Financial Analysis Assignment

This is an individual assignment that focuses on Dun and Bradstreet's key business ratio analysis and a current financial situation analysis.

By completing this assignment, students will meet the outcome(s):

• analyze and synthesize strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to generate, prioritize, and implement alternative strategies in order to write and present a strategic plan
• evaluate the outcomes of selected strategies to determine their success and impact on the achievement of an organization's vision and mission

Required Elements to include in Financial Analysis:

• Students will be provided with a list of publicly traded organizations from which to choose;
• Students will be required to create a quantitative financial spreadsheet with key financial ratios;
• Complete the financial ratios using the template provided;
• Include an additional financial ratios that you believe relevant or important to your analysis;
• Provide a detailed, written analysis of the findings from the financial analysis;
• a trend analysis of the latest three years of key balance and income statement information, including a spreadsheet depicting the trend as well as a detailed, written analysis of the information (See Figure 4-3 example on page 110)
• Demonstrate critical thinking in the assessment.

Student should select a company from the list below for this assignment:

 Company is Bank of America

Bank of America

 Required Formatting of Paper:

• This report should be double spaced, 12-point font, and three to four page written analysis excluding the title page, reference page and .spreadsheets;
• Completed spreadsheets with the most recently reported three years of financial statements and presented as an appendix;

• This paper should be written in the third person.  No script should contain the words "I or we;"
• Title page with your name, the course name, the date, and instructor's name;
• This paper should be written in the third person.  No script should contain the words "I or we;"
• Include references with at least one reference other than the textbook;
• Use APA formatting for in-text citations and reference page.  You are expected to paraphrase and not use quotes. Deductions will be taken when quotes are used and found to be unnecessary;

Submit the paper in the Assignment Folder.

Financial Analysis Assignment Template

Your response for the Financial Analysis Assignment should measure, record, and present the financial performance of your firm. Your analysis shall be conducted on a year-to-year basis using the firm's most recent three years Balance Sheets and Income Statements except for final partial-year data, as appropriate (e.g., 4^th quarter 2012*). Use the template below as a guide for developing your response for the Financial Analysis Assignment.

Financial Analysis Assignment Cover Sheet

List of Illustrations

Table of Contents

(Start of Topic Outline for Body of Paper)

I.          Introduction

II.         Summary of Operations ($000)

A.         Net Sales

B.         Gross Margin

C.         Operating Margin

D.         Income before Taxes

E.         Net Income

F.         Summary of Operations Data Assessment/Interpretation

III.        Financial Position ($000)

A.         Working Capital

B.         Net Property, Plant & Equipment

C.         Total Assets

D.         Long Term Assets

E.         Stockholders' Equity

F.         Financial Position Data Assessment/Interpretation Summary

IV.        Financial Ratios to cover four (4) categories of the firm's performance; minimum one ratio from each category.

A.         Liquidity

B.         Leverage

C.         Profitability

D.         Efficiency

E.         Financial Ratios Data Assessment/Interpretation Summary

V.         Historical view of the financial performance; 3-year Trend Analysis for relevant financial performance variables

A.         Comparisons with at least 2 major competitors

B.         Comparison with Industry Standards

C.         Supplemental Data

D.         Historical Financial Performance and 3-year Trend Analysis Data Assessment/Interpretation Summary

References

Appendix (Examples of Typical Appendices)

1.         Industry Statistics

2.         Company Income Statements

3.         Company Balance Sheets

4.         Company Quarterly Statements

5.         Competitor #1 Income Statements

6.         Competitor #1 Key Statistics

7.         Competitor #2 Income Statements

8.         Competitor #2 Key Statistics