)
12. Debt ratio
13. Returnonequity (ROE)
14. Price/Earnings ratio (P/E)
15. Market/Book ratio
16. Given your research, list what you believe to be the (a) Strengths, (b) Weaknesses, (c) Opportunities, and (d) Threats to BLK. (The ratio analysis you've done will help you point out strengths and weaknesses when compared to those of the industry. You will have to do some additional research about your company to identify opportunities and threats.HereLinks to an external site.is a good explanation of what a SWOT analysis is.)
17. Make some general observations about BLK. Are there things about this company that concern you? Given your research, would you recommend your company as a good investment opportunity? Justify your opinion.