Financial Statements Analsysis: Public Company

Final Project
For the final project, you will be expected to locate the financial statements of a publicly-traded
company for two years, and perform a full analysis of those statements using all the concepts you
have learned in the course.

Formatting and length guidelines:

You should use APA (American Psychological Association) guidelines for formatting the title page
(make sure you give your paper a meaningful title like “Financial Analysis of XYZ company”),
references, in-text citations, and subheads. Some (free) helpful sites on how to do APA style
citations are on the PBSC library website. (http://palmbeachstate.libguides.com/apa)
Your completed paper should be a minimum of 12 pages long, plus a title page, a list of references, and an Appendix as needed. Each section of the paper should be to a minimum of 2.5 pages.
You should use MS Word format, double-spacing, 1-inch margins all the way around, page
numbers on every page except for the title page, and 12 point Times New Roman font.
Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation are expected. You are also expected to write formally
at a collegiate level.

Research guidelines:
Go to Yahoo Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/) . The instructions that follow refer to how to locate the information in Yahoo, but you may choose to use Hoover’s through the PBSC library website (if you are unsure how to locate and search within Hoover’s, please contact library support from the library website) or obtain the financials directly from the company.
Search for the company you wish to analyze. If you choose a publicly traded company, their
financials will be listed in Yahoo Finance and Hoover’s. If you choose a private company, you must
obtain their financials directly from them and submit the financials as appendices to your final
project.

The company you picked does not have one of those or does not have three years’ worth of data for each of those, then pick another company.
You should have at least four sources other than the textbooks in the class. These sources can be
websites, newspaper or journal articles, or books. Don’t forget to cite the source of your financials
(Yahoo Finance or otherwise). You may use any legitimate source (i.e., National Enquirer, Wikipedia is not acceptable, but NY Times is).

Writing guidelines:
Throughout the term, you have submitted portions of the final project and received feedback from your instructor. Before you use those sections for the final paper, review the feedback carefully and edit the sections to incorporate the feedback before using them in your final paper. Your paper should have the following sections using the subheads indicated below. Each section should be a minimum of 2.5 pages plus the reference and cover pages:
Introduction: In this section, introduce the company you have selected and include basic
background information about the size and type of company, locations, and products.
Common Size and ratio Analysis. In this section, you will complete the Common Size and Ratios Analysis of the company you chose.
Common Size: Complete the common size statement for the financials. After completing the
common size, provide your analysis of the company’s performance Ratio Analysis. Perform a Ratio Analysis of the company you chose based on the ratios found in Chapter 4 under Summary of Key Equations pages 4-34 to 4-35. Use Equations 4-1 to 4-19.
Do not include the Market Ratios
After calculating the ratios, describe each category (Liquidity, Efficiency, Leverage, and Profitability)
and comment on what each is measuring and what the result of your calculations is telling you about how the company has performed. Compare and comment on how the company generally performed when compared to the industry within which it operates. The Industry Ratios can be found here: https://www.readyratios.com/sec/ (https://www.readyratios.com/sec/)

Income Statement Analysis: In this section, answer the following for the trend analysis: What are
the total revenue, total costs of revenue, and net income for each year? How have these numbers
changed over the three years, and what could be some reasons why these numbers have changed
the way they have? In addition, pick at least one appropriate (for this statement) ratio or financial in addition to what is provided and calculate that and explain it. (Refer to the ratios your previously calculated.)
Balance Sheet Analysis: In this section, answer the following for the trend analysis: What are the
total assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity for each year? How have these numbers changed
over the three years, and what could be some reasons why these numbers have changed the way to what is provided and calculate that and explain it. (Refer to the ratios your previously
calculated.)

Cash Flow Analysis: In this section, answer the following for the trend analysis: What are the total
cash flows from operating, investing, and financing activities as well as the change in cash and
cash equivalents for each year? How have these numbers changed over the three years, and what
could be some reasons why these numbers have changed the way they have? In addition, pick at
least one appropriate (for this statement) ratio or financial in addition to what is provided and
calculate that and explain it. (Refer to the ratios your previously calculated.)
Conclusion: In this section, among other things, answer the following: What are the most
important things you have discovered about the company in your analysis? What are some of the
conclusions you reached? What are the highlights of your paper? What recommendations would
you make to the management of the company? What recommendations would you make to
shareholders in the company?