Financial Management

Mid-term Individual/Group Industry Project

This assignment involves researching your industry. Being able to understand the inner workings of an industry and company from an operations and strategic point of view is critical to your success as a financial executive. 

Each student will choose to research top 3 companies within their industry by reading industry blogs/articles from sources such as Statista.com, Visualcapitalist.com, CNBC, MarketWatch, WSJ.com, SeekingAlpha.com, Barron’s, The Economist, Zero Hedge and Marketfolly.

Students will use MorningStar to gather metrics/key ratios:

Here is the link to Coke (KO) as an example

http://financials.morningstar.com/ratios/r.html?t=KO

Replace ‘KO’ with your stock symbol

http://financials.morningstar.com/valuation/price-ratio.html?t=KO&region=usa&culture=en-US

Replace ‘KO’ with your stock symbol

1. Profitability (OM, NM, ROE, ROIC)
   1. Do margins seem high for the industry as a whole?
   2. Analyze the profitability trends. Increasing or decreasing, why?
   3. Which company seems to be the most profitable and why?
2. Growth (Rev, OI, NI, OCF)
   1. Do the companies have higher growth rates relative to market/GDP?
   2. Analyze the growth trends. Increasing or decreasing, why?
   3. Which company seems to have the most potential and why?
3. Financial Health (CR, QR, FL, D/E)
   1. Does the industry have high overall risk and leverage?
   2. Analyze the leverage trends. Increasing or decreasing, why?
   3. Which company seem to be the riskiest and why?
4. Efficiency (DSO, DSI, FAT, AT)
   1. Which metrics seems most important for your industry?
   2. Analyze the efficiency trends. Increasing or decreasing, why?
   3. Which company seems to be the most efficient and why?

Valuation (P/E, P/B, P/S, P/CF vs Industry vs SP500)

1. Do the valuation ratios seem high relative to history and the SP500?
2. Analyze the valuation trends.
3. Which companies do you think are the cheapest and most expensive?

Use your own analysis, insights in combination with the metrics

Regarding INDIVIDUAL research, each student will create:

1. Table of comparison of the companies using the most recent year AND calculate the last 3 year average (excluding latest year) history of ALL the above metrics (4 categories PLUS Valuation section)
2. Write a 2-3 page paper (1200 word max not including table, title or reference pages) highlighting 2 categories of metrics PLUS Valuation as to which companies are better. You CHOOSE the 2 categories that you believe are the most relevant. Answer the a/b/c questions, compare and contrast, analyze and draw your own conclusion. Valuation analysis must be included and how you would allocate 100% to the 3 companies.
   1. Upload the mid-term paper to NYU Brightspace/Assignments as a Word document, double-spaced, please remember to cite your sources using APA format.
3.  Create a max of 5 PowerPoint summary slides with bullet points to present to the class. 

Mid-Term Project Summary

STEP 1- Choose 3 most interesting companies from your industry coverage, create a table comparing ALL 4 categories + valuation section (most recent and 3 year historical averages).

STEP 2- Choose 2 of 4 cats + Valuation and write 2-3 page (1200 word max) paper to compare and contrast the companies.  Answer how to allocate 100% across the companies. Prepare max 5 slides for 4 minute presentation.

Mid-Term Individual/Group Industry Project (Maximum 25%)

Financial table, 1200 words max with 5 summary slides

1. Written analysis Logical, Relevant, In-depth, Insightful. Individual (10 pts)
2. Individual presentation is well read, clear, covers all topics. Indiv (3 pts)