finance investment

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Conducting Company Research

FIN 421, Investments

• Your explanations should be for someone who is intelligent, but NOT an expert in finance.

• All pages, tables, and graphs must have a number and a title.

• Use double-spaced Times New Roman-12.

• Cite your sources.

WEEKLY WRITING UPDATES:

• Ticker symbol

• Where is it headquartered?

• What are the company's primary businesses; products/services; risk factors?

October 27, 5:00 pm

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• Summarize the current and critical news: product launches, industry trends, strategic partnerships, dividend announcements, etc.

• Choose 3 to 5 macroeconomic variables and using that data, report on the last year’s state of the U.S. economy.

• Collect last three years of financial ratios of the primary industry of your firm, as designated by NAICS codes (North American Industry Classification System). https://www.naics.com/search/

November 3, 5:00 pm

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• Calculate the last three years of the same financial ratios for your firm.

• Perform a trend analysis of the firms’ ratios and report on it.

• Compare to industry information. Use the information gathered for the company analysis to compare the company to the appropriate industry norms and averages.

November 10, 5:00 pm

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• What is the company’s current situation—drawing from the company history, investor reports, company overview, financial performance, etc. identify their major strengths and weaknesses of this company.

November 17, 5:00 pm

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• After describing the past, focus on the immediate future. Research sources, based on which you present your expectations of the conditions that will influence the performance of the economy, the industry, and the firm.

• Long or Short?

December 1, 5:00 pm ______________________________________________________________________________