FIN515 Managerial Finance First Course Project

FIN515 Managerial FinanceFirst Course ProjectThe purpose of this project is to help you develop skills not only in performing the calculations behindfinancial analysis but in interpreting the numbers as well.You are to pick a company. You should pick one either from the industry in which you are currentlyworking or an industry in which you are interested. You could also pick a division of a company. It isimperative that sufficient data about your company are available and that you use the data. One way tobe sure is to pick a publicly held company. If you pick a privately held company or a division of acompany, make sure that the data necessary to do a significant financial analysis are available.If you use data that are not publicly available, be sure to talk to your manager and to make absolutelysure that revealing that data is not a problem.You will also need to find a standard against which to compare your findings. This could be a differentcompany in the same industry or the same company at a different time. Additionally, average orbenchmark numbers are available for several industries. If you decide to use a different company in thesame industry or the same company at a different time, make sure that there are enough differencesbetween the two to make a meaningful analysis.After you have selected a company, put yourself in the place of an analyst who has been asked toperform an analysis of the company and to provide a recommendation to management.Use ratio analysis, common size analysis, or other techniques to determine areas in which the companyis doing well and areas that management should look at. Then, present your analysis andrecommendations in the form of a paper.A good place to start would be to perform a complete DuPont analysis of the company, and compare itto the standard. The DuPont analysis might provide guidance as to what particular areas of the companyshould be examined next and what ratios should be calculated. If the DuPont analysis does not revealanything useful, you might wish to calculate several of the ratios that are available to you.DeliverableThe completed paper should be about 1,000 words. In the paper, you do not have to explain the ratios indepth. You may assume that the reader has a basic understanding of finance and knows what ratioanalysis is, although he or she might not be able to list all the ratios and how to calculate them frommemory. The reader is not going to want a lot of background about financial analysis. He or she reallywants information that he or she can apply to the given situation, which is the company that you haveselected.If you like, you can write the paper in the form of a memo to management. You do not have to cite yoursource for how to calculate the ratios. You do need to provide a reference to where you got that data foryour subject company and for the other company or standard to which you compared your company.The spirit of this assignment is for you to calculate and interpret results. The purpose is not foryou to find calculations and interpretations that have been done by someone else.The paper is expected to conform to the standards for graduate school writing.The purpose of your analysis is internal evaluation. Refrain from using stock market valuationratios.When you have completed the project, place it in one Word document, and place that document in theappropriate Dropbox.Rubric: First ProjectFIN515PossiblePointsRatios selected15Calculations10Evaluation15Form10Criteria and Point Range0-3No referentprovided.Insufficient orincorrect ratiosused.0-2Calculations notprovided or aregenerally incorrect.0-3No evaluation, orevaluation notbased on findings0-2Significantproblems withwriting or format.4-7Some ratiosquestionable.Inappropriatereferent selected.8-11Ratios mostlyappropriate.Appropriatereferentselected.3-45-7Not all calculationsCalculations areProvided, or somenearly but notcalculations aretotally providedincorrect.or correct.4-78-11Evaluationgenerally correct.Minimal or incorrect May be notEvaluation, orcompletelyevaluation notsupported byoriginal.findings orinsufficient inquantity.3-45-7Minor problems with Writing andwriting or format.format generallycorrect with a fewexceptions.12-15Ratios andreferentappropriate.8-10Calculationsare providedand arecorrect.12-15Evaluationfullysupported byfindings.8-10Virtually noerrors inwriting orformat.