Your grandparents have been left a substantial amount of money and want to invest in a company. Your grandfather trusts you to make a recommendation, but he also wants to see the reasoning behind your choice.

You have an idea of which company to choose and you decide to prepare 3 sets of documents for your grandparents to consider: business analysis, combined income and cash flow statement, and trend analysis.

Business Analysis

Select a public company that trades on either the NYSE or the NASDAQ. Perform a business analysis (both external and internal) for your company using the most recent information from various sources. Possible sources include the following:

• Annual report or form 10-K
• Magazine or newspaper articles
• Company Web sites
• Government information
• Industry information
• Rating agencies
• Analyst reports
• Internet articles

Your analysis should be approximately 5 pages long. Be sure to cite your sources using APA guidelines.

Combined Income and Cash Flow Statement

Download the company's most recent annual report from its Web site or the company's form 10-K from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Web site (www.sec.gov).

• Confirm that the firm's income, dividends, and other capital transactions explain the change in equity for the most recent year. (You may need to consult the statement of shareholders' equity.)
• Confirm that the firm's cash flow statement begins with the same net income amounts found in the income statement.
• Confirm that the firm's cash flow statement shows a change in cash that is equal to the difference between cash shown on the balance sheet at the beginning and end of the year. In Excel, construct a combined income statement and cash flow statement.
• Write 12 paragraphs that answer the following:
  • What would you do if you found there was a huge difference in the net income amounts and the reported cash flow amounts?
  • How could technology limit the likelihood of this happening again?

Trend Analysis

Finally, prepare a trend analysis of operating ratios for at least 3 years' worth of financial data. Prepare the analysis in Excel. You may wish to create a common-sized income statement first, but it isn't required.

If you adjusted for any nonrecurring items in step 1, explain the adjustments in a separate Word document. Use any other information in your company's annual report to explain the change in revenues, gross margin percentage, and operating margin percentage. Add this information to the Word document.

1. Using the GAAP balance sheet for the most recent year, for each item, determine where it should be classified in the economic balance sheet (core operations, nonoperating net assets, debt claims, other capital claims, or equity claims). Create a 2-column table in Word to show the corresponding accounts.
2. Determine whether any other items should appear on the economic balance sheet that are not on the GAAP balance sheet.
3. Determine if information exists in the annual report or elsewhere that can assist in valuing the nonoperating net assets, debt, and other capital claims.