Accounting

BMBA 9453 Fall 2021 Page 1 Financial Accounting Project

Seton Hall University BMBA 9453

Fall 2021 Async

BMBA 9452 Financial Accounting Project In this project, you will use your understanding of financial accounting to prepare an analysis of a real company's financial statements. To prepare your analysis, you will use Microsoft Excel and data from the internet. Then, you will communicate the results of your analysis in a written report. Thus, this project will help you build your critical thinking, technology, and communication skills. This project is a required component of BMBA 9453, Accounting for Decision Makers. To receive a passing grade in the course, you must complete and submit the entire project by the required deadline. The Appendix provides more detailed instructions.

Part 1 – The Financial Statements (10 points) – Due Week 3 Sunday11:59 pm A. Download the project’s Excel spreadsheet template from Blackboard. B. Download the income statement and balance sheet from the SEC.GOV website and copy into the

appropriate tabs within the spreadsheet template. The four financial statements are the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Statement of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity, and Cash Flow Statement, although they may be titled with different names.

Part 2 – First part of the Excel spreadsheet template (25 points) – Due Week 4 Sunday 11:59 pm A. Complete the horizontal (common size) and vertical (variance) analysis for the balance sheet and income

statements and the average balances for the balance sheet only in the appropriate areas highlighted in the Excel spreadsheet template.

B. On the “Financial Ratios” tab: a. Provide your company’s financial ratios for the current & prior year-end (Columns F & G) using

formulas referencing back to either the “Balance Sheet Current & Prior” tab or the “Income Statement” tab.

b. Provide the financial ratios for a competitor of the company or its industry by calculating this off- line and manually inputting the results into the appropriate cell in Column H.

c. Compare your company’s current year-end financial ratio to the industry or competitor’s ratios and select from the drop-down provided in column I as to whether your company’s ratios are “Stronger,” “Weaker” or the “Same.”

Calculating amounts outside of this template and manually typing them in will result in a points deduction.

Part 3 – Written Report (65 points) Due Week 7 Sunday 11:59 pm Prepare a written report about your company covering the eight items outlined in the Appendix to support a conclusion of buying, selling, or holding an investment in your company. Take a long-term view.

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Appendix Steps for Downloading Financial Statements from SEC.GOV Website & Completing First Part of Excel Template

Screenshots and step-by-step instructions below for easy access to Form 10-K’s which are automatically downloaded into excel for you directly from the SEC’s (Security and Exchange Commission) website.

Step 1: Log onto www.sec.gov

Step 2: Click on “Filings” – “Company Search Filings”

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Step 3: Enter your company’s full name or ticker symbol under “Company and Person Lookup,” and then select the SEARCH button.

Step 4 In the box titled “Filing Type:” type in 10-K (Important you need to input exactly as “10-K” including the dash, no spaces.)

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Step 5: The latest 10-K will appear on the top. You will need this one and the one below it (NOT 10-K/A

should that appear). Select the corresponding button next to the first 10-k listed, which is the most recent one filed with SEC.

Step 6: On the next screen, click on the link “View Excel Document”.

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Step 7: Choose “open file” option in the dialog box that appears on your screen and select OK.

This will result in in the Excel spreadsheet containing your company’s financial statements appearing on your screen (as shown below). Save this file on your hard drive.

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Step 8: Go to Blackboard and select under the tab “Assignments” the file “Part 2 Template. This will open the Excel template you will be required to complete for this project. Complete the “Cover Page” tab and save this file on your hard drive. [Last name_Company name, e.g., Mishler - Ford Motor Company.doc]

Step 9: Return back to the downloaded SEC file containing your company’s financial statements and locate the company’s consolidated balance sheet. This may have a different name such as consolidated financial position or something similar. You should be able to identify it by what’s presented on the statement (i.e., Assets, Liabilities, and Stockholders’ Equity).

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Step 10 Highlight & copy the line descriptions and balances for the most recent & prior year. This will most likely be columns A, B & C on this tab. However, you may find other columns inserted in between this information. If so, you should ignore these additional columns and copy on these three columns individual.

Step 11 Next return to the Excel template, and select the tab labeled “Balance Sheet Current & Prior.” Select cell A4 and paste the information you have copied in Step 10.

Repeat this process for the income statement. However, you will be selecting & copying the line item descriptions as well as the reported balances for all three years (current, prior & two years back) as oppose two years because of the available of this information in the most recent downloaded financial statements.

Select cell A4

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Step 12 Because the balance sheet only has two years of information and you need three, you will need to go back to the SEC website and download the second 10-K file listed for your company.

Step 13 From the downloaded file, you will only need to copy & paste the consolidated balance sheet into the Excel Template in the same manner as described in Steps 10 & 11 above. However you will post this information in the tab labeled “Balance Sheet Prior & 2 yrs back, again by selecting cell A4 of this worksheet.

Step 14 With the balance sheet and income statements downloaded from the SEC website and transfer to the Excel Template, the next step is to link the amounts presented for the balance sheet from two years back from the “Balance Sheet Prior&2 yrs back” tab to the “Balance Sheet Current & Prior” tab by simply inserting and equal sign (=) in a balance sheet line item listed on the “Balance Sheet Current & Prior” tab and selecting the corresponding

