Accounting essay

http://www.cnbc.com/

http://www.nyse.com/

http://www.morningstar.com/

http://www.moodys.com/

http://www.standardandpoors.com/home/en/us

http://www.dnb.com/

http://money.cnn.com/

http://www.foxbusiness.com/index.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/

http://www.forbes.com/

www.sec.gov

Some Suggested Reference Sources

Written Assignment: In compliance with the communicative and critical thinking goals of the class, you will be required

to submit a research paper (a.k.a Company Analysis) covering a publicly traded company assigned at the beginning of the

semester. The paper will adhere to a pre -described format. Failure to complete the A ssignment will be regarded as a

failure to meet the requirements of the course and will result in an overall final grade of an “F” . Your task will be to review

and analyze the company from an investor’s perspective. You may not change companies or switch companies with

anyone. At a minimum, your analysis will include the following WELL DEFINED sections –

 SECTION 1 - Company Overview Section (representing 20 points of the total assignment’s grade) . This section

will include discussions pertaining to

 Company History – when did they start, who started the company, what did they originally do as a

business?

 Current Operations - What does the company do, where do they make their money? You may include:

 Significant Operational Divisions and/or

 Significant Products, and/or

 Significant Ownership stakes – who owns the company?

 Current Financial Stability – Are they making money or do they have a positive cash flow?

 Ratio Analysis - REQUIRED - Price Earnings, Earnings per Share, and Dividend Yield with a

comparison to Competitors and/or Industry for each of these ratios.

 This section must be at least 1⅔ pages in length.

 There must be a separate paragraph for each of the 3 elements identified above.

 SECTION 2 - Significant Issues. A discussion of Current or Pending issues facing the Company (representing

20 points of the assignment’s total grade). The issues may be positive or negative; (that determination is left to

your discretion).

 You should identify and discuss at least thre e issues. At least one of these issues should be one you

personally developed/identified/detected as a result of your research. The issue you personally

identify/develop/detect should NOT be one that has been documented in some media publication or news

article. Your self-developed issue is a clear indication that you meet the minimum requirements of the

introduction of critical thinking program outcomes.

 This section must be at least 1⅔ pages in length.

 There must be a separate paragraph for each of the 3 issues you identify.

 Each issue must be adequately explained and justified as a valid issue .

 Each issue must be supported with at least 3 supporting points .



 SECTION 3 – Opinion Section (representing 20 points of the assignment’s total grade) Take a position (for or

against) on the issues you identified based on observations you have made from your research. After you have

taken a position on each of the three issues and supported each of them with three talking points, conclude your

paper with an opinion as to whether you would or would not invest in this company and explain why.

 Your opinion must refer to or be related to the items noted in the previous two sections.

 You must take a position on the three issues you identified in section 2 and identify the position as

favorable or unfavorable toward the company.

 You must support you position in a separate paragraph for each of the 3 issues.

 You must provide 3 points to support your position on favorability (favorable or unfavorable).

 In you conclusion state whether you would or would not invest in this company and why.

 This section must be at least 1⅔ pages in length.

 CONSOLIDATED PAPER:

 The remaining points of your grade will be based on…

 30 Points for visits to the Writing Center (10 points for each of the first three sections)

 60 Points for the Final Combined Document.

 Consolidated paper must be at least 5 pages in length, excluding the title page, bibliography and any

tables included as part of the paper.

The visits to will Writing Center will be documented by the Center and given to me on a periodic basis. You must attend

one time for each section listed above. No other entities (tutors provided through other sources) will be allowed for these

points. It is the student’s responsibility to schedule these appointments in advance.

Each section of your Company Analysis will be scanned for plagiarism using SafeAssign. If the SafeAssign Match

percentage exceeds 5%, there will be point deductions equaling 2 times the amount of the percentage that exceeds

5% for that particular section. This deduction will be assessed at the end of the grading for each section.