FINANCIAL ANALYLSIS PROJECT: Survey of Accounting

Select a publicly traded corporation that has been in the news recently. Analyze the corporation and write a paper, which should be three to five pages long. The components of the analysis / paper should be:

• A brief overview of the company: products made, or services provided, senior officials (e.g., Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and President), headquarters location, size, etc.

• A brief overview of the industry and chief competitors

• Provide a financial analysis of the company by comparing the financial statements for the last two to three years (you can get summary financial statement data from Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, the selected company's annual report, equity analysts, and other sources)

• Perform some limited ratio analysis of the comparative financial statements: (1) current ratios, (2) acid test ratios, (3) debt to equity ratios, (4) total asset turnovers, and (5) returns on common stockholder's equity. Are the ratios improving or deteriorating? Why?

• References: provide at least 3 (e.g., financial analysis by equity analysts as listed on Google Finance or Yahoo Finance for the company; company annual statements; Wall Street Journal or Forbes articles, etc.). Do Not Use WIKI!

NOTE: Google Finance or Yahoo Finance provide links to recent news, analysis by equity analysts, annual report, Edgar (the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission website), and other significant sources of information.

To summarize the organization of the paper is as follows:

Main Body- 3 to 5 pages Reference page

Email the name of your corporation by midnight on September 22, 2014. Paper is due midnight on September 28, 2014. You will upload your paper to a folder in Week 5 (click on Financial Analysis Projects in Assignments and you will find the folder).