Assignment involving a company analysis. Prepare an analysis of a public company evaluating the company from the standpoint of both fixed income securities (e.g. should you buy the bonds?) and equities (should you buy or sell the stock?) Approaches to the analysis should include:
•Nature of the company's business
•Competition & Industry Factors
- Comparison of the subject company with competitors and/or the industry sector.
- Analysis of the subject company's industry sector - relative strength or weakness, factors affecting the industry such as product / technical innovation, regulation, economic cycles, etc.
•Analysis of the Company
•Assessing the company's position within the industry context - is it a leader; does it have clear advantages vis a vis other industry participants.
•Current state of financial health of the company. Address each of the key financial areas - liquidity, asset utilization, leverage, profitability & cash flow - as well as market-based ratios and information.
•Trends in that financial health over recent years and potentially into the future.
The company is Ford Motor Company. Note that the analysis of these factors (not just presenting the numbers, ratios, etc. themselves) is the most important aspect of this project.
The paper MUST contain a conclusion based on your analysis.
Would you recommend investment in the bonds of this company? Do you think that the company will be able to honor/pay its interest and principal obligations in a timely manner?
Would you recommend investment in the common stock of the company for the medium / longer term? Note, this is not a short-term trading recommendation based on the stock's price right now.
The paper should not exceed 15 pages, double spaced.
The paper is to be prepared using the APA writing style and guideline for references format. They must contain a bibliography and all direct quotations and data sources must be properly cited.
The paper is a research paper. Work that you use from other authors MUST be referenced. This paper is an overview of many different sources of information. These must be contributed to the author using the APA format. This is your paper and not the cut and paste of someone else's work. The internet has led to a false sense of what research is all about. Those new to research tend to think that it means spending an afternoon surfing the internet and then an afternoon cutting from material available. Keep in mind the internet is:
(1) not quality oriented as it has good stuff and not so good stuff but the internet does not know the difference and
(2) the internet is NOT a sole source location.
In particular, sources such as Wikipedia are the works of individual submitters which are not reviewed. Thus while many entries provide excellent information, some are fundamentally flawed or just plain wrong. Keep in mind that the university library as well as your local, state and the national US Library of Congress have extensive on line services.