Guideline for FIRE 371 Paper You are required to write a financial analysis paper for a publicly-traded US company. Learning objective: "Write thoughts in a concise manner with proper English." Paper: Each paper must contain the following contents. (2-3 pages wring in length, not including the graph, table, and original financial reports; font size:12; line spacing: 1~1.5; margins 0.7~1.25) 1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………about 0.5 page 1) Briefly describe the company’s history and background and key information, e.g., size (capitalization), products/main business, its main competitors, and the characteristics of its industry, etc. 2) Briefly describe how the control company is chosen. 2. Financial Analysis (based on the calculated ratios)………… …………………… about 1-2 page (1). Trend Analysis for each ratio: analyze the firm over the past 3 years (i.e., the most recent 3 years) (2). Peer Analysis for each ratio: compare the firm to its industry or other representative firm in its industry, over the past 3 years. (You decide if use the industry or the other representative firm in the peer analysis.) What you need to do includes: Download the financial statements and stock price information into Excel (obtain the data from Research Insight) and arrange them into appropriate format. Calculate 8 financial ratios (at least one ratio in each category, please see Chapter 3, table 3.5) over the past 3 years, and show the calculation in Excel file. Graph the 8 ratios: o One ratio in each graph. o The ratio of the target and the peer company/industry over the 3 years should be shown in the same graph for each ratio. o Show the work of graphing in Excel. Compare and analyze the eight financial ratios over the last three years and with those of the industry (from e.g., MSN) or peers over the same period in your paper. Note: if no original data and no calculation provided, you get zero for ratio calculation and graphing; and get a deduction for analysis. 3. Conclusions………………………………………………………………………. about 0.5 page Briefly give your opinions of the company’s prospects based on your analysis 2 4. References (if you use any, not included in the 2-3 pages mentioned above) Provide the following information: varies depending on the type of source and may include: Book: author(s), book title, publisher, date of publication, and page number(s) Journal: author(s), article title, journal title, year of publication, volume and issue no. and page number(s). Newspaper: author(s), article title, name of newspaper, section title and page number(s), date of publication. Web site: author(s), article and publication title where appropriate, as well as a URL, and a date when the site was accessed. What should be submitted for this assignment? 1. The 2-3 pages paper along with the references. 2. The original financial statements and stock price information, along with your calculated ratios and graphs in one Excel file. 3. The industry/peer company ratios and the sources cited in your paper, if you don’t calculate the ratios yourself. Note: Please have all the financial statements, stock price, ratio calculation, and graphs in one excel file and in the same sheet. How to submit? Submit all the required materials through D2L before the due date and time.
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