Comparative Analysis Problem: Amazon.com, Inc. vs. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Resources: Appendices D and E located in Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making

Note: While the data are not from the same year, inferences can be drawn regarding inventory management of the two companies.

Write a 175 word minimum, 1,050 word maximum Comparative Analysis paper using the financial statements of Amazon.com, Inc. presented in Appendix D, and the financial statements for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., presented in Appendix E, in a Word document  

Then enter your calculations in the Excel Template which I will post for the class of how you determined your Inventory Turnover amounts and your Days of Inventory.  In addition be sure to enter the formulas for each in the Excel Template and show all of your calculations as you may earn partial credit even if your amounts are not correct:

• Compute the 2014 values for Amazon.com and the 2015 values for Wal-Mart based on the information in the financial statements:
  • Inventory turnover (Use cost of sales and average inventories)
  • Days of inventory
• Conclusions concerning the management of the inventory can you draw from this data in a minimum of 175 words in the Word document?

Submit the Excel® spreadsheet and submit your Word document with your Comparative Analysis paper.