Financial Management

Running head: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT 4

Assignment 1: Financial Research Report

First Name Last Name

Strayer University

Fin 534

Prof. First Name Last Name

Date

Due: Week7 & 9; 300 points

Length: 6-8 pages

Topic: You are a financial manager researching investments for your client. Use the Strayer Learning Resource Center to research the stock of any U.S. publicly traded company that you may consider as an investment opportunity for your client.

Key Components:

· Rationale for choosing the company in which to invest

· Ratio analysis 

· Stock price analysis

· Recommendations

References: Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other similar websites do not qualify as academic resources.

· Suggested sources for company information (other sites may be used):

· U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission – “Market Structure”

· Yahoo! Finance

· Mergent Online (Note: This resource is also available through the Strayer Learning Resource Center.)

· Seeking Alpha (Note: Also available through the Android or iTunes App store.)

· Morningstar (Note: You can create a no-cost Basic Access account.)

· Research Hub, located in the left menu of your course in Blackboard.

Key components of research paper:

· Provide a rationale for the stock that you selected, indicating the significant economic, financial, and other factors that led you to consider this stock.

· Suggest the primary reasons why the selected stock is a suitable investment for your client. Include a description of your client’s profile.

1. Select any five (5) financial ratios that you have learned about in the text.

2. Analyze the past three (3) years of the selected financial ratios for the company; you may obtain this information from the company’s financial statements.

3. Determine the company’s financial health.

· Based on your financial review, determine the risk level of the stock from your investor’s point of view. Indicate key strategies that you may use in order to minimize these perceived risks.

· Provide your recommendations of this stock as an investment opportunity. Support your rationale with resources, such as peer-reviewed articles, material from the Strayer Learning Resource Center, and reviews by market analysts.

PLEASE REMOVE THE TEXT IN RED THROUGHOUT THE PAPER AND REPLACE WITH THE REQUIRED INFORMATION!!

Assignment 1: Financial Research Report

Introduction

Provide a brief overview of the information to be provided in the report, including your professional position and company (equity) selected.

Rationale for Stock Selection

Provide an overview of the company’s:

· History

· Primary products/services provided by firm

· Financial Overview: Include references and supporting data regarding the firm’s growth (DO NOT include financial ratios at this time).

· Indicate the significant economic, financial, and other factors that led you to consider this stock.

· Include cited sources.

Client Profile

Provide a brief description of the client, enabling you to support stock (equity) selection. Be careful that your description matches the risk level of the stock (equity) chosen.

· Age

· Marital Status

· Profession

· Investment goals (ex. Growth, income, risk level)

· Other (ex. Stocks client currently has)

Ratio Analysis

Identify five (5) financial ratios over the last three (3) years

· Apply trend analysis (last 3 years) to discuss the changes of each ratio.

· Discuss the positive and negative influences of each ratio.

*If possible, compare each ratio to the industry average (not required).

· Suggested ratios include, but are not limited to, current ratio, quick ratio, earnings per share, and price earnings ratio.)

Risk Reduction Recommendations

Based on your findings from the ratio analysis and the risk structure identified by your client provide the following information (Don’t assume there is no risk):

· Provide information of the potential risks associated with the following:

· Macroeconomic risks: Domestic economy

· Firm specific risks

· Client risks (ex. employment loss, health, etc)

· Provide alternatives to reduce risks described above (example include but not limited to)

· Diversification

· Options (calls/puts)

· Insurance

· Other concepts

Recommendation of Stock to Client

This is your chance to really sell company (stock) to client. This is your conclusion and

recap of what you have already stated. Make sure support your rational with resources such as peer reviewed articles and/or material from Strayer Learning Resource Center as well as reviews by market analyst. Be sure to make the recommendation of the stock to the client*Proper references and citations go a long way*

References

Be sure to cite all sources and provide a minimum of five (5) quality, academic resources (ex. Wikipedia is NOT an academic resource). Be sure to include in-text cites and apply appropriate format.

The following cite provides examples of APA format: http://www.apastyle.org/