Select cell A4

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cell for the same line item listed on the “Balance Sheet Prior & 2 years back” tab. BE CAREFUL, line descriptions may have changed between years. If so, you should adjust accordingly. Step 15 With all three years of balances now presented on the “Balance Sheet Current & Prior” tab and the “Income Statement” tab, your next step is to input the correct formulas using the appropriate balances reported in columns B, C & D into the cells for the “COMMON SIZE” statements, (columns F, G, & H), “VARIANCE” (columns J, K, L, & M), and for the “Balance Sheet Current & Prior” tab only, the “AVERAGE BALANCES” (columns O & P). IN COMPLETING THESE FORMULAS, YOU MUST ONLY USE REFERENCES TO THE AMOUNTS PREPORTED IN COLUMNS B, C & D. DO NOT CALCUATE THE REQUIRED FORMULA OFF-LINE AND MANUALLY TYPE THE RESULLTS INTO THIS TEMPLATE! POINTS WILL BE DEDUCTED IF YOU DO SO. Step 16 Return to Blackboard and upload the Excel template using the reference found under the “Project Assignment” tab

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Appendix Steps for Completing the Second Part With the balance sheet and income statements downloaded from the SEC website and transfer to the appropriate tabs within the Excel Template, the follow steps must be completed for Part 3 of this project,. Step 1 Open the Excel spreadsheet template that you submitted for Part 2 of this project and go to the “Financial Ratios” tab.

Step 2 Calculate the financial ratios presented in this tab for the Current Year-end, and Prior Year-end by provided in columns F & G a formula that references to the appropriate amounts reported the “Balance Sheet Current & Prior” tab and the “Income Statement” tab. Calculating amounts outside of this template and manually typing them in will result in a points deduction. Step 3 Provide the financial ratios for the industry or, if your instructor permits, a competitor of your company. These ratios are calculating off-line with their results manually inputting into the appropriate cell in Column H.

For the industry, the related financial ratios can be found at www.msn.com/money, by following these steps once you on this initial page for this website:

1. Locate the following search box with words Quote Search. Not the one with the words “Search

the web.”

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Within this box, type the name of your company. The “ticker symbol,” along with your company’s name will begin to appear.

2. Select your company’s name. The latest stock quote along with a graph presenting the stock price movement for your company will appear on your screen. In between the quote and graph is a menu bar with the SUMMARY item highlighted. Select the menu item ANALYSIS.

3. Scroll down until you come to a second menu bar with the option FINANCIAL HEALTH, TRADING STATISTICS, and MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS. The option FINANCIAL HEALTH will be highlighted. Right below this menu bar is the title of your industry. To the right are several ratios you will be looking for. The last column covers those related to your industry. Note: As you change the size of the screen, this website provides more or less information. If you cannot find all of the ratios that you are looking for, try changing the screen size to 70% or less. Additional ratios may appear.

4. Next select from this menu bar, the third option MANAGEMENT EFFECTIVENESS. The remaining industry ratios will appear.

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You may not find on msn.com/money website the following industry ratios: (i) Return on sales (ROS), and (ii) Debt ratio. If that is the case, you should look to other sources such as Yahoo, Bloomberg, etc. If you still cannot find the ratio, follow up with your instructor. If you cannot identify industry ratios, use the ratios of a major competitor. These can be obtained in the same manner as that used for your company. However, this would only be applicable for the current year ratios and you will only need to retrieve the necessary information to calculate these ratios off-line.

Step 4 Compare your company’s current year-end financial ratio as presented in column F to the industry or competitor’s ratios you presented in column H. Select from the drop-down provided in column I the correct response as to whether your company’s ratios are “Stronger,” “Weaker” or the “Same.” Step 5 Save the template on your hard drive and post to Blackboard using the reference found under the “Project Assignment” tab labeled “Part 2”

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Appendix The Written Report Write a minimum ten-page report single spaced addressing each of the following questions about your company. Limit #1 to one page and focus on the ratios, risks, and ethics:

1. How does your company make money? What industry is your company in? Who are some of your

company’s competitors? What makes your company stand out from its competitors? 2. How profitable is your company? Why? Your explanations should refer to the appropriate financial

ratios and the variances between years. In addition, you should discuss any significant differences noted between your company’s ratios and those for the industry or major competitor.

3. How liquid is your company? Use the appropriate financial statement ratios in helping to explain your company’s liquidity? You should go beyond the current ratio.

4. How solvent is your company? How does debt leverage help or hinder your company? Do you believe that the company should have more or less debt?

5. How efficient is your company? Refer to the appropriate ratios that support your discussion. 6. What risks does your company face? What could go wrong, and what are your assessments of the

likelihood of these risks? A review of the company’s Annual Report should provide you with the needed information for this discussion.

7. Name at least one ethical issue related to your company. Describe social benefits or possible negative risks associated with this issue. How might this issue impact your financial analysis? What is your company doing to address or prevent this issue?

8. What is your overall assessment of your company as an investment? Would you buy, sell or hold their stock? Support your answer based on your responses to the previous questions.

Organization. Your report should be organized in a logical manner. Do not simply describe the formulas for the various ratios but discuss the drivers behind the balances used in these formulas. In addition, you should get to your point and get to it quickly. Space wasted with obvious and unnecessary statements will negatively impact your grade. Graphs. Include a minimum of two graphs in your written report. Ratios. Use the financial ratios from the project Excel sheet and from week 2 of our course. Professional Quality. Prepare your report as a professional-looking document for which you were paid a great deal of money. Be careful with grammar and spelling; business leaders have a zero tolerance toward basic spelling and grammar mistakes. Use Microsoft Word, single-space the type, and leave one-inch margins. Proper Referencing. Copying or rewording another report without proper citation and quotation is considered to be plagiarism. In the body of the paper, include proper references to all written materials and internet sources, with a complete page of sources used. Submit a digital copy of the written report in BlackBoard. The document should be saved as Last name_Company name.doc [e.g., Mishler - Ford Motor Company] Written reports are graded based on the comprehensive coverage and accuracy of your analysis, use of a clear and concise writing style that is easy to understand, and professional appearance. Tables, graphs, charts should be provided, only if they are relevant and add clarity. They do not count towards the required pages.