SWOT Analysis

• Identify your company, its industry, and analyze the important segments (percentage of sales or subsidiaries) of your company compared to its industry and its overall business.
• Perform a complete financial analysis of your chosen company's financial statements—horizontal, vertical (Percentage of Sales and Common-Size), and changes in ratios—for the last two years.
• Compare all ratios to industry averages. Evaluate the company's ratios against the industry averages.
• Explain the significance of the company's ratios when compared to industry averages.
• Analyze the company's cash flows.
• Assess the overall financial health of your company based on this financial analysis.

You will complete the Executive Summary and SWOT analysis using the “Financial Analysis-Template” file. Also be sure to read the “Financial Analysis-Instructions” file. They are both located under the “Updates and Handouts” thread in Unit 1. Your executive summary needs to be 250 words minimum and for your SWOT Analysis you should have 4-5 items listed under each area (Strengths, Weaknesses, Threats, and Opportunities).

You can still include financial information into your paper by going through the original instructions and use it in your SWOT and Executive Summary. The easiest way to include financial information into your final paper is to use Yahoo’s financial web site at http://finance.yahoo.com/ . You can find a wealth of financial information on your company and their competitors. Just go to http://finance.yahoo.com/ and type in the stock ticker of your chosen company in the “Get Quotes” box. Down on the left hand side under the “Company” heading, clock on “Key Statistics”. It will bring up a wealth of financial information on your company. Also click on the “Competitors” and “Industry” headings under the “Company” heading to get more information ion competitors. You can also access all of the financial statements at the bottom left under the “Financials” heading.