FINA Project Instructions The objective of this project is to link the principle

FINA Project Instructions
The objective of this project is to link the principles, practices and policies of financial management with the
actual performances of companies by using their financial statements and other published information about their activities. More specifically, each student must select one “target” non-financial U.S. public corporation that will be the primary focus of your report together with one additional U.S. public company in the same industry, which
can be used as a “competitor” for comparison. Find your selected “target” and “competitor” firms’ Form 10K reports including income statements and balance sheet statements for their last two years (e.g. 2021 and 2022). The 10K report can usually be found on the company’s website; it can also always be found on the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s website (EDGAR) or Yahoo Finance (I think this is the easiest and most convenient way to obtain this information. The following items are suggested outline for your report. (US)
Introduction with General Information about the “target” Company)
 the complete name of the selected company
 the symbol/ticker under which the company’s stock trades
 the exchange(s) on which the company’s stock trades
 the company’s industry
 a brief description of the company’s business, its significant products, areas of operation, and events in
company history.
 the company’s financial reporting year (calendar or fiscal, if fiscal specify year)
 main competitors to the company indicated in the annual report (as disclosed by the company in the “Competition”
section of the report)
Assessment of the Corporation’s Financial Performance:
1. Present the balance sheet for the last two years (simplify and try to fit into one page) for your “target” and
“competitor” companies.
2. Present the income statement for the last two years (simplify and try to fit into one page) for your “target” and
“competitor” companies.
3. Compute the following ratios for the most recent and previous year for your firm as well as the competitor
firm (try to create a table that summarizes all the ratios for the “target” and “competitor” companies).
Profitability Ratios
Gross Margin Operating margin Net profit margin
Liquidity Ratios
Current Ratio Quick Ratio
Cash Ratio
Asset Efficiency
Fixed Asset Turnover
Working Capital Ratios
Accounts Receivable Days Accounts Payable Days Inventory Turnover
Leverage Ratio
Book debt-to-equity ratio
Market debt-to-equity ratio
(For debt, include long-term and short-term debt; for cash, include marketable securities. To calculate the firm’s market capitalization, multiply the number of shares outstanding by the firm’s historic closing stock price. The historical stock prices for each firm could be obtained from Yahoo! Finance or Google Finance. Enter the stock symbol, click “Historical Prices” in the left column, and enter the proper date range to cover the last day of the month corresponding to the date of each financial statement. Use the closing stock prices (not the adjusted close). )
Interest Coverage Ratio
EBIT / interest expense
Valuation Ratios
Price-to-Earnings ratio Market-to-Book ratio
Operating Returns
Return on equity Return on assets
4. Analyze the “target” and “competitor” financial conditions based on the financial ratios calculated above. You will need to evaluate your “target” firm’s financial condition by comparing each of the financial ratio you calculate to its major competitor. In order to discuss your observations meaningfully, don’t forget to
comment on any trends in the “target” and “competitor” firms’ performance. Please use the written disclosures in the report to discuss more about why changes occurred on a year-to-year basis for “target” and “competitor” firms. Identify any strengths or weaknesses you find in the “target” and “competitor” firms.
The due date for the written report is December 13, 2024. Please include the following in the submission of the project:
 Cover and contents pages.
 Make sure you answer all the questions and prepare your report based on the instruction.
 Organization and completeness will count.
 Be sure that the project is professional in appearance. A reader friendly report is always a good idea!